Footnotes

1. Psalm 143:7 tn Heb “my spirit is failing.”
2. Psalm 143:7 tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” (1) can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) can carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
3. Psalm 143:7 tn Heb “I will be equal with.”
4. Psalm 143:7 tn Heb “the pit.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit; cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See Ps 28:1.
5. Psalm 143:8 tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.sn The morning is sometimes viewed as the time of divine intervention (see Pss 30:5; 59:16; 90:14).
6. Psalm 143:8 sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).
7. Psalm 143:8 tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (naʾas nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).
8. Psalm 143:9 tn Heb “to you I cover,” which makes no sense. The translation assumes an emendation to נַסְתִּי (nasti, “I flee,” a Qal perfect, first singular form from נוּס, nos). Confusion of כ (kaf) and נ (nun) is attested elsewhere (see P. K. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 48). The collocation of נוּס (“flee”) with אֶל (ʾel, “to”) is well-attested.