Mazmur 22:22

22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! ¹ 

In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!

Mazmur 35:18

35:18 Then I will give you thanks in the great assembly; ² 

I will praise you before a large crowd of people! ³ 

Mazmur 68:9-10

68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ⁴  on your chosen people. ⁵ 

When they ⁶  are tired, you sustain them, ⁷ 

68:10 for you live among them. ⁸ 

You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.

Mazmur 74:1

Psalm 74 ⁹ 

A well-written song ¹⁰  by Asaph.

74:1 Why, O God, have you permanently rejected us? ¹¹ 

Why does your anger burn ¹²  against the sheep of your pasture?

Mazmur 74:21

74:21 Do not let the afflicted be turned back in shame!

Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! ¹³ 

Mazmur 79:2

79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants

to the birds of the sky; ¹⁴ 

the flesh of your loyal followers

to the beasts of the earth.

Mazmur 80:8

80:8 You uprooted a vine ¹⁵  from Egypt;

you drove out nations and transplanted it.

Mazmur 80:14

80:14 O God, invincible warrior, ¹⁶  come back!

Look down from heaven and take notice!

Take care of this vine,

Mazmur 99:8

99:8 O Lord our God, you answered them.

They found you to be a forgiving God,

but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 102:14

102:14 Indeed, ¹⁸  your servants take delight in her stones,

and feel compassion for ¹⁹  the dust of her ruins. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 125:5

125:5 As for those who are bent on traveling a sinful path, ²¹ 

may the Lord remove them, ²²  along with those who behave wickedly! ²³ 

May Israel experience peace! ²⁴ 

Mazmur 138:8

138:8 The Lord avenges me. ²⁵ 

O Lord, your loyal love endures.

Do not abandon those whom you have made! ²⁶ 

[22:22]  ¹ tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).

[35:18]  ² sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Ps 22:25.

[35:18]  ³ tn Heb “among numerous people.”

[68:9]  ⁴ tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).

[68:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.

[68:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:10]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashvu-vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”

[74:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 74. The psalmist, who has just experienced the devastation of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 b.c., asks God to consider Israel’s sufferings and intervene on behalf of his people. He describes the ruined temple, recalls God’s mighty deeds in the past, begs for mercy, and calls for judgment upon God’s enemies.

[74:1]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[74:1]  ¹¹ sn The psalmist does not really believe God has permanently rejected his people or he would not pray as he does in this psalm. But this initial question reflects his emotional response to what he sees and is overstated for the sake of emphasis. The severity of divine judgment gives the appearance that God has permanently abandoned his people.

[74:1]  ¹² tn Heb “smoke.” The picture is that of a fire that continues to smolder.

[74:21]  ¹³ sn Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! The statement is metonymic. The point is this: May the oppressed be delivered from their enemies! Then they will have ample reason to praise God’s name.

[79:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”

[80:8]  ¹⁵ sn The vine is here a metaphor for Israel (see Ezek 17:6-10; Hos 10:1).

[80:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “O God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also vv. 4, 7 for a similar construction.

[99:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a God of lifting up [i.e., forgiveness] you were to them, and an avenger concerning their deeds.” The present translation reflects the traditional interpretation, which understands the last line as qualifying the preceding one. God forgave Moses and Aaron, but he also disciplined them when they sinned (cf. NIV, NRSV). Another option is to take “their deeds” as referring to harmful deeds directed against Moses and Aaron. In this case the verse may be translated, “and one who avenged attacks against them.” Still another option is to emend the participial form נֹקֵם (noqem, “an avenger”) to נֹקָם (noqam), a rare Qal participial form of נָקַה (naqah, “purify”) with a suffixed pronoun. In this case one could translate, “and one who purified them from their [sinful] deeds” (cf. NEB “and held them innocent”).

[102:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “for.”

[102:14]  ¹⁹ tn The Poel of חָנַן (khanan) occurs only here and in Prov 14:21, where it refers to having compassion on the poor.

[102:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “her dust,” probably referring to the dust of the city’s rubble.

[125:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the ones making their paths twisted.” A sinful lifestyle is compared to a twisting, winding road.

[125:5]  ²² tn Heb “lead them away.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer here (note the prayers directly before and after this). Another option is to translate, “the Lord will remove them” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[125:5]  ²³ tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.”

[125:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 122:8 for a similar prayer for peace).

[138:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “avenges on my behalf.” For the meaning “to avenge” for the verb גָּמַר (gamar), see HALOT 197-98 s.v. גמר.

[138:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular, “work of your hands.”