Mazmur 18:38

18:38 I beat them ¹  to death; ² 

they fall at my feet. ³ 

Mazmur 59:17

59:17 You are my source of strength! I will sing praises to you! ⁴ 

For God is my refuge, ⁵  the God who loves me. ⁶ 

Mazmur 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ⁷  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ⁸  I will not be upended. ⁹ 

Mazmur 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ¹⁰  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹¹  I will not be upended. ¹² 

Mazmur 76:5

76:5 The bravehearted ¹³  were plundered; ¹⁴ 

they “fell asleep.” ¹⁵ 

All the warriors were helpless. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 78:6

78:6 so that the next generation, children yet to be born,

might know about them.

They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 102:13

102:13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion. ¹⁸ 

For it is time to have mercy on her,

for the appointed time has come.

Mazmur 104:3

104:3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ¹⁹ 

He makes the clouds his chariot,

and travels along on the wings of the wind. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 132:2

132:2 and how he made a vow to the Lord,

and swore an oath to the powerful ruler of Jacob. ²¹ 

Mazmur 139:17

139:17 How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! ²² 

How vast is their sum total! ²³ 

[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.

[59:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “my strength, to you I will sing praises.”

[59:17]  ⁵ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[59:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “the God of my loyal love.”

[62:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ⁸ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) at the end of the line. It is unusual for this adverb to follow a negated verb. Some see this as qualifying the assertion to some degree, but this would water down the affirmation too much (see v. 6b, where the adverb is omitted). If the adverb has a qualifying function, it would suggest that the psalmist might be upended, though not severely. This is inconsistent with the confident mood of the psalm. The adverb probably has an emphatic force here, “I will not be greatly upended” meaning “I will not be annihilated.”

[62:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ¹² sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[76:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

[76:5]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

[76:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

[76:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”

[78:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in order that they might know, a following generation, sons [who] will be born, they will arise and will tell to their sons.”

[102:13]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”

[104:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.

[104:3]  ²⁰ sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[132:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.”

[139:17]  ²² tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).

[139:17]  ²³ tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.