Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 142:4

"Look on [my] right hand, and see; For there is no man that knoweth me: Refuge hath failed me; No man careth for my soul." — Psalms 142:4 (ASV)

I looked. —The Authorised Version follows the ancient versions in turning the Hebrew imperatives into historical tenses. But they are easily intelligible if taken rhetorically, and indeed the psalm loses in liveliness by missing them:

“On the path by which I must walk they have laid a trap for me;
Look to the right and see,
Not a friend is in sight.
Failed has refuge from me,
There is none who cares for my soul.”

To the “right,” because according to the regular Hebrew metaphor it was on the “right hand” that the protector would stand. (See Note Psalm 16:8 and others, and compare Psalm 109:6; Psalms 109:31; Psalms 110:5; Psalms 121:5.)