Mazmur 35:10

35:10 With all my strength I will say, ¹ 

“O Lord, who can compare to you?

You rescue ²  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ³ 

the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ⁴ 

Mazmur 45:1

Psalm 45 ⁵ 

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ⁶  by the Korahites, a well-written poem, ⁷  a love song.

45:1 My heart is stirred by a beautiful song. ⁸ 

I say, “I have composed this special song ⁹  for the king;

my tongue is as skilled as the stylus of an experienced scribe.” ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 49:14

49:14 They will travel to Sheol like sheep, ¹¹ 

with death as their shepherd. ¹² 

The godly will rule ¹³  over them when the day of vindication dawns; ¹⁴ 

Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses. ¹⁵ 

[35:10]  ¹ tn Heb “all my bones will say.”

[35:10]  ² tn Heb “[the one who] rescues.” The substantival participle in the Hebrew text characterizes God as one who typically rescues the oppressed.

[35:10]  ³ tn Heb “from [the one who is] too strong for him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense. The typical oppressed individual and typical oppressor are in view.

[35:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the oppressed [one] and needy [one] from [the one who] robs him.” As in the previous line, the singular forms are used in a representative sense.

[45:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 45. This is a romantic poem celebrating the Davidic king’s marriage to a lovely princess. The psalmist praises the king for his military prowess and commitment to justice, urges the bride to be loyal to the king, and anticipates that the marriage will be blessed with royal offspring.

[45:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to lilies.” “Lilies” may be a tune title or musical style, suggestive of romantic love. The imagery of a “lily” appears frequently in the Song of Solomon in a variety of contexts (see 2:1-2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2).

[45:1]  ⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.

[45:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “[with] a good word.” The “good word” probably refers here to the song that follows.

[45:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “my works [are] for a king.” The plural “works” may here indicate degree, referring to the special musical composition that follows.

[45:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my tongue [is] a stylus of a skillful scribe.” Words flow from the psalmist’s tongue just as they do from a scribe’s stylus.

[49:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like sheep to Sheol they are appointed.” The verb form שַׁתּוּ (shatu) is apparently derived from שָׁתַת (shatat), which appears to be a variant of the more common שִׁית (shiyt, “to place; to set”; BDB 1060 s.v. שָׁתַת and GKC 183 §67.ee). Some scholars emend the text to שָׁחוּ (shakhu; from the verbal root שׁוּח [shukh, “sink down”]) and read “they descend.” The present translation assumes an emendation to שָׁטוּ (shatu; from the verbal root שׁוּט [shut, “go; wander”]), “they travel, wander.” (The letter tet [ט] and tav [ת] sound similar; a scribe transcribing from dictation could easily confuse them.) The perfect verbal form is used in a rhetorical manner to speak of their destiny as if it were already realized (the so-called perfect of certitude or prophetic perfect).

[49:14]  ¹² tn Heb “death will shepherd them,” that is, death itself (personified here as a shepherd) will lead them like a flock of helpless, unsuspecting sheep to Sheol, the underworld, the land of the dead.

[49:14]  ¹³ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the perfect verbal form in v. 14a. The psalmist speaks of this coming event as if it were already accomplished.

[49:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will rule over them in the morning.” “Morning” here is a metaphor for a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Pss 30:5; 46:5; 59:16; 90:14; 143:8; Isa 17:14). In this context the psalmist confidently anticipates a day of vindication when the Lord will deliver the oppressed from the rich (see v. 15) and send the oppressors to Sheol.

[49:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “their form [will become an object] for the consuming of Sheol, from a lofty residence, to him.” The meaning of this syntactically difficult text is uncertain. The translation assumes that צוּר (tsur, “form”; this is the Qere [marginal] reading; the Kethib has צִירָם [tsiram, “their image”]) refers to their physical form or bodies. “Sheol” is taken as the subject of “consume” (on the implied “become” before the infinitive “to consume” see GKC 349 §114.k). The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “lofty residence” is understood as privative, “away from; so as not.” The preposition -ל (lamed) is possessive, while the third person pronominal suffix is understood as a representative singular.