Mazmur 28:9

28:9 Deliver your people!

Empower ¹  the nation that belongs to you! ² 

Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms ³  at all times! ⁴ 

Mazmur 60:5

60:5 Deliver by your power ⁵  and answer me, ⁶ 

so that the ones you love may be safe. ⁷ 

Mazmur 31:16

31:16 Smile ⁸  on your servant!

Deliver me because of your faithfulness!

Mazmur 86:16

86:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me!

Give your servant your strength!

Deliver your slave! ⁹ 

Mazmur 22:21

22:21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion, ¹⁰ 

and from the horns of the wild oxen! ¹¹ 

You have answered me! ¹² 

[28:9]  ¹ tn Or “bless.”

[28:9]  ² tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.

[28:9]  ³ tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”

[28:9]  sn The shepherd metaphor is sometimes associated with royal responsibility. See 2 Sam 5:2; 7:7; Mic 5:2-4).

[28:9]  ⁴ tn Or “forever.”

[60:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “right hand.”

[60:5]  ⁶ tn The Qere (marginal reading) has “me,” while the Kethib (consonantal text) has “us.”

[60:5]  ⁷ tn Or “may be rescued.” The lines are actually reversed in the Hebrew text, “So that the ones you love may be rescued, deliver by your power and answer me.”

[31:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “cause your face to shine.”

[86:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[22:21]  ¹⁰ sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).

[22:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term רֵמִים (remim) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים (rÿ’emim, “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם).

[22:21]  ¹² tn Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (see IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7.) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.