¶Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of 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;
- BSB Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
- NKJV Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I 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 9:8Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revived us a little in our bondage.
- Ps 18:28For you will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness.
- Jer 51:39When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.
- 1 Sam 14:29Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have brightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.
- Ps 5:1For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David. Give ear to my words, Yahweh. Consider my meditation.
- 1 Sam 14:27But Jonathan didn’t hear when his father commanded the people with the oath. Therefore he put out the end of the rod who was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes brightened.
- Ps 25:19Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.
- Ps 9:13Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;
- Ps 31:7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.
- Lam 5:1Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.
- Ps 119:153Consider my affliction, and deliver me, for I don’t forget your law.
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
- Luke 2:32a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
- Eph 5:14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Rev 21:23The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moon, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
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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.