3 Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
O, Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave - My life; me. The meaning is, that he had been in imminent danger of death, and had been brought from the borders of the grave. The word here rendered "grave" is "Sheol" - a word which, properly used, commonly denotes the region of the dead; the underworld which is entered through the grave. Compare Isaiah 14:9, note; Psalm 6:5, note.
Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit - More literally, "thou hast caused me to live from them which go down to the pit;" that is, thou hast distinguished me from them by keeping me alive. The word "pit" here means the same as the grave. See the notes at Psalm 28:1.
Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave - I and my people were both about to be cut off, but thou hast spared us in mercy, and given us a most glorious respite.
O LORD, thou hast brought up my (d) soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
(d) Meaning, that he escaped death most narrowly.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave,.... When his life being in danger, was near unto it, Job 33:22; otherwise the soul dies not, nor does it lie and sleep in the grave; or "thou hast brought up my soul from hell" (m); that is, delivered him from those horrors of conscience and terrors of mind, by reason of sin, which were as hell itself unto him; see Psalm 116:3;
thou hast kept me alive: preserved his corporeal life when in danger, and maintained his spiritual life; and quickened him by his word, under all his afflictions, and kept him from utter and black despair;
that I should not go down to the pit; either of the grave or hell. There is in this clause a "Keri" and a "Cetib"; a marginal reading, and a textual writing: according to the latter it is, "from them that go down to the pit"; which some versions (n) follow; that is, thou hast preserved me from going along with them, and being where and as they are: our version follows the former; the sense is the same.
(m) "ab inferno", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth. (n) So Sept. V. L. Pagninus, Musculus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Ainsworth.
The terms describe extreme danger.
soul--or, "myself."
grave--literally, "hell," as in Psalm 16:10.
hast kept me . . . pit--quickened or revived me from the state of dying (compare Psalm 28:1).
*More commentary available at chapter level.