Mazmur 18:29

18:29 Indeed, ¹  with your help ²  I can charge against ³  an army; ⁴ 

by my God’s power ⁵  I can jump over a wall. ⁶ 

Mazmur 118:10-12

118:10 All the nations surrounded me. ⁷ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord ⁸  I pushed them away. ⁹ 

118:11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me.

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

118:12 They surrounded me like bees.

But they disappeared as quickly ¹⁰  as a fire among thorns. ¹¹ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

[18:29]  ¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[18:29]  ² tn Heb “by you.”

[18:29]  ³ tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 29 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [Heb “cause to run”] an army.”

[18:29]  ⁴ tn More specifically, the noun גְּדוּד (gÿdud) refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops.

[18:29]  sn I can charge against an army. The picture of a divinely empowered warrior charging against an army in almost superhuman fashion appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 228.

[18:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and by my God.”

[18:29]  ⁶ sn I can jump over a wall. The psalmist uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.

[118:10]  ⁷ sn The reference to an attack by the nations suggests the psalmist may have been a military leader.

[118:10]  ⁸ tn In this context the phrase “in the name of the Lord” means “by the Lord’s power.”

[118:10]  ⁹ tn Traditionally the verb has been derived from מוּל (mul, “to circumcise”) and translated “[I] cut [them] off” (see BDB 557-58 s.v. II מוּל). However, it is likely that this is a homonym meaning “to fend off” (see HALOT 556 s.v. II מול) or “to push away.” In this context, where the psalmist is reporting his past experience, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite. The phrase also occurs in vv. 11, 12.

[118:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “were extinguished.”

[118:12]  ¹¹ tn The point seems to be that the hostility of the nations (v. 10) is short-lived, like a fire that quickly devours thorns and then burns out. Some, attempting to create a better parallel with the preceding line, emend דֹּעֲכוּ (do’akhu, “they were extinguished”) to בָּעֲרוּ (ba’aru, “they burned”). In this case the statement emphasizes their hostility.