Mazmur 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ¹ 

From his heavenly temple ²  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ³ 

Mazmur 57:6

57:6 They have prepared a net to trap me; ⁴ 

I am discouraged. ⁵ 

They have dug a pit for me. ⁶ 

They will fall ⁷  into it! (Selah)

Mazmur 66:3

66:3 Say to God:

“How awesome are your deeds!

Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear ⁸  before you.

Mazmur 101:6

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ⁹ 

and allow them to live with me. ¹⁰ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 111:9

111:9 He delivered his people; ¹² 

he ordained that his covenant be observed forever. ¹³ 

His name is holy and awesome.

Mazmur 127:2

127:2 It is vain for you to rise early, come home late,

and work so hard for your food. ¹⁴ 

Yes, ¹⁵  he can provide for those whom he loves even when they sleep. ¹⁶ 

[18:6]  ¹ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ² tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ³ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[57:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “for my feet.”

[57:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[57:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “before me.”

[57:6]  ⁷ tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.

[66:3]  ⁸ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).

[101:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[111:9]  ¹² tn Heb “redemption he sent for his people.”

[111:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “he commanded forever his covenant.”

[127:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[it is] vain for you, you who are early to rise, who delay sitting, who eat the food of hard work.” The three substantival participles are parallel and stand in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the preposition. See לָכֶם (lakhem, “for you”).

[127:2]  ¹⁵ tn Here the Hebrew particle כֵּן (ken) is used to stress the following affirmation (see Josh 2:4; Ps 63:2).

[127:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he gives to his beloved, sleep.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew term שֵׁנָא (shena’, “sleep,” an alternate form of שֵׁנָה, shenah) is an adverbial accusative. The point seems to be this: Hard work by itself is not what counts, but one’s relationship to God, for God is able to bless an individual even while he sleeps. (There may even be a subtle allusion to the miracle of conception following sexual intercourse; see the reference to the gift of sons in the following verse.) The statement is not advocating laziness, but utilizing hyperbole to give perspective and to remind the addressees that God must be one’s first priority. Another option is to take “sleep” as the direct object: “yes, he gives sleep to his beloved” (cf. NIV, NRSV). In this case the point is this: Hard work by itself is futile, for only God is able to bless one with sleep, which metonymically refers to having one’s needs met. He blesses on the basis of one’s relationship to him, not on the basis of physical energy expended.