Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
- KJV Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
- NKJV Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
- NASB ¶Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
- NLT Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David pleads for God to answer and give light to his eyes, lest he die. He prays for God's reviving intervention.
Overview
Turning from complaint to petition, David asks God to look on him and restore his strength, picturing renewed life as light to the eyes. 'Lest I sleep in death' shows how near despair has brought him. The prayer for light anticipates Christ, the light of the world who gives life to those in darkness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ezra 9:8But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes.
- Ps 18:28For You, O LORD, light my lamp; my God lights up my darkness.
- Jer 51:39While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the LORD.
- 1 Sam 14:29“My father has brought trouble to the land,” Jonathan replied. “Just look at how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.
- Ps 5:1For the choirmaster, to be accompanied by flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.
- 1 Sam 14:27Jonathan, however, had not heard that his father had charged the people with the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff in his hand, dipped it into the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes brightened.
- Ps 25:19Consider my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with vicious hatred.
- Ps 9:13Be merciful to me, O LORD; see how my enemies afflict me! Lift me up from the gates of death,
- Ps 31:7I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.
- Lam 5:1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
- Ps 119:153Look upon my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten Your law.
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
- Luke 2:32a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel.”
- Eph 5:14So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Rev 21:23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 13:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.