Mazmur 119:105

נ (Nun)

119:105 Your word ¹  is a lamp to walk by,

and a light to illumine my path. ² 

Mazmur 78:38

78:38 Yet he is compassionate.

He forgives sin and does not destroy.

He often holds back his anger,

and does not stir up his fury. ³ 

[119:105]  ¹ tn Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural (“words”).

[119:105]  ² tn Heb “[is] a lamp for my foot and a light for my path.”

[78:38]  ³ tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.