Mazmur 68:20-23

68:20 Our God is a God who delivers;

the Lord, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death. ¹ 

68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,

the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. ² 

68:22 The Lord says,

“I will retrieve them ³  from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

68:23 so that your feet may stomp ⁴  in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ⁵ 

[68:20]  ¹ tn Heb “and to the Lord, the Lord, to death, goings out.”

[68:21]  ² tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.

[68:22]  ³ tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.

[68:23]  ⁴ tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”