Mazmur 5:12

5:12 Certainly ¹  you reward ²  the godly, ³  Lord.

Like a shield you protect ⁴  them ⁵  in your good favor. ⁶ 

Mazmur 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated ⁷  and absolutely terrified! ⁸ 

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Mazmur 7:2

7:2 Otherwise they will rip ⁹  me ¹⁰  to shreds like a lion;

they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 7:12

7:12 If a person ¹²  does not repent, God sharpens his sword ¹³ 

and prepares to shoot his bow. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 10:9

10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; ¹⁵ 

he lies in ambush, waiting to catch ¹⁶  the oppressed;

he catches the oppressed ¹⁷  by pulling in his net. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 11:6

11:6 May the Lord rain down ¹⁹  burning coals ²⁰  and brimstone ²¹  on the wicked!

A whirlwind is what they deserve! ²² 

Mazmur 13:4

13:4 Then ²³  my enemy will say, “I have defeated him!”

Then ²⁴  my foes will rejoice because I am upended.

Mazmur 14:3

14:3 Everyone rejects God; ²⁵ 

they are all morally corrupt. ²⁶ 

None of them does what is right, ²⁷ 

not even one!

Mazmur 18:17

18:17 He rescued me from my strong enemy, ²⁸ 

from those who hate me,

for they were too strong for me.

Mazmur 22:16

22:16 Yes, ²⁹  wild dogs surround me –

a gang of evil men crowd around me;

like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ³⁰ 

Mazmur 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ³¹ 

Mazmur 41:3

41:3 The Lord supports ³²  him on his sickbed;

you completely heal him from his illness. ³³ 

Mazmur 52:6

52:6 When the godly see this, they will be filled with awe,

and will mock the evildoer, saying: ³⁴ 

Mazmur 58:8

58:8 Let them be ³⁵  like a snail that melts away as it moves along! ³⁶ 

Let them be like ³⁷  stillborn babies ³⁸  that never see the sun!

Mazmur 66:6

66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; ³⁹ 

they passed through the river on foot. ⁴⁰ 

Let us rejoice in him there! ⁴¹ 

Mazmur 69:19

69:19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated and disgraced;

you can see all my enemies. ⁴² 

Mazmur 69:32

69:32 The oppressed look on – let them rejoice!

You who seek God, ⁴³  may you be encouraged! ⁴⁴ 

Mazmur 74:4

74:4 Your enemies roar ⁴⁵  in the middle of your sanctuary; ⁴⁶ 

they set up their battle flags. ⁴⁷ 

Mazmur 79:2

79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants

to the birds of the sky; ⁴⁸ 

the flesh of your loyal followers

to the beasts of the earth.

Mazmur 105:13

105:13 they wandered from nation to nation,

and from one kingdom to another. ⁴⁹ 

Mazmur 115:7

115:7 hands, but cannot touch,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot even clear their throats. ⁵⁰ 

[5:12]  ¹ tn Or “For.”

[5:12]  ² tn Or “bless.” The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line highlight how God characteristically rewards and protects the godly.

[5:12]  ³ tn Or “innocent.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense.

[5:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “surround.” In 1 Sam 23:26 the verb describes how Saul and his men hemmed David in as they chased him.

[5:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “him.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense and is thus translated “them.”

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Or “with favor” (cf. NRSV). There is no preposition before the noun in the Hebrew text, nor is there a pronoun attached. “Favor” here stands by metonymy for God’s defensive actions on behalf of the one whom he finds acceptable.

[6:10]  ⁷ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

[6:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

[7:2]  ⁹ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew text, even though “all who chase me” in v. 1 refers to a whole group of enemies. The singular is also used in vv. 4-5, but the psalmist returns to the plural in v. 6. The singular is probably collective, emphasizing the united front that the psalmist’s enemies present. This same alternation between a collective singular and a plural referring to enemies appears in Pss 9:3, 6; 13:4; 31:4, 8; 41:6, 10-11; 42:9-10; 55:3; 64:1-2; 74:3-4; 89:22-23; 106:10-11; 143:3, 6, 9.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my life.” The pronominal suffix attached to נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is equivalent to a personal pronoun. See Ps 6:3.

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “tearing and there is no one rescuing.” The verbal form translated “tearing” is a singular active participle.

[7:12]  ¹² tn Heb “If he”; the referent (a person who is a sinner) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The subject of the first verb is understood as the sinner who fails to repent of his ways and becomes the target of God’s judgment (vv. 9, 14-16).

[7:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “if he does not return, his sword he sharpens.” The referent (God) of the pronominal subject of the second verb (“sharpens”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his bow he treads and prepares it.” “Treading the bow” involved stepping on one end of it in order to string it and thus prepare it for battle.

[10:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “in its den.”

[10:9]  ¹⁶ tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.

[10:9]  ¹⁷ tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.

[10:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “when he [i.e., the wicked man] pulls in his net.”

[10:9]  sn The background of the imagery is hunting, where the hunter uses a net to entrap an unsuspecting bird or wild animal.

