Psalms 116

Translator Notes

1. The syntax of the opening is slightly unusual — ahavti ('I loved/I love') stands without an explicit object. Most translations supply 'the LORD' as the object, which fits the context. The verb yishma ('He hears') is in the imperfect, suggesting ongoing action: the LORD hears — He is always hearing — and that is why the psalmist loves.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase hittah ozno li ('He inclined His ear to me') is a vivid anthropomorphism — God bends down, tilts His ear, leans in to listen. The response is ve-yavmai eqra ('and in my days I will call') — for the rest of his life, the psalmist will continue to call on the LORD. The deliverance creates a lifetime of prayer.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word chevlei is ambiguous between 'cords' and 'pangs' — some translations choose one, some the other. The rendering 'cords' is chosen here because it pairs with the image of being wrapped or encircled (afafuni). Sheol is the realm of the dead, not a place of punishment but a place of shadow, silence, and separation from the living.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase uv-shem YHWH eqra ('and on the name of the LORD I called') introduces the prayer that saved his life. The prayer itself is terse and desperate: annah YHWH malletah nafshi ('please, LORD, deliver my life'). The word annah ('please, I beg you') is a particle of urgent entreaty. The verb malletah (Piel imperative of malat, 'to slip away, to escape, to deliver') asks God to cause his nefesh ('life, self, soul') to escape death's grip.

Translator Notes

1. Three attributes are listed: channun ('gracious'), tzaddiq ('righteous'), and merachem ('compassionate, showing mercy'). The first echoes Exodus 34:6. The second affirms that God's rescue is not arbitrary but just. The third — merachem, from the root racham ('womb-compassion') — describes a tenderness that is visceral, like a mother's instinct toward her child.

Translator Notes

1. The word peta'im ('simple ones, naive ones, the inexperienced') describes people who lack the resources or sophistication to protect themselves. The LORD is their shomer ('guardian, keeper'). The psalmist identifies with them: dalloti ('I was brought low, I was reduced') — from the root dalal ('to hang down, to be thin, to be depleted'). In that depleted state, ve-li yehoshi'a ('and He saved me').

Translator Notes

1. The psalmist addresses his own nefesh ('soul, self, inner life'): shuvi ('return') to menuchayikhi ('your rest, your resting place'). The crisis had displaced his inner peace; now he commands himself to come back to rest. The reason: ki YHWH gamal alayikhi ('for the LORD has dealt bountifully upon you'). The verb gamal means 'to deal with, to repay, to bring to completion' — God has finished the work of rescue.

Translator Notes

1. A threefold deliverance: nafshi mi-mavet ('my life from death'), einai min dim'ah ('my eyes from tears'), ragli middechi ('my feet from stumbling'). The whole person is saved — life, sight, and movement. The verb chilatzta ('You rescued, You pulled out') means to pull someone from a tight place, to extricate.

Translator Notes

1. The verb ethalekh ('I will walk') in the Hitpael means 'to walk about, to conduct oneself, to live one's life.' The psalmist will live lifnei YHWH ('before the LORD, in the LORD's presence'). The phrase be-artzot ha-chayyim ('in the lands of the living') contrasts with Sheol, the land of the dead. The deliverance has returned him to the realm of life and worship.

Translator Notes

1. The LXX splits the psalm here, making this the beginning of a new psalm (LXX Psalm 115). Paul's quotation in 2 Corinthians 4:13 follows the LXX reading. The Hebrew is genuinely ambiguous and has generated extensive scholarly discussion. The word aniti ('I was afflicted') from anah ('to be bowed down, afflicted') describes deep suffering.

Translator Notes

1. The word bechofzi ('in my alarm, in my haste, in my panic') describes a moment of crisis-driven speech. The declaration kol ha-adam kozev ('every person is a liar') is an extreme statement born of desperation — when human help failed, the psalmist concluded that all human promises are empty. The psalm does not endorse this as a permanent theology but records it as an honest moment of despair. Paul quotes this in Romans 3:4.

Translator Notes

1. The question mah ashiv la-YHWH ('what can I return to the LORD?') is not rhetorical despair but genuine gratitude searching for an adequate response. The word tagmulohi ('His benefits, His dealings, His gifts') from gamal describes the full weight of what God has done. The psalmist knows he cannot repay God but asks what fitting response he can offer.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The 'cup of salvation' has deep resonance in Jewish Passover liturgy — the four cups of the Seder each carry theological meaning. Jesus' institution of the cup at the Last Supper (Luke 22:20) would have occurred in the context of singing this very psalm. The verb essa ('I will lift, I will carry') is the gesture of offering and public display.

Translator Notes

1. Nedarai la-YHWH ashallem ('my vows to the LORD I will pay') — the vows made during the crisis will now be fulfilled publicly. The word negdah ('in the presence of, before the face of') emphasizes that this is not private devotion but public testimony. The community witnesses the fulfillment, and the testimony becomes part of the communal memory of God's faithfulness.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word chasidav ('His faithful ones') is the plural of chasid, derived from chesed ('faithful love'). A chasid is a person characterized by chesed — one who both receives and gives covenant loyalty. The rendering 'costly' rather than 'precious' captures the economic metaphor: God treats the death of His faithful as something He is reluctant to spend.

Translator Notes

1. The double declaration ani avdekha ('I am Your servant') is emphatic — servanthood to God is not a burden but a privilege after deliverance. The phrase ben amatekha ('son of Your maidservant') means a servant born in the household, not purchased from outside — the psalmist belongs to God's household by birth and by choice. The verb pittachta ('You opened, You loosened') applied to moserai ('my bonds, my fetters') means God has set him free from the cords of death that bound him in verse 3.

Translator Notes

1. The zevach todah ('sacrifice of thanksgiving') was a specific category of peace offering (shelamim) described in Leviticus 7:12-15. It included animal sacrifice accompanied by various breads and was eaten communally. The todah ('thanksgiving') is not just verbal gratitude but a concrete liturgical act involving food, community, and testimony.

Translator Notes

1. This verse is identical to verse 14, forming a liturgical refrain. The repetition is not accidental but structural — it frames the central declarations of verses 15-17 with the commitment to public testimony. The vow-fulfillment brackets the psalm's deepest theological statements.

Translator Notes

1. The location is specified: chatzrot beit YHWH ('the courts of the LORD's house') — the Temple precincts where public worship and sacrifice took place. The phrase betokhekhi Yerushalayim ('in your midst, Jerusalem') personalizes the city as a living entity addressed directly. The psalm ends with Hallelujah — the final word of praise that both closes this psalm and connects it to the Hallel sequence.