Mazmur 22:18

22:18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves;

they are rolling dice ¹  for my garments.

Mazmur 30:10

30:10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me!

O Lord, deliver me!” ² 

Mazmur 38:7

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ³ 

and my whole body is sick. ⁴ 

Mazmur 38:18

38:18 Yes, ⁵  I confess my wrongdoing,

and I am concerned about my sins.

Mazmur 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ⁶ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ⁷ 

Mazmur 48:4

48:4 For ⁸  look, the kings assemble; ⁹ 

they advance together.

Mazmur 48:7

48:7 With an east wind

you shatter ¹⁰  the large ships. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 48:12

48:12 Walk around ¹²  Zion! Encircle it!

Count its towers!

Mazmur 51:2-3

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ¹³ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ¹⁴ 

51:3 For I am aware of ¹⁵  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 51:9

51:9 Hide your face ¹⁷  from my sins!

Wipe away ¹⁸  all my guilt!

Mazmur 54:2

54:2 O God, listen to my prayer!

Pay attention to what I say! ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 54:4

54:4 Look, God is my deliverer! ²⁰ 

The Lord is among those who support me. ²¹ 

Mazmur 55:4-5

55:4 My heart beats violently ²²  within me;

the horrors of death overcome me. ²³ 

55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; ²⁴ 

terror overwhelms ²⁵  me.

Mazmur 69:25

69:25 May their camp become desolate,

their tents uninhabited! ²⁶ 

Mazmur 89:40

89:40 You have broken down all his ²⁷  walls;

you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

Mazmur 102:5

102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,

my bones protrude from my skin. ²⁸ 

[22:18]  ¹ tn Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.

[30:10]  ² tn Heb “be a helper to me.”

[38:7]  ³ tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[38:18]  ⁵ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[45:3]  ⁶ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[48:4]  ⁸ tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender – this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.

[48:4]  ⁹ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 4-6 are understood as descriptive. In dramatic style (note הִנֵּה, hinneh, “look”) the psalm describes an enemy attack against the city as if it were occurring at this very moment. Another option is to take the perfects as narrational (“the kings assembled, they advanced”), referring to a particular historical event, such as Sennacherib’s siege of the city in 701 b.c. (cf. NIV, NRSV). Even if one translates the verses in a dramatic-descriptive manner (as the present translation does), the Lord’s victory over the Assyrians was probably what served as the inspiration of the description (see v. 8).

[48:7]  ¹⁰ tn The switch to the imperfect, as well as the introduction of the ship metaphor, perhaps signals a change to a generalizing tone; the Lord typically shatters these large ships, symbolic of the human strength of hostile armies (see the following note on “large ships”). The verb שָׁבַר (shavar, “break”) appears in the Piel here (see Pss 29:5; 46:9). In the OT it occurs thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3).

[48:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to and from the distant western port of Tarshish. These ships, which were the best of their class, here symbolize the mere human strength of hostile armies, which are incapable of withstanding the Lord’s divine power (see Isa 2:16).

[48:12]  ¹² tn The verb forms in vv. 12-13 are plural; the entire Judahite community is addressed.

[51:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ¹⁴ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[51:9]  ¹⁷ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[54:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to the words of my mouth.”

[54:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “my helper.”

[54:4]  ²¹ tn Or “sustain my life.”

[55:4]  ²² tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”

[55:4]  ²³ tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”

[55:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”

[55:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.

[69:25]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”

[69:25]  sn In Acts 1:20 Peter applies the language of this verse to Judas’ experience. By changing the pronouns from plural to singular, he is able to apply the ancient curse, pronounced against the psalmist’s enemies, to Judas in particular.

[89:40]  ²⁷ tn The king here represents the land and cities over which he rules.

[102:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.