Mazmur 110:5-6

110:5 O sovereign Lord, ¹  at your right hand

he strikes down ²  kings in the day he unleashes his anger. ³ 

110:6 He executes judgment ⁴  against ⁵  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ⁶ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ⁷ 

Yesaya 34:5-6

34:5 He says, ⁸  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ⁹ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ¹⁰ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ¹¹  with fat;

it drips ¹²  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹³  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁴  in Bozrah, ¹⁵ 

a bloody ¹⁶  slaughter in the land of Edom.

[110:5]  ¹ tn As pointed in the Hebrew text, this title refers to God (many medieval Hebrew mss read יְהוָה, yehveh, “Lord” here). The present translation assumes that the psalmist here addresses the Lord as he celebrates what the king is able to accomplish while positioned at God’s “right hand.” According to this view the king is the subject of the third person verb forms in vv. 5b-7. (2) Another option is to understand the king as the addressee (as in vv. 2-3). In this case “the Lord” is the subject of the third person verbs throughout vv. 5-7 and is depicted as a warrior in a very anthropomorphic manner. In this case the Lord is pictured as being at the psalmist’s right hand (just the opposite of v. 1). See Pss 16:8; 121:5. (3) A third option is to revocalize אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”; see v. 1). In this case one may translate, “My lord, at his [God’s] right hand, strikes down.” In this case the king is the subject of the third person verbs in vv. 5b-7.

[110:5]  ² tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 5-6 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing. Another option is to take them as rhetorical. In this case the psalmist describes anticipated events as if they had already taken place.

[110:5]  ³ tn Heb “in the day of his anger.”

[110:6]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ⁵ tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

[34:5]  ⁸ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  sn In v. 4 the “host of the heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). As in 24:21, they are viewed here as opposing God and being defeated in battle.

[34:5]  ¹⁰ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ¹² tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹³ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁵ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).