Mazmur 5:3

5:3 Lord, in the morning ¹  you will hear ²  me; ³ 

in the morning I will present my case to you ⁴  and then wait expectantly for an answer. ⁵ 

Mazmur 17:6

17:6 I call to you for you will answer me, O God.

Listen to me! ⁶ 

Hear what I say! ⁷ 

Mazmur 27:8

27:8 My heart tells me to pray to you, ⁸ 

and I do pray to you, O Lord. ⁹ 

Mazmur 31:5

31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; ¹⁰ 

you will rescue ¹¹  me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Mazmur 40:4

40:4 How blessed ¹²  is the one ¹³  who trusts in the Lord ¹⁴ 

and does not seek help from ¹⁵  the proud or from liars! ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 41:4

41:4 As for me, I said: ¹⁷ 

“O Lord, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you!

Mazmur 42:9

42:9 I will pray ¹⁸  to God, my high ridge: ¹⁹ 

“Why do you ignore ²⁰  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ²¹ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Mazmur 49:7

49:7 Certainly a man cannot rescue his brother; ²² 

he cannot pay God an adequate ransom price ²³ 

Mazmur 56:12

56:12 I am obligated to fulfill the vows I made to you, O God; ²⁴ 

I will give you the thank-offerings you deserve, ²⁵ 

Mazmur 68:31

68:31 They come with red cloth ²⁶  from Egypt,

Ethiopia ²⁷  voluntarily offers tribute ²⁸  to God.

Mazmur 73:27

73:27 Yes, ²⁹  look! Those far from you ³⁰  die;

you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. ³¹ 

Mazmur 102:24

102:24 I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! ³² 

You endure through all generations. ³³ 

Mazmur 140:6

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

[5:3]  ¹ sn In the morning is here viewed as the time of prayer (Pss 59:16; 88:13) and/or of deliverance (Ps 30:5).

[5:3]  ² tn The imperfect is here understood in a specific future sense; the psalmist is expressing his confidence that God will be willing to hear his request. Another option is to understand the imperfect as expressing the psalmist’s wish or request. In this case one could translate, “Lord, in the morning hear me.”

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “my voice.”

[5:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will arrange for you.” Some understand a sacrifice or offering as the implied object (cf. NEB “I set out my morning sacrifice”). The present translation assumes that the implied object is the psalmist’s case/request. See Isa 44:7.

[5:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I will watch.”

[17:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “Turn your ear toward me.”

[17:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “my word.”

[27:8]  ⁸ tc Heb “concerning you my heart says, ‘Seek my face.’” The verb form “seek” is plural, but this makes no sense here, for the psalmist is addressed. The verb should be emended to a singular form. The first person pronominal suffix on “face” also makes little sense, unless it is the voice of the Lord he hears. His “heart” is viewed as speaking, however, so it is better to emend the form to פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”).

[27:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “your face, O Lord, I seek.” To “seek the Lord’s face” means to seek his favor through prayer (see 2 Sam 21:1; Pss 24:6; 105:4).

[31:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

[31:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). 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.

[40:4]  ¹² tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[40:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.

[40:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who has made the Lord his [object of] trust.”

[40:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”

[40:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”

[41:4]  ¹⁷ sn In vv. 4-10 the psalmist recites the prayer of petition and lament he offered to the Lord.

[42:9]  ¹⁸ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ¹⁹ tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ²¹ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[49:7]  ²² tn Heb “a brother, he surely does not ransom, a man.” The sequence אִישׁ...אָח (’akh...’ish, “a brother…a man”) is problematic, for the usual combination is אָח...אָח (“a brother…a brother”) or אִישׁ...אִישׁ (“a man…a man”). When אִישׁ and אָח are combined, the usual order is אָח...אִישׁ (“a man…a brother”), with “brother” having a third masculine singular suffix, “his brother.” This suggests that “brother” is the object of the verb and “man” the subject. (1) Perhaps the altered word order and absence of the suffix can be explained by the text’s poetic character, for ellipsis is a feature of Hebrew poetic style. (2) Another option, supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss, is to emend “brother” to the similar sounding אַךְ (’akh, “surely; but”) which occurs in v. 15 before the verb פָּדָה (padah, “ransom”). If this reading is accepted the Qal imperfect יִפְדֶּה (yifddeh, “he can [not] ransom”) would need to be emended to a Niphal (passive) form, יִפָּדֶה (yifadeh, “he can[not] be ransomed”) unless one understands the subject of the Qal verb to be indefinite (“one cannot redeem a man”). (A Niphal imperfect can be collocated with a Qal infinitive absolute. See GKC 344-45 §113.w.) No matter how one decides the textual issues, the imperfect in this case is modal, indicating potential, and the infinitive absolute emphasizes the statement.

[49:7]  ²³ tn Heb “he cannot pay to God his ransom price.” Num 35:31 may supply the legal background for the metaphorical language used here. The psalmist pictures God as having a claim on the soul of the individual. When God comes to claim the life that ultimately belongs to him, he demands a ransom price that is beyond the capability of anyone to pay. The psalmist’s point is that God has ultimate authority over life and death; all the money in the world cannot buy anyone a single day of life beyond what God has decreed.

[56:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “upon me, O God, [are] your vows.”

[56:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will repay thank-offerings to you.”

[68:31]  ²⁶ tn This noun, which occurs only here in the OT, apparently means “red cloth” or “bronze articles” (see HALOT 362 s.v. חַשְׁמַן; cf. NEB “tribute”). Traditionally the word has been taken to refer to “nobles” (see BDB 365 s.v. חַשְׁמַן; cf. NIV “envoys”). Another option would be to emend the text to הַשְׁמַנִּים (hashmannim, “the robust ones,” i.e., leaders).

[68:31]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Cush.”

[68:31]  ²⁸ tn Heb “causes its hands to run,” which must mean “quickly stretches out its hands” (to present tribute).

[73:27]  ²⁹ tn Or “for.”

[73:27]  ³⁰ sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.

[73:27]  ³¹ tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”

[102:24]  ³² tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”

[102:24]  ³³ tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”