Mazmur 12:7

12:7 You, Lord, will protect them; ¹ 

you will continually shelter each one from these evil people, ² 

Mazmur 73:20

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ³ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁴  you will despise them. ⁵ 

Mazmur 90:4

90:4 Yes, ⁶  in your eyes a thousand years

are like yesterday that quickly passes,

or like one of the divisions of the nighttime. ⁷ 

[12:7]  ¹ tn The third person plural pronominal suffix on the verb is masculine, referring back to the “oppressed” and “needy” in v. 5 (both of those nouns are plural in form), suggesting that the verb means “protect” here. The suffix does not refer to אִמֲרוֹת (’imarot, “words”) in v. 6, because that term is feminine gender.

[12:7]  ² tn Heb “you will protect him from this generation permanently.” The third masculine singular suffix on the verb “protect” is probably used in a distributive sense, referring to each one within the group mentioned previously (the oppressed/needy, referred to as “them” in the preceding line). On this grammatical point see GKC 396 §123.f (where the present text is not cited). (Some Hebrew mss and ancient textual witnesses read “us,” both here and in the preceding line.) The noun דוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the psalmist’s contemporaries, who were characterized by deceit and arrogance (see vv. 1-2). See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[73:20]  ³ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁴ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[90:4]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[90:4]  ⁷ sn The divisions of the nighttime. The ancient Israelites divided the night into distinct periods, or “watches.”