Mazmur 16:8

16:8 I constantly trust in the Lord; ¹ 

because he is at my right hand, I will not be upended.

Mazmur 17:11

17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; ² 

they intend to throw me to the ground. ³ 

Mazmur 18:36

18:36 You widen my path; ⁴ 

my feet ⁵  do not slip.

Mazmur 26:12

26:12 I am safe, ⁶ 

and among the worshipers I will praise the Lord.

Mazmur 44:25

44:25 For we lie in the dirt,

with our bellies pressed to the ground. ⁷ 

Mazmur 64:7

64:7 But God will shoot ⁸  at them;

suddenly they will be ⁹  wounded by an arrow. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 66:11

66:11 You led us into a trap; ¹¹ 

you caused us to suffer. ¹² 

Mazmur 76:8

76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. ¹³ 

The earth ¹⁴  was afraid and silent

Mazmur 78:61

78:61 He allowed the symbol of his strong presence to be captured; ¹⁵ 

he gave the symbol of his splendor ¹⁶  into the hand of the enemy. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 89:43

89:43 You turn back ¹⁸  his sword from the adversary, ¹⁹ 

and have not sustained him in battle. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 94:1

Psalm 94 ²¹ 

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor! ²² 

Mazmur 94:18

94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

Mazmur 106:27

106:27 make their descendants ²³  die ²⁴  among the nations,

and scatter them among foreign lands. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 109:20

109:20 May the Lord repay my accusers in this way, ²⁶ 

those who say evil things about ²⁷  me! ²⁸ 

Mazmur 109:31

109:31 because he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to deliver him from those who threaten ²⁹  his life.

Mazmur 110:5

110:5 O sovereign Lord, ³⁰  at your right hand

he strikes down ³¹  kings in the day he unleashes his anger. ³² 

Mazmur 119:8

119:8 I will keep your statutes.

Do not completely abandon me! ³³ 

[16:8]  ¹ tn Heb “I set the Lord before me continually.” This may mean that the psalmist is aware of the Lord’s presence and sensitive to his moral guidance (see v. 7), or that he trusts in the Lord’s protection (see the following line).

[17:11]  ² tc Heb “our steps, now they surround me.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “surround me,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has “surround us,” harmonizing the pronoun to the preceding “our steps.” The first person plural pronoun does not fit the context, where the psalmist speaks as an individual. In the preceding verses the psalmist uses a first person singular verbal or pronominal form twenty times. For this reason it is preferable to emend “our steps” to אִשְּׁרוּנִי (’ishÿruni, “they attack me”) from the verbal root אָשֻׁר (’ashur, “march, stride, track”).

[17:11]  ³ tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”

[18:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “you make wide my step under me.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives the psalmist the capacity to run quickly.

[18:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”

[26:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “my foot stands in a level place.”

[44:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[64:7]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive is normally used in narrative contexts to describe completed past actions. It is possible that the conclusion to the psalm (vv. 7-10) was added to the lament after God’s judgment of the wicked in response to the psalmist’s lament (vv. 1-6). The translation assumes that these verses are anticipatory and express the psalmist’s confidence that God would eventually judge the wicked. The psalmist uses a narrative style as a rhetorical device to emphasize his certitude. See GKC 329-30 §111.w.

[64:7]  ⁹ tn The perfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s certitude about the coming demise of the wicked.

[64:7]  ¹⁰ tn The translation follows the traditional accentuation of the MT. Another option is to translate, “But God will shoot them down with an arrow, suddenly they will be wounded” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[66:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.

[66:11]  ¹² tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (mu’aqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.

[76:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”

[76:8]  ¹⁴ tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.

[78:61]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he gave to captivity his strength.” The expression “his strength” refers metonymically to the ark of the covenant, which was housed in the tabernacle at Shiloh.

[78:61]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and his splendor into the hand of an enemy.” The expression “his splendor” also refers metonymically to the ark of the covenant.

[78:61]  ¹⁷ sn Verses 60-61 refer to the Philistines’ capture of the ark in the days of Eli (1 Sam 4:1-11).

[89:43]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect verbal form predominates in vv. 38-45. The use of the imperfect in this one instance may be for rhetorical effect. The psalmist briefly lapses into dramatic mode, describing the king’s military defeat as if it were happening before his very eyes.

[89:43]  ¹⁹ tc Heb “you turn back, rocky summit, his sword.” The Hebrew term צוּר (tsur, “rocky summit”) makes no sense here, unless it is a divine title understood as vocative, “you turn back, O Rocky Summit, his sword.” Some emend the form to צֹר (tsor, “flint”) on the basis of Josh 5:2, which uses the phrase חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (kharvot tsurim, “flint knives”). The noun צֹר (tsor, “flint”) can then be taken as “flint-like edge,” indicating the sharpness of the sword. Others emend the form to אָחוֹר (’akhor, “backward”) or to מִצַּר (mitsar, “from the adversary”). The present translation reflects the latter, assuming an original reading תָּשִׁיב מִצָּר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv mitsar kharbo), which was corrupted to תָּשִׁיב צָר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv tsar kharbo) by virtual haplography (confusion of bet/mem is well-attested) with צָר (tsar, “adversary”) then being misinterpreted as צוּר in the later tradition.

[89:43]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and you have not caused him to stand in the battle.”

[94:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 94. The psalmist asks God to judge the wicked and affirms his confidence in God’s justice.

[94:1]  ²² tn Heb “shine forth” (see Pss 50:2; 80:1).

[106:27]  ²³ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[106:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).

[106:27]  ²⁵ tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[109:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “[may] this [be] the repayment to my accusers from the Lord.”

[109:20]  ²⁷ tn Or “against.”

[109:20]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being; soul”) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[109:31]  ²⁹ tn Heb “judge.”

[110:5]  ³⁰ tn As pointed in the Hebrew text, this title refers to God (many medieval Hebrew mss read יְהוָה, yehveh, “Lord” here). The present translation assumes that the psalmist here addresses the Lord as he celebrates what the king is able to accomplish while positioned at God’s “right hand.” According to this view the king is the subject of the third person verb forms in vv. 5b-7. (2) Another option is to understand the king as the addressee (as in vv. 2-3). In this case “the Lord” is the subject of the third person verbs throughout vv. 5-7 and is depicted as a warrior in a very anthropomorphic manner. In this case the Lord is pictured as being at the psalmist’s right hand (just the opposite of v. 1). See Pss 16:8; 121:5. (3) A third option is to revocalize אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”; see v. 1). In this case one may translate, “My lord, at his [God’s] right hand, strikes down.” In this case the king is the subject of the third person verbs in vv. 5b-7.

[110:5]  ³¹ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 5-6 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing. Another option is to take them as rhetorical. In this case the psalmist describes anticipated events as if they had already taken place.

[110:5]  ³² tn Heb “in the day of his anger.”

[119:8]  ³³ tn Heb “do not abandon me to excess.” For other uses of the phrase עַד מְאֹד (’ad mÿ’od, “to excess”), see Ps 38:6, 8.