Mazmur 37:34

37:34 Rely ¹  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ² 

Then he will permit you ³  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ⁴ 

Mazmur 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ⁵ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ⁶ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ⁷  (Selah)

Mazmur 86:17

86:17 Show me evidence of your favor! ⁸ 

Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed, ⁹ 

for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 139:16

139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ¹¹ 

All the days ordained for me

were recorded in your scroll

before one of them came into existence. ¹² 

[37:34]  ¹ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  ² tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[37:34]  ³ tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

[37:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[48:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ⁷ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[86:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.

[86:17]  ⁹ tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.

[86:17]  ¹⁰ tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the Lord will be followed by his intervention. Another option is to understand the forms as future perfects (“for you, O Lord, will have helped me and comforted me”).

[139:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.

[139:16]  ¹² tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).