Mazmur 78:9

78:9 The Ephraimites ¹  were armed with bows, ² 

but they retreated in the day of battle. ³ 

Mazmur 7:13

7:13 He prepares to use deadly weapons against him; ⁴ 

he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. ⁵ 

Mazmur 44:6

44:6 For I do not trust in my bow,

and I do not prevail by my sword.

Mazmur 144:1

Psalm 144 ⁶ 

By David.

144:1 The Lord, my protector, ⁷  deserves praise ⁸  –

the one who trains my hands for battle, ⁹ 

and my fingers for war,

Mazmur 37:15

37:15 Their swords will pierce ¹⁰  their own hearts,

and their bows will be broken.

Mazmur 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ¹¹ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ¹² 

Mazmur 89:43

89:43 You turn back ¹³  his sword from the adversary, ¹⁴ 

and have not sustained him in battle. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 140:7

140:7 O sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, ¹⁶ 

you shield ¹⁷  my head in the day of battle.

Mazmur 7:12

7:12 If a person ¹⁸  does not repent, God sharpens his sword ¹⁹ 

and prepares to shoot his bow. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 18:39

18:39 You give me strength ²¹  for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me. ²² 

Mazmur 20:7

20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, ²³ 

but we ²⁴  depend on ²⁵  the Lord our God.

Mazmur 33:16

33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;

a warrior is not saved by his great might.

Mazmur 46:9

46:9 He brings an end to wars throughout the earth; ²⁶ 

he shatters ²⁷  the bow and breaks ²⁸  the spear;

he burns ²⁹  the shields with fire. ³⁰ 

Mazmur 58:7

58:7 Let them disappear ³¹  like water that flows away! ³² 

Let them wither like grass! ³³ 

Mazmur 76:3

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ³⁴ 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ³⁵  (Selah)

[78:9]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of Ephraim.” Ephraim probably stands here by synecdoche (part for whole) for the northern kingdom of Israel.

[78:9]  ² tn Heb “ones armed, shooters of bow.” It is possible that the term נוֹשְׁקֵי (noshÿqey, “ones armed [with]”) is an interpretive gloss for the rare רוֹמֵי (romey, “shooters of”; on the latter see BDB 941 s.v. I רָמָה). The phrase נוֹשְׁקֵי קֶשֶׁת (noshÿqey qeshet, “ones armed with a bow”) appears in 1 Chr 12:2; 2 Chr 17:17.

[78:9]  ³ sn They retreated. This could refer to the northern tribes’ failure to conquer completely their allotted territory (see Judg 1), or it could refer generally to the typical consequence (military defeat) of their sin (see vv. 10-11).

[7:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and for him he prepares the weapons of death.”

[7:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “his arrows into flaming [things] he makes.”

[144:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 144. The psalmist expresses his confidence in God, asks for a mighty display of divine intervention in an upcoming battle, and anticipates God’s rich blessings on the nation in the aftermath of military victory.

[144:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

[144:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord, my rocky summit.”

[144:1]  ⁹ sn The one who trains my hands for battle. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement (see Ps 18:34). Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.

[37:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “enter into.”

[45:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[89:43]  ¹³ tn The perfect verbal form predominates in vv. 38-45. The use of the imperfect in this one instance may be for rhetorical effect. The psalmist briefly lapses into dramatic mode, describing the king’s military defeat as if it were happening before his very eyes.

[89:43]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “you turn back, rocky summit, his sword.” The Hebrew term צוּר (tsur, “rocky summit”) makes no sense here, unless it is a divine title understood as vocative, “you turn back, O Rocky Summit, his sword.” Some emend the form to צֹר (tsor, “flint”) on the basis of Josh 5:2, which uses the phrase חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (kharvot tsurim, “flint knives”). The noun צֹר (tsor, “flint”) can then be taken as “flint-like edge,” indicating the sharpness of the sword. Others emend the form to אָחוֹר (’akhor, “backward”) or to מִצַּר (mitsar, “from the adversary”). The present translation reflects the latter, assuming an original reading תָּשִׁיב מִצָּר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv mitsar kharbo), which was corrupted to תָּשִׁיב צָר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv tsar kharbo) by virtual haplography (confusion of bet/mem is well-attested) with צָר (tsar, “adversary”) then being misinterpreted as צוּר in the later tradition.

