Psalms 13:1

How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
forget	תִּשְׁכָּחֵ֣נִי tish.ka.Che.ni	H7911	to mislay · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
LORD	יְ֭הוָה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
ever	נֶ֑צַח Ne.tzach	H5331	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hide	תַּסְתִּ֖יר tas.Tir	H5641	to hide (by covering) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
face	פָּנֶ֣יךָ pa.Nei.kha	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Job 13:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
Lamentations 5:20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
Psalms 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Psalms 94:3-4 LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
Psalms 22:1-2 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Psalms 80:4 O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
Psalms 44:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
Psalms 6:3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 13:1–end

David, in affliction, is here pouring out his soul before God; his address is short, but the method is very observable, and of use for direction and encouragement. I. His troubles extort complaints (Psa 13:1, Psa 13:2); and the afflicted have liberty to pour out their complaint before the Lord, Ps. 102 title. It is some ease to a troubled spirit to give vent to its griefs, especially to give vent to them at the throne of grace, where we are sure to find one who is afflicted in the afflictions of his people and is troubled with the feeling of their infirmities; thither we have boldness of access by faith, and there we have parrēsia - freedom of speech. Observe here, 1. What David complains o…

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John Gill on Psalms 13:1

How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?.... When God does not immediately deliver his people from their enemies, or help them out of an affliction; when he does not discover his love, communicate his grace, apply the blessings and promises of his covenant as usual; and when he does not visit them in his usual manner, and so frequently as he has formerly done, they are ready to conclude he has forgotten them; and sometimes this continues long, and then they fear they are forgotten for ever; and this they cannot bear, and therefore expostulate with God in a querulous manner, as the psalmist does here; but this is to be understood not in reality, but in their own apprehension, and in th…

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John Calvin on Psalms 13:1-2

Psalm 13:1-2 1. How long, O Jehovah, wilt thou forget me, for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul? and have sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? 1. How long, O Jehovah. It is very true that David was so greatly hated by the generality of people, on account of the calumnies and false reports which had been circulated against him, that almost all men judged that God was not less hostile to him than Saul [270] and his other enemies were. But here he speaks not so much according to the opinion of others, as according to the feeling of his own mind, when he complains of being neglected by God. Not that th…

The Church Fathers

The forgetfulness of God [would be] a very serious thing, even temporarily. It would mean death, the loss of immortality.
— Hesychius of Jerusalem, LARGE COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 13:1

He asks for the appearance of Christ whom he already foresaw. For his face is what was capable of being seen with the eyes of the body, which that holy man with this general longing rightly desired to look upon. Such a face deemed it right to save the world by his heavenly appearance.
— Cassiodorus, EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 13:1

"For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believes." [Romans 10:4] "How long, O Lord, will You forget me unto the end?" [Psalm 13:1] that is, put me off as to spiritually understanding Christ, who is the Wisdom of God, and the true end of all the aim of the soul. "How long will You turn away Your face from me?" As God does not forget, so neither does He turn His face away: but Scripture speaks after our manner. Now God is said to turn away His face, when He does not give to the soul, which as yet has not the pure eye of the mind, the knowledge of Himself.
— Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 13

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Psalms 13:1

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 13:1–end

John Gill on Psalms 13:1

John Calvin on Psalms 13:1-2

The Church Fathers

Psalms 13:1

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 13:1–end

John Gill on Psalms 13:1

John Calvin on Psalms 13:1-2

The Church Fathers

Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 13:1-2

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 13:1

Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 13:1