Mazmur 18:38

18:38 I beat them ¹  to death; ² 

they fall at my feet. ³ 

Mazmur 21:4

21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, ⁴ 

and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. ⁵ 

Mazmur 30:6

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ⁶ 

Mazmur 46:11

46:11 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! ⁷ 

The God of Jacob ⁸  is our protector! ⁹  (Selah)

Mazmur 68:3

68:3 But the godly ¹⁰  are happy;

they rejoice before God

and are overcome with joy. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 76:3

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ¹² 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ¹³  (Selah)

Mazmur 77:8

77:8 Has his loyal love disappeared forever?

Has his promise ¹⁴  failed forever?

Mazmur 80:5

80:5 You have given them tears as food; ¹⁵ 

you have made them drink tears by the measure. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 89:51

89:51 Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults;

they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 140:12

140:12 I know ¹⁸  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 60:7

60:7 Gilead belongs to me,

as does Manasseh! ²⁰ 

Ephraim is my helmet, ²¹ 

Judah my royal scepter. ²² 

[18:38]  ¹ tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”

[18:38]  ² tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”

[18:38]  ³ sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.

[21:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”

[21:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.

[30:6]  ⁶ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[46:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

[46:11]  ⁸ tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

[46:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

[68:3]  ¹⁰ tn By placing the subject first the psalmist highlights the contrast between God’s ecstatic people and his defeated enemies (vv. 1-2).

[68:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they are happy with joy” (cf. NEB). Some translate the prefixed verbal forms of v. 3 as jussives, “Let the godly be happy, let them rejoice before God, and let them be happy with joy!” (Cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV; note the call to praise in v. 4.)

[76:3]  ¹² tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:3]  sn This verse may allude to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrians in 701 b.c. (see Isa 36-37).

[77:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “word,” which may refer here to God’s word of promise (note the reference to “loyal love” in the preceding line).

[80:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you have fed them the food of tears.”

[80:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[by] the third part [of a measure].” The Hebrew term שָׁלִישׁ (shalish, “third part [of a measure]”) occurs only here and in Isa 40:12.

[89:51]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[by] which your enemies, O Lord, taunt, [by] which they taunt [at] the heels of your anointed one.”

[140:12]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.

[140:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”

[60:7]  ²⁰ sn Gilead was located east of the Jordan. Half of the tribe of Manasseh lived east of the Jordan in the region of Bashan.

[60:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “the protection of my head.”

[60:7]  sn Ephraim, named after one of Joseph’s sons, was one of two major tribes located west of the Jordan. By comparing Ephraim to a helmet, the Lord suggests that the Ephraimites played a primary role in the defense of his land.

[60:7]  ²² sn Judah, like Ephraim, was the other major tribe west of the Jordan. The Davidic king, symbolized here by the royal scepter, came from this tribe.