¹tn Since the accompanying verb is feminine in form, the noun lya, “male deer,” should be emended to tlya, “female deer.” Haplography of the letter tav has occurred; note that the following verb begins with tav.
²tn Or “pants [with thirst].”
³tn Or “my soul pants [with thirst].” The Hebrew term vpn with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 [4]).
⁴tn Or “my soul thirsts.”
⁵tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.
⁶tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form ha#r`a@ (“I will appear”) to a Qal ha#r+a# (“I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of ta before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).
⁷tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”
⁸tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive rmab (“when [they] say”). Note the term <rmab (“when they say”) in v. 10.
⁹tn Heb “These things I will remember and I will pour out upon myself my soul.” “These things” are identified in the second half of the verse as those times when the psalmist worshiped in the Lord’s temple. The two cohortative forms indicate the psalmist’s resolve to remember and weep. The expression “pour out upon myself my soul” refers to mourning (see Job 30:16).
¹⁰tc Heb “for I was passing by with the throng [?], I was walking with [?] them to the house of God; with a voice of a ringing shout and thanksgiving a multitude was observing a festival.” The Hebrew phrase <dda isb (“with the throng [?] I was walking with [?]”) is particularly problematic. The noun Es* occurs only here. If it corresponds to /wmh (“multitude”) then one can propose a meaning “throng.” The present translation assumes this reading (cf. NIV, NRSV). The form <dda (“I will walk with [?]”) is also very problematic. The form can be taken as a Hitpael from hdd (this verb possibly appears in Isa 38:15), but the pronominal suffix is problematic. For this reason many emend the form to <[y]rda (“nobles”) or <-r[y]da (“great,” with enclitic mem). The present translation understands the latter and takes the adjective “great” as modifying “throng.” If one emends Es*, “throng [?]” to Es) (“shelter”; see the Qere of Ps 27:5), then r[y]da could be taken as a divine epithet, “[in the shelter of] the majestic one,” a reading which may find support in the LXX and Syriac Peshitta.
¹¹tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
¹²sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
¹³tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC §111.t.
¹⁴tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. yhla, “my God” at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with yhla, “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term wynp (“his face”) should be emended to yn}P= (“face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.
¹⁵tn Heb “my God, upon me my soul bows down.” As noted earlier, “my God” belongs with the end of v. 6.
¹⁶tn Heb “therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan.” “Remember” is here used metonymically for prayer (see vv. 8-9). As the next line indicates, the region of the upper Jordan, where the river originates, is in view.
¹⁷tc Heb “Hermons.” The plural form of the name occurs only here in the OT. Some suggest the plural refers to multiple mountain peaks (cf. NASB) or simply retain the plural in the translation (cf. NEB), but the final mem is probably dittographic (note that the next form in the text begins with the letter mem) or enclitic. At a later time it was misinterpreted as a plural marker and vocalized accordingly.
¹⁸tn The Hebrew term ruxm is probably a proper name (“Mizar”), designating a particular mountain in the Hermon region. The name appears only here in the OT.
¹⁹tn Heb “deep calls to deep.” The Hebrew noun <wht often refers to the deep sea, but here, where it is associated with Hermon, it probably refers to mountain streams. The word can be used of streams and rivers (see Deut 8:7; Ezek 31:4).
²⁰tn The noun rwnx (“waterfall”) occurs only here and in 2 Sam 5:8, where it apparently refers to a water shaft. The psalmist alludes to the loud rushing sound of mountain streams and cascading waterfalls. Using the poetic device of personification, he imagines the streams calling out to each other as they hear the sound of the waterfalls.
²¹tn Heb “pass over me” (see Jonah 2:3). As he hears the sound of the rushing water, the psalmist imagines himself engulfed in the current. By implication he likens his emotional distress to such an experience.
²²sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the Lord”).
²³tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”
²⁴tc A few medieval Hebrew mss read hlht (“praise”) instead of hlpt (“prayer”).
²⁵tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
²⁶tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
²⁷tn Or “forget.”
²⁸sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
²⁹tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”
³⁰sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.
³¹tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
³²sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
³³tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
³⁴tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read yhla yn}p= tuwvy (“[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.
³⁵sn Psalm 43. Many medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalm 43 and Psalm 42 into one psalm. Psalm 43 is the only psalm in Book 2 of the Psalter (Psalms 42-72) that does not have a heading, suggesting that it was originally the third and concluding section of Psalm 42. Ps 43:5 is identical to the refrain in Ps 42:11 and almost identical to the refrain in Ps 42:5.