Mazmur 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ¹ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ²  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Mazmur 96:13

96:13 before the Lord, for he comes!

For he comes to judge the earth!

He judges the world fairly, ³ 

and the nations in accordance with his justice. ⁴ 

[57:3]  ¹ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ² tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[96:13]  ³ tn The verbal forms in v. 13 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions, in which case they could be translated “will judge the world.”

[96:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the nations with his integrity.”