Mazmur 17:11

17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; ¹ 

they intend to throw me to the ground. ² 

Mazmur 34:12

34:12 Do you want to really live? ³ 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ⁴ 

Mazmur 57:8

57:8 Awake, my soul! ⁵ 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ⁶ 

Mazmur 63:9

63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, ⁷ 

but they will descend into the depths of the earth. ⁸ 

Mazmur 69:30

69:30 I will sing praises to God’s name! ⁹ 

I will magnify him as I give him thanks! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 106:27

106:27 make their descendants ¹¹  die ¹²  among the nations,

and scatter them among foreign lands. ¹³ 

Mazmur 107:22

107:22 Let them present thank offerings,

and loudly proclaim what he has done! ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 107:32

107:32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people!

Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside! ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 107:43

107:43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things!

Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love!

Mazmur 116:14

116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people.

Mazmur 116:18

116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people,

Mazmur 118:4

118:4 Let the loyal followers of the Lord ¹⁶  say,

“Yes, his loyal love endures!”

Mazmur 119:33

ה (He)

119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes, ¹⁷ 

so that I might observe it continually. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 119:173

119:173 May your hand help me,

for I choose to obey ¹⁹  your precepts.

Mazmur 134:3

134:3 May the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth,

bless you ²⁰  from Zion! ²¹ 

[17:11]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”

[34:12]  ³ tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[57:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

[57:8]  ⁶ tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

[63:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.

[63:9]  ⁸ sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.

[69:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will praise the name of God with a song.”

[69:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will magnify him with thanks.”

[106:27]  ¹¹ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[106:27]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[107:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and let them proclaim his works with a ringing cry.”

[107:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the seat of the elders.”

[118:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

[119:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the way of your statutes.”

[119:33]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I will keep it to the end.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative. The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev) is understood to mean “end” here. Another option is to take עֵקֶב (’eqev) as meaning “reward” here (see Ps 19:11) and to translate, “so that I might observe it and be rewarded.”

[119:173]  ¹⁹ tn The words “to obey” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.

[134:3]  ²⁰ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine singular, suggesting that the servants addressed in vv. 1-2 are responding to the psalmist.

[134:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “may the Lord bless you from Zion, the maker of heaven and earth.”