Keluaran 12:32

12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” ¹ 

Keluaran 12:2

12:2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year. ² 

1 Samuel 8:10

8:10 So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.

1 Samuel 21:3

21:3 Now what do you have at your disposal? ³  Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

Ezra 6:10

6:10 so that they may be offering incense to the God of heaven and may be praying for the good fortune of the king and his family. ⁴ 

Mazmur 20:1-4

Psalm 20 ⁵ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ⁶  you ⁷  when you are in trouble; ⁸ 

may the God of Jacob ⁹  make you secure!

20:2 May he send you help from his temple; ¹⁰ 

from Zion may he give you support!

20:3 May he take notice ¹¹  of your offerings;

may he accept ¹²  your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)

20:4 May he grant your heart’s desire; ¹³ 

may he bring all your plans to pass! ¹⁴ 

[12:32]  ¹ tn The form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (וּבֵרַכְתֶּם, uverakhtem); coming in the sequence of imperatives this perfect tense would be volitional – probably a request rather than a command.

[12:32]  sn Pharaoh probably meant that they should bless him also when they were sacrificing to Yahweh in their religious festival – after all, he might reason, he did let them go (after divine judgment). To bless him would mean to invoke good gifts from God for him.

[12:2]  ² sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other.

[21:3]  ³ tn Heb “under your hand.”

[6:10]  ⁴ tn Aram “for the life of the king and his sons.”

[20:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ⁷ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “from [the] temple.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (ן, nun) has probably been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word begins with a prefixed vav (ו). See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 184.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.

[20:3]  ¹² tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”

[20:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “may he give to you according to your heart.” This probably refers to the king’s prayer for protection and victory in battle. See vv. 5-6.

[20:4]  ¹⁴ sn May he bring all your plans to pass. This probably refers to the king’s strategy for battle.