Mazmur 31:2-3

31:2 Listen to me! ¹ 

Quickly deliver me!

Be my protector and refuge, ² 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ³ 

31:3 For you are my high ridge ⁴  and my stronghold;

for the sake of your own reputation ⁵  you lead me and guide me. ⁶ 

Mazmur 42:9

42:9 I will pray ⁷  to God, my high ridge: ⁸ 

“Why do you ignore ⁹  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ¹⁰ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Mazmur 62:7

62:7 God delivers me and exalts me;

God is my strong protector and my shelter. ¹¹ 

[31:2]  ¹ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[31:2]  ² tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

[31:2]  ³ tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

[31:3]  ⁴ sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[31:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)

[31:3]  ⁶ tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[42:9]  ⁷ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ⁸ tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ⁹ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ¹⁰ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[62:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “upon God [is] my deliverance and my glory, the high rocky summit of my strength, my shelter [is] in God.”