[89:43]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and you have not caused him to stand in the battle.”

[140:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”

[140:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cover.”

[7:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “If he”; the referent (a person who is a sinner) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The subject of the first verb is understood as the sinner who fails to repent of his ways and becomes the target of God’s judgment (vv. 9, 14-16).

[7:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “if he does not return, his sword he sharpens.” The referent (God) of the pronominal subject of the second verb (“sharpens”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his bow he treads and prepares it.” “Treading the bow” involved stepping on one end of it in order to string it and thus prepare it for battle.

[18:39]  ²¹ tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.

[18:39]  ²² tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

[18:39]  sn My foes kneel before me. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 268.

[20:7]  ²³ tn Heb “these in chariots and these in horses.” No verb appears; perhaps the verb “invoke” is to be supplied from the following line. In this case the idea would be that some “invoke” (i.e., trust in) their military might for victory (cf. NEB “boast”; NIV “trust”; NRSV “take pride”). Verse 8 suggests that the “some/others” mentioned here are the nation’s enemies.

[20:7]  ²⁴ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronominal subject) highlights the contrast between God’s faithful people and the others mentioned in the previous line.

[20:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “we invoke the name of.” The Hiphil of זָכַר (zakhar), when combined with the phrase “in the name,” means “to invoke” (see Josh 23:7; Isa 48:1; Amos 6:10). By invoking the Lord’s name in prayer, the people demonstrate their trust in him.

[46:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “[the] one who causes wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” The participle continues the description begun in v. 8b and indicates that this is the Lord’s characteristic activity. Ironically, he brings peace to the earth by devastating the warlike, hostile nations (vv. 8, 9b).

[46:9]  ²⁷ tn The verb שָׁבַר (shavar, “break”) appears in the Piel here (see Ps 29:5). In the OT it occurs thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3). The imperfect verbal form carries on and emphasizes the generalizing nature of the description.

[46:9]  ²⁸ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries along the generalizing emphasis of the preceding imperfect.

[46:9]  ²⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form carries on and emphasizes the generalizing nature of the description.

[46:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “wagons he burns with fire.” Some read “chariots” here (cf. NASB), but the Hebrew word refers to wagons or carts, not chariots, elsewhere in the OT. In this context, where military weapons are mentioned, it is better to revocalize the form as עֲגִלוֹת (’agilot, “round shields”), a word which occurs only here in the OT, but is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic.

[58:7]  ³¹ tn Following the imperatival forms in v. 6, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive expressing the psalmist’s wish. Another option is to take the form as an imperfect (indicative) and translate, “they will scatter” (see v. 9). The verb מָאַס (ma’as; which is a homonym of the more common מָאַס, “to refuse, reject”) appears only here and in Job 7:5, where it is used of a festering wound from which fluid runs or flows.

[58:7]  ³² tn Heb “like water, they go about for themselves.” The translation assumes that the phrase “they go about for themselves” is an implied relative clause modifying “water.” Another option is to take the clause as independent and parallel to what precedes. In this case the enemies would be the subject and the verb could be taken as jussive, “let them wander about.”

[58:7]  ³³ tc The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult and the meaning uncertain. The text reads literally, “he treads his arrows (following the Qere; Kethib has “his arrow”), like they are cut off/dry up.” It is not clear if the verbal root is מָלַל (malal, “circumcise”; BDB 576 s.v. IV מָלַל) or the homonymic מָלַל (“wither”; HALOT 593-94 s.v. I מלל). Since the verb מָלַל (“to wither”) is used of vegetation, it is possible that the noun חָצִיר (khatsir, “grass,” which is visually similar to חִצָּיו, khitsayv, “his arrows”) originally appeared in the text. The translation above assumes that the text originally was כְּמוֹ חָצִיר יִתְמֹלָלוּ(kÿmo khatsir yitmolalu, “like grass let them wither”). If original, it could have been accidentally corrupted to חִצָּיר כְּמוֹ יִתְמֹלָלוּ (“his arrow(s) like they dry up”) with דָּרַךְ (darakh, “to tread”) being added later in an effort to make sense of “his arrow(s).”

[76:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:3]  sn This verse may allude to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrians in 701 b.c. (see Isa 36-37).