Mazmur 18:36

18:36 You widen my path; ¹ 

my feet ²  do not slip.

Mazmur 37:17

37:17 for evil men will lose their power, ³ 

but the Lord sustains ⁴  the godly.

Mazmur 63:9

63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, ⁵ 

but they will descend into the depths of the earth. ⁶ 

[18:36]  ¹ tn Heb “you make wide my step under me.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives the psalmist the capacity to run quickly.

[18:36]  ² tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”

[37:17]  ³ tn Heb “for the arms of the evil ones will be broken.”

[37:17]  ⁴ tn The active participle here indicates this is characteristically true.

[63:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.

[63:9]  ⁶ sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.