Psalms 13:3 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Lighten mine eyes; either,

1. Because I find my counsel insufficient, Psalms 13:2, do thou enlighten my mind, and guide me by thy counsel and Spirit into the right way of obtaining thy mercy and help. So this phrase is used Psalms 19:8 Ephesians 1:18. Or,

2. Do thou revive, and comfort, and deliver me from the darkness of death, which is ready to come upon me and to close mine eyes. Nothing is more common than to express great dangers and calamities by darkness, and great comforts and deliverances by light, as Job 15:22, Job 17:13 30:26, and by an enlightening of the eyes, as Ezra 9:8. Compare Proverbs 15:30, Proverbs 29:13. Lest I sleep the sleep of death, i.e. lest I sink under my burden and die; for death is oft called a sleep in Scripture, as Job 3:13, Job 14:12 Psalms 76:5 1 Thessalonians 11:11.

Psalms 13:3

3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;