Mazmur 10:12

10:12 Rise up, Lord! ¹ 

O God, strike him down! ² 

Do not forget the oppressed!

Mazmur 10:16

10:16 The Lord rules forever! ³ 

The nations are driven out of his land. ⁴ 

Mazmur 18:4

18:4 The waves ⁵  of death engulfed me,

the currents ⁶  of chaos ⁷  overwhelmed me. ⁸ 

Mazmur 20:8

20:8 They will fall down, ⁹ 

but we ¹⁰  will stand firm. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 46:8

46:8 Come! Witness the exploits ¹²  of the Lord,

who brings devastation to the earth! ¹³ 

Mazmur 68:23

68:23 so that your feet may stomp ¹⁴  in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 78:34

78:34 When he struck them down, ¹⁶  they sought his favor; ¹⁷ 

they turned back and longed for God.

Mazmur 90:3

90:3 You make mankind return ¹⁸  to the dust, ¹⁹ 

and say, “Return, O people!”

Mazmur 94:12

94:12 How blessed is the one ²⁰  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

Mazmur 106:29

106:29 They made the Lord angry ²¹  by their actions,

and a plague broke out among them.

Mazmur 118:10

118:10 All the nations surrounded me. ²² 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord ²³  I pushed them away. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 124:2

124:2 if the Lord had not been on our side,

when men attacked us, ²⁵ 

Mazmur 129:2

129:2 “Since my youth they have often attacked me,

but they have not defeated me.

Mazmur 135:8

135:8 He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

including both men and animals.

Mazmur 136:10

136:10 to the one who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

for his loyal love endures,

[10:12]  ¹ sn Rise up, O Lord! The psalmist’s mood changes from lament to petition and confidence.

[10:12]  ² tn Heb “lift up your hand.” Usually the expression “lifting the hand” refers to praying (Pss 28:2; 134:2) or making an oath (Ps 106:26), but here it probably refers to “striking a blow” (see 2 Sam 18:28; 20:21). Note v. 15, where the psalmist asks the Lord to “break the arm of the wicked.” A less likely option is that the psalmist is requesting that the Lord declare by oath his intention to intervene.

[10:16]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord is king forever and ever.”

[10:16]  ⁴ tn Or “the nations perish from his land.” The perfect verb form may express what is typical or it may express rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude that God’s deliverance is “as good as done.”

[10:16]  sn The nations may be the underlying reality behind the psalmist’s references to the “wicked” in the earlier verses. This reference to the nations may have motivated the combining of Ps 10 with Ps 9 (see Ps 9:5, 15, 19).

[18:4]  ⁵ tc Ps 18:4 reads “ropes,” while 2 Sam 22:5 reads “waves.” The reading of the psalm has been influenced by the next verse (note “ropes of Sheol”) and perhaps also by Ps 116:3 (where “ropes of death” appears, as here, with the verb אָפַף, ’afaf). However, the parallelism of v. 4 (note “currents” in the next line) favors the reading “waves.” While the verb אָפַף is used with “ropes” as subject in Ps 116:3, it can also be used with engulfing “waters” as subject (see Jonah 2:5). Death is compared to surging waters in v. 4 and to a hunter in v. 5.

[18:4]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew noun נַחַל (nakhal) usually refers to a river or stream, but in this context the plural form likely refers to the currents of the sea (see vv. 15-16).

[18:4]  ⁷ tn The noun בְלִיַּעַל (vÿliyya’al) is used here as an epithet for death. Elsewhere it is a common noun meaning “wickedness, uselessness.” It is often associated with rebellion against authority and other crimes that result in societal disorder and anarchy. The phrase “man/son of wickedness” refers to one who opposes God and the order he has established. The term becomes an appropriate title for death, which, through human forces, launches an attack against God’s chosen servant.

[18:4]  ⁸ tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. (Note the perfect verbal form in the parallel/preceding line.) The verb בָּעַת (ba’at) sometimes by metonymy carries the nuance “frighten,” but the parallelism (see “engulfed”) favors the meaning “overwhelm” here.

[20:8]  ⁹ tn Or “stumble and fall down.”

[20:8]  ¹⁰ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronominal subject) highlights the contrast between God’s victorious people and the defeated enemies mentioned in the previous line. The perfect verbal forms either generalize or, more likely, state rhetorically the people’s confidence as they face the approaching battle. They describe the demise of the enemy as being as good as done.

[20:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “rise up and remain upright.” On the meaning of the Hitpolel of עוּד (’ud), see HALOT 795 s.v. I עוד. The verbal forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) either generalize or, more likely, state rhetorically the people’s confidence as they face the approaching battle.

[46:8]  ¹² sn In this context the Lord’s exploits are military in nature (see vv. 8b-9).

[46:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “who sets desolations in the earth” (see Isa 13:9). The active participle describes God’s characteristic activity as a warrior.

[68:23]  ¹⁴ tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”

[78:34]  ¹⁶ tn Or “killed them,” that is, killed large numbers of them.

[78:34]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they sought him.”

[90:3]  ¹⁸ tn In this context the shortened prefix form does not function as a preterite, but indicates what is typical of the world.

[90:3]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term דַּכָּא (daka’) carries the basic sense of “crushed.” Elsewhere it refers to those who are “crushed” in spirit or contrite of heart (see Ps 34:18; Isa 57:15). If one understands this nuance here, then v. 3 is observing that God leads mankind to repentance (the term שׁוּב, shuv, “return,” which appears twice in this verse, is sometimes used of repentance.) However, the following context laments mankind’s mortality and the brevity of life, so it is doubtful if v. 3 should be understood so positively. It is more likely that דַּכָּא here refers to “crushed matter,” that is, the dust that fills the grave (see HALOT 221 s.v. s.v. I דַּכָּא; BDB 194 s.v. דַּכָּא). In this case one may hear an echo of Gen 3:19.

[94:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.

[106:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew mss. Perhaps it was accidentally left off, an original וַיַּכְעִיסוּהוּ (vayyakh’isuhu) being misread as וַיַּכְעִיסוּ (vayyakh’isu). In the translation the referent of the pronominal suffix (the Lord) has been specified for clarity to avoid confusion with Baal of Peor (mentioned in the previous verse).

[118:10]  ²² sn The reference to an attack by the nations suggests the psalmist may have been a military leader.

[118:10]  ²³ tn In this context the phrase “in the name of the Lord” means “by the Lord’s power.”

[118:10]  ²⁴ tn Traditionally the verb has been derived from מוּל (mul, “to circumcise”) and translated “[I] cut [them] off” (see BDB 557-58 s.v. II מוּל). However, it is likely that this is a homonym meaning “to fend off” (see HALOT 556 s.v. II מול) or “to push away.” In this context, where the psalmist is reporting his past experience, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite. The phrase also occurs in vv. 11, 12.

[124:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “rose up against us.”