Mazmur 33:7

33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; ¹ 

he puts the oceans ²  in storehouses.

Mazmur 37:2

37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,

and wither away like plants. ³ 

Mazmur 37:6

37:6 He will vindicate you in broad daylight,

and publicly defend your just cause. ⁴ 

Mazmur 37:35

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ⁵ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ⁶ 

Mazmur 56:6

56:6 They stalk ⁷  and lurk; ⁸ 

they watch my every step, ⁹ 

as ¹⁰  they prepare to take my life. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 72:5

72:5 People will fear ¹²  you ¹³  as long as the sun and moon remain in the sky,

for generation after generation. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 77:18

77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;

the lightning bolts lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 78:13

78:13 He divided the sea and led them across it;

he made the water stand in a heap.

Mazmur 78:33

78:33 So he caused them to die unsatisfied ¹⁶ 

and filled with terror. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 83:14

83:14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,

or the flames that consume the mountainsides, ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 89:37

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ¹⁹ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ²⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 105:41

105:41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;

a river ran through dry regions.

Mazmur 107:41

107:41 Yet he protected ²¹  the needy from oppression,

and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.

Mazmur 109:23

109:23 I am fading away like a shadow at the end of the day; ²² 

I am shaken off like a locust.

Mazmur 131:2

131:2 Indeed ²³  I am composed and quiet, ²⁴ 

like a young child carried by its mother; ²⁵ 

I am content like the young child I carry. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 147:16-17

147:16 He sends the snow that is white like wool;

he spreads the frost that is white like ashes. ²⁷ 

147:17 He throws his hailstones ²⁸  like crumbs.

Who can withstand the cold wind he sends? ²⁹ 

[33:7]  ¹ tn Heb “[he] gathers like a pile the waters of the sea.” Some prefer to emend נֵד (ged, “heap, pile”; cf. NASB) to נֹד (nod, “bottle”; cf. NRSV; NIV “into jars”), but “pile” is used elsewhere to describe water that the Lord confines to one place (Exod 15:8; Josh 3:13, 16; Ps 78:13). This verse appears to refer to Gen 1:9, where God decrees that the watery deep be gathered to one place so that dry land might appear. If so, the participles in this and the following line depict this action with special vividness, as if the reader were present on the occasion. Another option is that the participles picture the confinement of the sea to one place as an ongoing divine activity.

[33:7]  ² tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).

[37:2]  ³ tn Heb “like green vegetation.”

[37:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he will bring out like light your vindication, and your just cause like noonday.”

[37:35]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[56:6]  ⁷ tn The verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 59:3.

[56:6]  ⁸ tn Or “hide.”

[56:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “my heels.”

[56:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”

[56:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”

[72:5]  ¹² tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the Lord’s power and authority by worshiping him and obeying his commandments.” See Ps 33:8. Some interpreters, with the support of the LXX, prefer to read וְיַאֲרִיךְ (vÿ’a’arikh, “and he [the king in this case] will prolong [days]”), that is, “will live a long time” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[72:5]  ¹³ tn God is the addressee (see vv. 1-2).

[72:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with [the] sun, and before [the] moon [for] a generation, generations.” The rare expression דּוֹר דּוֹרִים (dor dorim, “generation, generations”) occurs only here, in Ps 102:24, and in Isa 51:8.

[77:18]  ¹⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

[77:18]  sn Verses 16-18 depict the Lord coming in the storm to battle his enemies and subdue the sea. There is no record of such a storm in the historical account of the Red Sea crossing. The language the psalmist uses here is stereotypical and originates in Canaanite myth, where the storm god Baal subdues the sea in his quest for kingship. The psalmist has employed the stereotypical imagery to portray the exodus vividly and at the same time affirm that it is not Baal who subdues the sea, but Yahweh.

[78:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he ended in vanity their days.”

[78:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and their years in terror.”

[83:14]  ¹⁸ sn The imagery of fire and flames suggests unrelenting, destructive judgment.

[89:37]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.

[107:41]  ²¹ tn Heb “set on high.”

[109:23]  ²² tn Heb “like a shadow when it is extended I go.” He is like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness. See Ps 102:11.

[131:2]  ²³ tn Or “but.”

[131:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I make level and make quiet my soul.”

[131:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “like a weaned [one] upon his mother.”

[131:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “like the weaned [one] upon me, my soul.”

[147:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the one who gives snow like wool, frost like ashes he scatters.”

[147:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “his ice.”

[147:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Before his cold, who can stand?”