[11:6]  ¹⁹ tn The verb form is a jussive, indicating that the statement is imprecatory (“May the Lord rain down”), not indicative (“The Lord rains down”; see also Job 20:23). The psalmist appeals to God to destroy the wicked, rather than simply stating his confidence that God will do so. In this way the psalmist seeks to activate divine judgment by appealing to God’s just character. For an example of the power of such a curse, see Judg 9:7-57.

[11:6]  ²⁰ tc The MT reads “traps, fire, and brimstone,” but the image of God raining traps, or snares, down from the sky is bizarre and does not fit the fire and storm imagery of this verse. The noun פַּחִים (pakhim, “traps, snares”) should be emended to פַּחֲמֵי (pakhamey, “coals of [fire]”). The rare noun פֶּחָם (pekham, “coal”) occurs in Prov 26:21 and Isa 44:12; 54:16.

[11:6]  ²¹ sn The image of God “raining down” brimstone on the objects of his judgment also appears in Gen 19:24 and Ezek 38:22.

[11:6]  ²² tn Heb “[may] a wind of rage [be] the portion of their cup.” The precise meaning of the rare noun זִלְעָפוֹת (zil’afot) is uncertain. It may mean “raging heat” (BDB 273 s.v. זַלְעָפָה) or simply “rage” (HALOT 272 s.v. זַלְעָפָה). If one understands the former sense, then one might translate “hot wind” (cf. NEB, NRSV). The present translation assumes the latter nuance, “a wind of rage” (the genitive is attributive) referring to a “whirlwind” symbolic of destructive judgment. In this mixed metaphor, judgment is also compared to an allotted portion of a beverage poured into one’s drinking cup (see Hab 2:15-16).

[13:4]  ²³ tn Heb “or else.”

[13:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “or else.”

[14:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “everyone turns aside.”

[14:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”

[14:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[18:17]  ²⁸ tn The singular refers either to personified death or collectively to the psalmist’s enemies. The following line, which refers to “those [plural] who hate me,” favors the latter.

[22:16]  ²⁹ tn Or “for.”

[22:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” This reading is often emended because it is grammatically awkward, but perhaps its awkwardness is by rhetorical design. Its broken syntax may be intended to convey the panic and terror felt by the psalmist. The psalmist may envision a lion pinning the hands and feet of its victim to the ground with its paws (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art), or a lion biting the hands and feet. The line has been traditionally translated, “they pierce my hands and feet,” and then taken as foreshadowing the crucifixion of Christ. Though Jesus does appropriate the language of this psalm while on the cross (compare v. 1 with Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34), the NT does not cite this verse in describing the death of Jesus. (It does refer to vv. 7-8 and 18, however. See Matt 27:35, 39, 43; Mark 15:24, 29; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24.) If one were to insist on an emendation of כָּאֲרִי (ka’ariy, “like a lion”) to a verb, the most likely verbal root would be כָּרָה (karah, “dig”; see the LXX). In this context this verb could refer to the gnawing and tearing of wild dogs (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV). The ancient Greek version produced by Symmachus reads “bind” here, perhaps understanding a verbal root כרך, which is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic and means “to encircle, entwine, embrace” (see HALOT 497-98 s.v. כרך and Jastrow 668 s.v. כָּרַךְ). Neither one of these proposed verbs can yield a meaning “bore, pierce.”

[34:5]  ³¹ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[41:3]  ³² tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive, continuing the prayer of v. 2, but the parallel line in v. 3b employs the perfect, suggesting that the psalmist is again speaking in the indicative mood (see v. 1b). The imperfect can be understood as future or as generalizing (see v. 1).

[41:3]  ³³ tn Heb “all his bed you turn in his illness.” The perfect is used here in a generalizing sense (see v. 1) or in a rhetorical manner to emphasize that the healing is as good as done.

[52:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and the godly will see and will fear and at him will laugh.”

[58:8]  ³⁵ tn There is no “to be” verb in the Hebrew text at this point, but a jussive tone can be assumed based on vv. 6-7.

[58:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “like a melting snail [that] moves along.” A. Cohen (Psalms [SoBB], 184) explains that the text here alludes “to the popular belief that the slimy trail which the snail leaves in its track is the dissolution of its substance.”

[58:8]  ³⁷ tn The words “let them be like” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The jussive mood is implied from the preceding context, and “like” is understood by ellipsis (see the previous line).

[58:8]  ³⁸ tn This rare word also appears in Job 3:16 and Eccles 6:3.

[66:6]  ³⁹ sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).

[66:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).

[66:6]  ⁴¹ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[69:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “before you [are] all my enemies.”

[69:32]  ⁴³ sn You who seek God refers to those who seek to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him (see Ps 53:2).

[69:32]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “may your heart[s] live.” See Ps 22:26.

[74:4]  ⁴⁵ tn This verb is often used of a lion’s roar, so the psalmist may be comparing the enemy to a raging, devouring lion.

[74:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “your meeting place.”

[74:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “they set up their banners [as] banners.” The Hebrew noun אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) here refers to the enemy army’s battle flags and banners (see Num 2:12).

[79:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”

[105:13]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and from a kingdom to another nation.”

[115:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).