Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageWhat would have become of me, had I not believed I would see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living?
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.G[I would have despaired] — had I not believed to see the goodness of YHWH in the land of the living.
KJV
King James VersionI had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleStill I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Footnotes
Verse 13 is a masterpiece of deliberate incompleteness — a classical *aposiopesis* (breaking off mid-sentence for emotional effect). *Lule* (לוּלֵא) opens a contrary-to-fact conditional, "if not for..." but the apodosis — the "then" clause — is never stated. The silence is the point: the despair is too dark to name. The Masoretes placed a distinctive cantillation marker (*pashta*) over *lule* precisely to flag this rupture. FOG brackets the implied conclusion in square brackets to signal the ellipsis honestly; FOG Message renders it as a rhetorical question, capturing the emotional force without inserting words. *Eretz chayyim* ("land of the living") means the present, embodied world — making this a testimony of concrete, here-and-now hope, not otherworldly consolation.
