Mazmur 44:20

44:20 If we had rejected our God, ¹ 

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ² 

Mazmur 81:9

81:9 There must be ³  no other ⁴  god among you.

You must not worship a foreign god.

[44:20]  ¹ tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).

[44:20]  ² tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).

[81:9]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 have a modal function, expressing what is obligatory.

[81:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “different”; “illicit.”