Mazmur 9:15

9:15 The nations fell ¹  into the pit they had made;

their feet were caught in the net they had hidden. ² 

Mazmur 10:2

10:2 The wicked arrogantly chase the oppressed; ³ 

the oppressed are trapped ⁴  by the schemes the wicked have dreamed up. ⁵ 

Mazmur 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ⁶ 

Mazmur 49:19

49:19 But he will join his ancestors; ⁷ 

they will never again see the light of day. ⁸ 

Mazmur 71:17

71:17 O God, you have taught me since I was young,

and I am still declaring ⁹  your amazing deeds.

Mazmur 71:24

71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,

for those who want to harm me ¹⁰  will be embarrassed and ashamed. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 72:12

72:12 For he will rescue the needy ¹²  when they cry out for help,

and the oppressed ¹³  who have no defender.

Mazmur 73:27

73:27 Yes, ¹⁴  look! Those far from you ¹⁵  die;

you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 75:6

75:6 For victory does not come from the east or west,

or from the wilderness. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 80:8

80:8 You uprooted a vine ¹⁸  from Egypt;

you drove out nations and transplanted it.

Mazmur 97:8

97:8 Zion hears and rejoices,

the towns ¹⁹  of Judah are happy,

because of your judgments, O Lord.

Mazmur 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ²⁰  others, so those curses have come upon him. ²¹ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ²² 

Mazmur 119:79

119:79 May your loyal followers ²³  turn to me,

those who know your rules.

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “sank down.”

[9:15]  ² sn The hostility of the nations against God’s people is their downfall, for it prompts God to intervene and destroy them. See also Ps 7:15-16.

[10:2]  ³ tn Heb “because of the pride of [the] wicked he burns [i.e. hotly pursues] [the] oppressed.” The singular forms רָשָׁע (rasha’, “wicked”) and עָנִי (’aniy, “oppressed”) are collective and representative, as indicated in the next line, which uses plural verb forms to describe the actions of both.

[10:2]  ⁴ tn The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 2 describe either what typically happens (from the psalmist’s perspective) or what the psalmist was experiencing at the time he offered this prayer.

[10:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are trapped in the schemes which they have thought up.” The referents of the two pronominal suffixes on the verbs have been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent of the first suffix (“they”) is taken as the oppressed, while the referent of the second (“they”) is taken to be the wicked (cf. NIV, which renders “wicked” in the previous line as a collective singular). Others take the referent of both occurrences of “they” in the line to be the wicked (cf. NRSV, “let them be caught in the schemes they have devised”).

[34:5]  ⁶ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[49:19]  ⁷ tn Verses 18-19a are one long sentence in the Hebrew text, which reads: “Though he blesses his soul in his life, [saying], ‘And let them praise you, for you do well for yourself,’ it [that is, his soul] will go to the generation of his fathers.” This has been divided into two sentences in the translation for clarity, in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[49:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “light.” The words “of day” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[71:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”

[71:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”

[71:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.

[72:12]  ¹² tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.

[72:12]  ¹³ tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.

[73:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for.”

[73:27]  ¹⁵ sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.

[73:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”

[75:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for not from the east or from the west, and not from the wilderness of the mountains.” If one follows this reading the sentence is elliptical. One must supply “does help come,” or some comparable statement. However, it is possible to take הָרִים (harim) as a Hiphil infinitive from רוּם (rum), the same verb used in vv. 4-5 of “lifting up” a horn. In this case one may translate the form as “victory.” In this case the point is that victory does not come from alliances with other nations.

[80:8]  ¹⁸ sn The vine is here a metaphor for Israel (see Ezek 17:6-10; Hos 10:1).

[97:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “daughters.” The term “daughters” refers to the cities of Judah surrounding Zion (see Ps 48:11 and H. Haag, TDOT 2:336).

[109:17]  ²⁰ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ²² tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[119:79]  ²³ tn Heb “those who fear you.”