Psalms 27:7-12
7 Hear me, ▼▼ Heb “my voice.”
O Lord, when I cry out! Have mercy on me and answer me!
8 My heart tells me to pray to you, ▼
▼ Heb “concerning you my heart says, ‘Seek my face.’” The verb form “seek” is plural, but this makes no sense here, for the psalmist is addressed. The verb should be emended to a singular form. The first person pronominal suffix on “face” also makes little sense, unless it is the voice of the Lord he hears. His “heart” is viewed as speaking, however, so it is better to emend the form to פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”).
and I do pray to you, O Lord. ▼
▼ Heb “your face, O Lord, I seek.” To “seek the Lord’s face” means to seek his favor through prayer (see 2 Sam 21:1; Pss 24:6; 105:4).
9 Do not reject me! ▼
Do not push your servant away in anger!
You are my deliverer! ▼
▼ Or “[source of] help.”
Do not forsake or abandon me,
O God who vindicates me!
10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, ▼
▼ Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”
the Lord would take me in. ▼
▼ Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”
11 Teach me how you want me to live; ▼
lead me along a level path ▼ because of those who wait to ambush me! ▼
12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, ▼
▼ Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”
for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. ▼
▼ Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.
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