[18:28] 1 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki)is asseverative here.
[18:28] 2 tn Ps 18:28 reads literally, “you light my lamp, Lord.” 2 Sam 22:29 has, “you are my lamp, Lord.” The Ps 18 reading may preserve two variants, נֵרִי (neriy, “my lamp”) and אוֹרִי (’oriy, “my light”), cf. Ps 27:1. The verb תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you light”) in Ps 18:28 would, in this case, be a corruption of the latter. See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 150, n. 64. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.
[18:28] 3 tn 2 Sam 22:29 repeats the name “Lord.”
[18:28] 4 tn Heb “my darkness.”
[104:20] 5 tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”
[105:28] 6 tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”
[105:28] sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).
[105:28] 7 tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.
