Psalms 40:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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חֽוּשָׁה

chûwsh

H2363

“hasten”

Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, h

Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 32:17

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 631

to haste, make haste, hurry - (Qal) to make haste - (Hiphil) - to show haste, act quickly, hasten, come quickly - to enjoy, be excited

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
5: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is חֽוּשָׁה to hasten H2363 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

חֽוּשָׁה to hasten H2363 occurs in 20 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
3 nouns

Verb forms

רְצֵ֣ה Qal · Imperative
לְהַצִּילֵ֑נִי Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
חֽוּשָׁה Qal · Imperative

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

יְ֭הוָה LORD H3068 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Psalms 40:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 25:17–18 The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
Psalms 38:22 Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation.
Psalms 70:1–5 Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh.
Psalms 22:19 But don't be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me.
Psalms 71:12 God, don't be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.
Matthew 26:36–44 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go there and pray."

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 39 (Hebrew Psalm 40). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 40:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

רְצֵ֣ה יְ֭הוָה לְהַצִּילֵ֑נִי יְ֝הוָ֗ה לְעֶזְרָ֥תִי חֽוּשָׁה

Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 39:13 Septuagint · lemma form

ὅτι περιἔχω ἐγώ κακός ὅς οὐ εἰμί ἀριθμός καταλαμβάνω ἐγώ ὁ ἀνομία ἐγώ καί οὐ δύναμαι ὁ βλέπω πληθύνω ὑπέρ ὁ θρίξ ὁ κεφαλή ἐγώ καί ὁ καρδία ἐγώ ἐν καταλείπω ἐγώ

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, draw near to help me.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 40:13 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

13. Psa_40:13-17 recur as Psalms 70, with some verbal variations.

Be pleased] An echo of ‘thy good pleasure’ (‘thy will’) in Psa_40:8. The word is omitted in Psalms 70, and in the first line, though not in the second, God is substituted for Lord, according to the usual rule in Book II See Introd., p. lv f.

make haste to hell me] Cp. Psa_38:22; Psa_22:19.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Psa 40:13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.

Ver. 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me] Do it of thy free grace, and mere mercy of thy good will and gracious liking (as the word ευδοκια signifieth), beside the consideration of my woeful misery laid forth, Psa 40:12, as an object of thy mercy.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Psa 40:13-16. Be pleased to deliver me — From my sins, and the punishment due to them. Let them be ashamed — For the disappointment of their hopes and designs. That seek after my soul — That is, my life. Let them be desolate — Or, They shall be desolate, or dismayed, or overthrown, as ישׁמו, jashommu, also signifies. For a reward of their shame — That is, Their sinful and shameful actions, as shame is put for a shameful idol, Hos 9:10, and as fear is often put for the evil feared. Let such as love thy salvation — That great salvation of which the prophets inquired and searched diligently, and which the Redeemer undertook to work out, when he said, Psa 40:7, Lo! I come. All that shall be saved love God’s salvation, which is not only a salvation from hell, but a salvation from sin. Say continually, The Lord be magnified — Let them have continual occasion to magnify Jehovah for his mercies vouchsafed to them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

14. (Psa 40:13). Be pleased, (O) Jehovah, to deliver me; (O) Jehovah, to my help make haste! The first clause contains an implied acknowledgment of dependence on God's mercy. In the second, the form of expression is the same as in Psa 22:20 (19).

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

(Compare Psa 22:19).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Calvin's Commentaries

13. Be thou pleased, O Jehovah! to deliver me. The verb which David here makes use of, signifies to desire a thing from pure kindness and good-will. He desires, therefore, to be delivered by the free mercy of God. As to his desire, that God would make haste, we have elsewhere spoken of it. Even when God delays to help us, it is our duty to contend against a feeling of weariness; but such is his goodness, that he permits us to use this form of prayer, That he would make haste according to our desires. Then, according to his usual practice, citing his enemies to the judgment-seat of God, he feels confident, that, on account of their cruelty, and unjust and wicked hatred, he shall obtain what he asks. We must maintain it as a fixed principle, that the more unjustly our enemies afflict us, and the more cruelly they wrong us, God is so much the more disposed to give us help. And it is no slight consolation that the mercy of God strives against their wickedness, so that the more fiercely our enemies pursue us to effect our hurt, the more ready is he to bring us help. We have already frequently spoken of the feelings with which David uttered these imprecations, and it is necessary here again to refresh our memories on the subject, lest any man, when giving loose reins to his passions, should allege the example of David in palliation or excuse. This wicked and counterfeit imitation on the part of those who follow the powerful impulse of the flesh, instead of being guided by the zeal of the Spirit, is always to be held up to condemnation.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Be pleased.—From this verse onwards, with some trifling variations which will be noticed under that psalm, this passage occurs as Psalms 70, where see Notes.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me,.... From the innumerable evils which compassed him about; from sinful men, and from devils, signified by the sword, dog, and lion, Psa 22:20; and from the power and dominion of death and the grave; all which was done when he was raised from the dead, and as the fruit and effect of God's well pleasedness in him, and with what he did and suffered; see Psa 22:8;

O Lord, make haste to help me; See Gill on Psa 22:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me - That is, in these troubles and sorrows. See Mat 26:39. The prayer is that, if possible, the cup of sorrow might be taken away.

O Lord, make haste to help me - This is the same form of prayer, and referring, I suppose, to the same occasion as that which occurs in Psa 22:19. See the notes at that verse.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Deliver me from my sins, and the punishments due to them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. How touching! How humble! How plaintive! The words thrill us as we think that after this sort our Lord and Master prayed. His petition is not so much that the cup should pass away undrained, but that he should be sustained while drinking it, and set free from its power at the first fitting moment. He seeks deliverance and help; and he entreats that the help may not be slow in coming; this is after the manner of our pleadings. Is it not? Note, reader, how our Lord was heard in that he feared, for there was after Gethsemane a calm endurance which made the fight as glorious as the victory.

Ver. 13. The remaining verses of this Psalm are almost exactly identical with Psalm 70.

Ver. 13.

1. The language of believing prayerdeliver me, help me; looking for deliverance and help to God only.

2. Of earnest prayermake haste to help me.

3. Of submissive prayerbe pleased, O Lord, if according to thy good pleasure.

4. Of consistent prayer. Help me, which implies efforts for his own deliverance, putting his own shoulder to the wheel.

Psalms 40:14*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver us. Though one deliverance is just effected (ver. 2), it is not enough; something more is required. The psalmist"s life is still threatened by enemies (ver. 14); he is still scoffed at and flouted (ver. 15). O Lord, make haste to help me; literally, Lord, make haste to my help. (comp. Psa_22:19 Psa_31:2 Psa_38:22) The Church follows the example set, when she says in her vesicles, "O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

have encompassed Heb. אפפו, have surrounded.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chûwsh (“to hasten”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word chûwsh carries the sense “to hasten.” How does it shape the verse?
Numbers 32:17 shares the word «to hasten» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“LORD” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «רְצֵ֣ה» is Qal Imperative. How does its form color the action?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.