Mazmur 4:7

4:7 You make me happier ¹ 

than those who have abundant grain and wine. ² 

Mazmur 64:4

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ³  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ⁴ 

Mazmur 69:26

69:26 For they harass ⁵  the one whom you discipline; ⁶ 

they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. ⁷ 

Mazmur 78:49

78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, ⁸ 

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster. ⁹ 

Mazmur 80:16

80:16 It is burned ¹⁰  and cut down.

They die because you are displeased with them. ¹¹ 

[4:7]  ¹ tn Heb “you place joy in my heart.” Another option is to understand the perfect verbal form as indicating certitude, “you will make me happier.”

[4:7]  ² tn Heb “from (i.e., more than) the time (when) their grain and their wine are abundant.”

[64:4]  ³ tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[69:26]  ⁵ tn Or “persecute”; Heb “chase.”

[69:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “for you, the one whom you strike, they chase.”

[69:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “they announce the pain of your wounded ones” (i.e., “the ones whom you wounded,” as the parallel line makes clear).

[69:26]  sn The psalmist is innocent of the false charges made by his enemies (v. 4), but he is also aware of his sinfulness (v. 5) and admits that he experiences divine discipline (v. 26) despite his devotion to God (v. 9). Here he laments that his enemies take advantage of such divine discipline by harassing and slandering him. They “kick him while he’s down,” as the expression goes.

[78:49]  ⁸ tn Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[78:49]  ⁹ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

[80:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “burned with fire.”

[80:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because of the rebuke of your face they perish.”