Mazmur 21:1

Psalm 21 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; ² 

he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. ³ 

Mazmur 43:4

43:4 Then I will go ⁴  to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ⁵ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ⁶  O God, my God, with a harp.

Mazmur 43:1

Psalm 43 ⁷ 

43:1 Vindicate me, O God!

Fight for me ⁸  against an ungodly nation!

Deliver me ⁹  from deceitful and evil men! ¹⁰ 

Pengkhotbah 1:8

1:8 All this ¹¹  monotony ¹²  is tiresome; no one can bear ¹³  to describe it: ¹⁴ 

The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content ¹⁵  with hearing.

[21:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”

[43:4]  ⁴ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”

[43:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. 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.

[43:4]  ⁶ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.

[43:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 43. Many medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalm 43 and Psalm 42 into one psalm. Psalm 43 is the only psalm in Book 2 of the Psalter (Psalms 42-72) that does not have a heading, suggesting that it was originally the third and concluding section of Psalm 42. Ps 43:5 is identical to the refrain in Ps 42:11 and almost identical to the refrain in Ps 42:5.

[43:1]  ⁸ tn Or “argue my case.”

[43:1]  ⁹ tn The imperfect here expresses a request or wish. Note the imperatives in the first half of the verse. See also v. 3.

[43:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the deceitful and evil man.” The Hebrew text uses the singular form “man” in a collective sense, as the reference to a “nation” in the parallel line indicates.

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn The word “this” is not in Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “the things.” The Hebrew term דְּבָרִים (dÿvarim, masculine plural noun from דָּבָר, davar) is often used to denote “words,” but it can also refer to actions and events (HALOT 211 s.v. דָּבָר 3.a; BDB 183 s.v. דָּבָר IV.4). Here, it means “things,” as is clear from the context: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done” (1:9). Here דְּבָרִים can be nuanced “occurrences” or even “[natural] phenomena.”

[1:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “is able.”

[1:8]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has no stated object. The translation supplies “it” for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[1:8]  sn The statement no one can bear to describe it probably means that Qoheleth could have multiplied examples (beyond the sun, the wind, and the streams) of the endless cycle of futile events in nature. However, no tongue could ever tell, no eye could ever see, no ear could ever hear all the examples of this continual and futile activity.

[1:8]  ¹⁵ tn The term מָלֵא (male’, “to be filled, to be satisfied”) is repeated in 1:7-8 to draw a comparison between the futility in the cycle of nature and human secular accomplishments: lots of action, but no lasting effects. In 1:7 אֵינֶנּוּ מָלֵא (’enennu male’, “it is never filled”) describes the futility of the water cycle: “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never filled.” In 1:8 וְלֹא־תִמָּלֵא (vÿlo-timmale’, “it is never satisfied”) describes the futility of human labor: “the ear is never satisfied with hearing.”