To the amida prayer from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kipur, we add a brief prayer that starts:
זָכְרֵנוּ לְחַיִּים מֶלֶךְ חָפֵץ בַּחַיִּים
ArtScroll translates that as:
Remember us for life, O King Who desires life
But there's another way one might translate it:
Remember us for life, O King Who desires the living
We see the kal verb חפץ in Tanach many times, sometimes with a direct object and other times with a ב־ object. Most often (always?), when the object is a person, there's a ב־. And we do see חיים=life as a direct (no ב־) object in Psalms 34:13. On the other hand, we also see מות=death as a ב־ object in Ezekiel 18:23,32; 33:11. And, indeed, most objects of חפץ generally use ב־. Plus, maybe the usage (transitivity) of חפץ changed between Tanach and when this prayer was written.
So my question is whether ArtScroll is right. Specifically: Is there any good source/argument for one or the other (or some other) possible translation of בַּחַיִּים in this prayer?