Mazmur 94:16-22

94:16 Who will rise up to defend me ¹  against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? ² 

94:17 If the Lord had not helped me,

I would have laid down in the silence of death. ³ 

94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

94:19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me, ⁴ 

your soothing touch makes me happy. ⁵ 

94:20 Cruel rulers ⁶  are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws. ⁷ 

94:21 They conspire against ⁸  the blameless, ⁹ 

and condemn to death the innocent. ¹⁰ 

94:22 But the Lord will protect me, ¹¹ 

and my God will shelter me. ¹² 

[94:16]  ¹ tn Heb “for me.”

[94:16]  ² sn Who will stand up for me…? The questions anticipate the answer, “No one except God” (see v. 17).

[94:17]  ³ tn Heb “If the Lord [were] not my help, quickly my life would have lain down in silence.” The psalmist, perhaps speaking as the nation’s representative, recalls God’s past intervention. For other examples of conditional sentences with the term לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”) in the protasis and a perfect verbal form in the apodosis, see Pss 119:92 and 124:2-5.

[94:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “when my worries are many within me.”

[94:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “your comforts cause my soul to delight.”

[94:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “a throne of destruction.” “Throne” stands here by metonymy for rulers who occupy thrones.

[94:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is a throne of destruction united to you, one that forms trouble upon a statute?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course not!” The translation, while not preserving the interrogative form of the statement, reflects its rhetorical force.

[94:21]  ⁸ tn Or “attack.”

[94:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “the life of the blameless.”

[94:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the blood of the innocent they declare guilty.”

[94:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the Lord has become my elevated place.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:22]  ¹² tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”