Mazmur 74:6

74:6 And now ¹  they are tearing down ²  all its engravings ³ 

with axes ⁴  and crowbars. ⁵ 

Mazmur 119:20

119:20 I desperately long to know ⁶ 

your regulations at all times.

Mazmur 137:9

137:9 How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies

and smashes them on a rock! ⁷ 

[74:6]  ¹ tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”

[74:6]  ² tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.

[74:6]  ³ tn Heb “its engravings together.”

[74:6]  ⁴ tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).

[74:6]  ⁵ tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).

[119:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “my soul languishes for longing for.”

[137:9]  ⁷ sn For other references to the wholesale slaughter of babies in the context of ancient Near Eastern warfare, see 2 Kgs 8:12; Isa 13:16; Hos 13:16; Nah 3:10.