Mazmur 12:6

12:6 The Lord’s words are absolutely reliable. ¹ 

They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground,

where it is thoroughly refined. ² 

Mazmur 29:9

29:9 The Lord’s shout bends ³  the large trees ⁴ 

and strips ⁵  the leaves from the forests. ⁶ 

Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ⁷ 

Mazmur 55:10

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ⁸ 

while wickedness and destruction ⁹  are within it.

Mazmur 66:13

66:13 I will enter ¹⁰  your temple with burnt sacrifices;

I will fulfill the vows I made to you,

Mazmur 68:10

68:10 for you live among them. ¹¹ 

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

Mazmur 68:22

68:22 The Lord says,

“I will retrieve them ¹²  from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

Mazmur 101:7

101:7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace. ¹³ 

Liars will not be welcome in my presence. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 139:15

139:15 my bones were not hidden from you,

when ¹⁵  I was made in secret

and sewed together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the words of the Lord are pure words,” i.e., untainted by falsehood or deception (in contrast to the flattery of the evildoers, v. 2).

[12:6]  ² tn Heb “[like] silver purified in a furnace of [i.e., “on”] the ground, refined seven times.” The singular participle מְזֻקָּק (mÿzuqqaq, “refined”) modifies “silver.” The number seven is used rhetorically to express the thorough nature of the action. For other rhetorical/figurative uses of שִׁבְעָתָיִם (shiv’atayim, “seven times”), see Gen 4:15, 24; Ps 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[29:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

[29:9]  ⁴ tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the Lord’s shout gives birth to deer” is absurd. In light of the parallelism (note “forests” in the next line) and v. 5, it is preferable to emend אַיָּלוֹת (’ayyalot, “deer”) to אֵילוֹת (’elot, “large trees”) understanding the latter as an alternate form of the usual plural form אַיָּלִים (’ayyalim).

[29:9]  ⁵ tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[29:9]  ⁶ tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).

[29:9]  sn The Lord’s thunderous shout is accompanied by high winds which damage the trees of the forest.

[29:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”

[55:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ⁹ sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[66:13]  ¹⁰ sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.

[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.”

[68:22]  ¹² tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.

[101:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will not live in the midst of my house, one who does deceit.”

[101:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.”

[139:15]  ¹⁵ tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (ka’asher, “when”). The kaf (כ) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).

[139:15]  ¹⁶ sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.