Mazmur 41:12

41:12 As for me, you uphold ¹  me because of my integrity; ² 

you allow ³  me permanent access to your presence. ⁴ 

Mazmur 45:2

45:2 You are the most handsome of all men! ⁵ 

You speak in an impressive and fitting manner! ⁶ 

For this reason ⁷  God grants you continual blessings. ⁸ 

Mazmur 45:14

45:14 In embroidered robes she is escorted to the king.

Her attendants, the maidens of honor who follow her,

are led before you. ⁹ 

Mazmur 49:11

49:11 Their grave becomes their permanent residence,

their eternal dwelling place. ¹⁰ 

They name their lands after themselves, ¹¹ 

Mazmur 56:6

56:6 They stalk ¹²  and lurk; ¹³ 

they watch my every step, ¹⁴ 

as ¹⁵  they prepare to take my life. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. ¹⁷ 

I hate doing evil; ¹⁸ 

I will have no part of it. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 104:15

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ²⁰ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ²¹ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ²² 

Mazmur 145:21

145:21 My mouth will praise the Lord. ²³ 

Let all who live ²⁴  praise his holy name forever!

[41:12]  ¹ tn Or “have upheld.” The perfect verbal form can be taken as generalizing/descriptive (present) or as a present perfect.

[41:12]  ² sn Because of my integrity. See Pss 7:8; 25:21; 26:1, 11.

[41:12]  ³ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive has the same aspectual function as the preceding perfect. It is either generalizing/descriptive (present) or has a present perfect nuance (“you have allowed”).

[41:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you cause me to stand before you permanently.”

[45:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “you are handsome from the sons of man.” The preposition “from” is used in a comparative (“more than”) sense. The peculiar verb form יָפְיָפִיתָ (yafyafita) is probably the result of dittography of yod-pe (יפ) and should be emended to יָפִיתָ (yafita). See GKC 152 §55.e.

[45:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “favor is poured out on your lips.” “Lips” probably stands by metonymy for the king’s speech. Some interpret the Hebrew term חֵן (khen) as referring here to “gracious (i.e., kind and polite) speech”, but the word probably refers more generally to “attractive” speech that is impressively articulated and fitting for the occasion. For other instances of the term being used of speech, see Prov 22:11 and Eccl 10:12.

[45:2]  ⁷ tn Or “this demonstrates.” The construction עַל־כֵּן (’al-ken, “therefore”) usually indicates what logically follows from a preceding statement. However, here it may infer the cause from the effect, indicating the underlying basis or reason for what precedes (see BDB 487 s.v. I כֵּן 3.f; C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 1:386).

[45:2]  ⁸ tn Or “blesses you forever.” Here “bless” means to “endue with the power and skill to rule effectively,” as the following verses indicate.

[45:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “virgins after her, her companions, are led to you.” Some emend לָךְ (lakh, “to you”) to לָהּ (lah, “to her,” i.e., the princess), because the princess is now being spoken of in the third person (vv. 13-14a), rather than being addressed directly (as in vv. 10-12). However, the ambiguous suffixed form לָךְ need not be taken as second feminine singular. The suffix can be understood as a pausal second masculine singular form, addressed to the king. The translation assumes this to be the case; note that the king is addressed once more in vv. 16-17, where the second person pronouns are masculine.

[49:11]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “their inward part [is] their houses [are] permanent, their dwelling places for a generation and a generation.” If one follows the MT, then קֶרֶב (qerev, “inward part”) must refer to the seat of these people’s thoughts (for other examples of this use of the term, see BDB 899 s.v., though BDB prefers an emendation in this passage). In this case all three lines of v. 11 expose these people’s arrogant assumption that they will last forever, which then stands in sharp contrast to reality as summarized in v. 12. In this case one might translate the first two lines, “they think that their houses are permanent and that their dwelling places will last forever” (cf. NASB). Following the lead of several ancient versions, the present translation assumes an emendation of קִרְבָּם (qirbam, “their inward part”) to קְבָרִים (qÿvarim, “graves”). This assumes that the letters bet (ב) and resh (ר) were accidentally transposed in the MT. In this case the first two lines support the point made in v. 10, while the third line of v. 11 stands in contrast to v. 12. The phrase בֵּית עוֹלָם (bet ’olam, “permanent house”) is used of a tomb in Eccl 12:5 (as well as in Phoenician tomb inscriptions, see DNWSI 1:160 for a list of texts) and מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, “dwelling place”) refers to a tomb in Isa 22:16. Cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV.

[49:11]  ¹¹ sn Naming their lands after themselves is a claim of possession.

[56:6]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “hide.”

[56:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my heels.”

[56:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”

[56:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”

[101:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

[101:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

[101:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

[104:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

[104:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

[104:15]  ²² tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

[145:21]  ²³ tn Heb “the praise of the Lord my mouth will speak.”

[145:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all flesh.”