Mazmur 20:3

20:3 May he take notice ¹  of your offerings;

may he accept ²  your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)

Mazmur 34:10

34:10 Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Mazmur 35:13

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ³ 

and refrained from eating food. ⁴ 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ⁵ 

Mazmur 59:14

59:14 They return in the evening;

they growl ⁶  like a dog

and prowl around outside ⁷  the city.

Mazmur 63:5

63:5 As if with choice meat ⁸  you satisfy my soul. ⁹ 

My mouth joyfully praises you, ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 81:10

81:10 I am the Lord, your God,

the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!’

Mazmur 106:43

106:43 Many times he delivered ¹¹  them,

but they had a rebellious attitude, ¹² 

and degraded themselves ¹³  by their sin.

Mazmur 109:18

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ¹⁴ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 112:10

112:10 When the wicked ¹⁶  see this, they will worry;

they will grind their teeth in frustration ¹⁷  and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 128:3

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹⁹ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ²⁰  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

[20:3]  ¹ tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.

[20:3]  ² tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”

[35:13]  ³ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ⁴ sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[59:14]  ⁶ tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”

[59:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “go around.”

[63:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”

[63:5]  ⁹ tn Or “me.”

[63:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”

[106:43]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“he would deliver”).

[106:43]  ¹² tn Heb “but they rebelled in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“they would have a rebellious attitude”).

[106:43]  ¹³ tn Heb “they sank down.” The Hebrew verb מָכַךְ (makhakh, “to lower; to sink”) occurs only here in the Qal.

[109:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”

[112:10]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).

[112:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.

[112:10]  ¹⁸ tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).

[128:3]  ¹⁹ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ²⁰ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.