Mazmur 12:4

12:4 They say, ¹  “We speak persuasively; ² 

we know how to flatter and boast. ³ 

Who is our master?” ⁴ 

Mazmur 20:1

Psalm 20 ⁵ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ⁶  you ⁷  when you are in trouble; ⁸ 

may the God of Jacob ⁹  make you secure!

Mazmur 31:15

31:15 You determine my destiny! ¹⁰ 

Rescue me from the power of my enemies and those who chase me.

Mazmur 60:10

60:10 Have you not rejected us, O God?

O God, you do not go into battle with our armies.

Mazmur 68:10

68:10 for you live among them. ¹¹ 

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

Mazmur 102:10

102:10 because of your anger and raging fury.

Indeed, ¹²  you pick me up and throw me away.

[12:4]  ¹ tn Heb “which say.” The plural verb after the relative pronoun indicates a plural antecedent for the pronoun, probably “lips” in v. 3.

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “to our tongue we make strong.” The Hiphil of גָבַר (gavar) occurs only here and in Dan 9:27, where it refers to making strong, or confirming, a covenant. Here in Ps 12 the evildoers “make their tongue strong” in the sense that they use their tongue to produce flattering and arrogant words to accomplish their purposes. The preposition -לְ (l) prefixed to “our tongue” may be dittographic.

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “our lips [are] with us.” This odd expression probably means, “our lips are in our power,” in the sense that they say what they want, whether it be flattery or boasting. For other cases where אֵת (’et, “with”) has the sense “in the power of,” see Ps 38:10 and other texts listed by BDB 86 s.v. 3.a.

[12:4]  ⁴ sn The rhetorical question expresses the arrogant attitude of these people. As far as they are concerned, they are answerable to no one for how they speak.

[20:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ⁷ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[31:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in your hand [are] my times.”

[68:10]  ¹¹ 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.”

[102:10]  ¹² tn Or “for.”