Mazmur 35:11

35:11 Violent men perjure themselves, ¹ 

and falsely accuse me. ² 

Mazmur 51:8

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ³ 

May the bones ⁴  you crushed rejoice! ⁵ 

Mazmur 52:4

52:4 You love to use all the words that destroy, ⁶ 

and the tongue that deceives.

Mazmur 118:24

118:24 This is the day the Lord has brought about. ⁷ 

We will be happy and rejoice in it.

Mazmur 119:16

119:16 I find delight ⁸  in your statutes;

I do not forget your instructions. ⁹ 

Mazmur 119:92

119:92 If I had not found encouragement in your law, ¹⁰ 

I would have died in my sorrow. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 149:2

149:2 Let Israel rejoice in their Creator!

Let the people ¹²  of Zion delight in their king! ¹³ 

[35:11]  ¹ tn Heb “witnesses of violence rise up.”

[35:11]  ² tn Heb “[that] which I do not know they ask me.”

[51:8]  ³ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ⁴ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ⁵ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[52:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “you love all the words of swallowing.” Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallowing” in the sense of “devouring” or “destructive” (see BDB 118 s.v. בָּלַע). HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע proposes a homonym here, meaning “confusion.” This would fit the immediate context nicely and provide a close parallel to the following line, which refers to deceptive words.

[118:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “this is the day the Lord has made.” Though sometimes applied in a general way, this statement in its context refers to the day of deliverance which the psalmist and people celebrate.

[119:16]  ⁸ tn The imperfects in this verse emphasize the attitude the psalmist maintains toward God’s law. Another option is to translate with the future tense, “I will find delight…I will not forget.”

[119:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural here.

[119:92]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “if your law had not been my delight.”

[119:92]  ¹¹ tn Or “my suffering.”

[149:2]  ¹² tn Heb “sons.”

[149:2]  ¹³ sn The Lord is the king here, as the parallelism in the previous line (“their creator”) indicates.