Mazmur 31:2-4

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 

31:4 You will free me ⁷  from the net they hid for me,

for you are my place of refuge.

Mazmur 31:13-15

31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, ⁸ 

the terrifying news that comes from every direction. ⁹ 

When they plot together against me,

they figure out how they can take my life.

31:14 But I trust in you, O Lord!

I declare, “You are my God!”

31:15 You determine my destiny! ¹⁰ 

Rescue me from the power of my enemies and those who chase me.

[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).

[31:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “bring me out.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form expresses the psalmist’s confidence about the future. Another option is to take the form as expressing a prayer, “free me.”

[31:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “the report of many.”

[31:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “the terror from all around.”

[31:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in your hand [are] my times.”