Mazmur 76:12

76:12 He humbles princes; ¹ 

the kings of the earth regard him as awesome. ² 

Mazmur 77:8

77:8 Has his loyal love disappeared forever?

Has his promise ³  failed forever?

Mazmur 85:3

85:3 You withdrew all your fury;

you turned back from your raging anger. ⁴ 

Mazmur 88:15

88:15 I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. ⁵ 

I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. ⁶ 

Mazmur 110:6

110:6 He executes judgment ⁷  against ⁸  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ⁹ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 119:40

119:40 Look, I long for your precepts.

Revive me with your deliverance! ¹¹ 

[76:12]  ¹ tn Heb “he reduces the spirit of princes.” According to HALOT 148 s.v. II בצר, the Hebrew verb בָּצַר (batsar) is here a hapax legomenon meaning “reduce, humble.” The statement is generalizing, with the imperfect tense highlighting God’s typical behavior.

[76:12]  ² tn Heb “[he is] awesome to the kings of the earth.”

[77:8]  ³ tn Heb “word,” which may refer here to God’s word of promise (note the reference to “loyal love” in the preceding line).

[85:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81. See Pss 69:24; 78:49.

[88:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and am dying from youth.”

[88:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “I carry your horrors [?].” The meaning of the Hebrew form אָפוּנָה (’afunah), which occurs only here in the OT, is unclear. It may be an adverb meaning “very much” (BDB 67 s.v.), though some prefer to emend the text to אָפוּגָה (’afugah, “I am numb”) from the verb פוּג (pug; see Pss 38:8; 77:2).

[110:6]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ⁸ tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

[119:40]  ¹¹ tn Or “righteousness.”