Mazmur 68:7-10

68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle, ¹ 

when you march through the desert, ²  (Selah)

68:8 the earth shakes,

yes, the heavens pour down rain

before God, the God of Sinai, ³ 

before God, the God of Israel. ⁴ 

68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ⁵  on your chosen people. ⁶ 

When they ⁷  are tired, you sustain them, ⁸ 

68:10 for you live among them. ⁹ 

You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.

[68:7]  ¹ tn Heb “when you go out before your people.” The Hebrew idiom “go out before” is used here in a militaristic sense of leading troops into battle (see Judg 4:14; 9:39; 2 Sam 5:24).

[68:7]  ² sn When you march through the desert. Some interpreters think that v. 7 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt and its subsequent travels in the desert. Another option is that v. 7, like v. 8, echoes Judg 5:4, which describes how the God of Sinai marched across the desert regions to do battle with Sisera and his Canaanite army.

[68:8]  ³ tn Heb “this one of Sinai.” The phrase is a divine title, perhaps indicating that the Lord rules from Sinai.

[68:8]  ⁴ sn The language of vv. 7-8 is reminiscent of Judg 5:4-5, which tells how the God of Sinai came in the storm and annihilated the Canaanite forces led by Sisera. The presence of allusion does not mean, however, that this is a purely historical reference. The psalmist is describing God’s typical appearance as a warrior in terms of his prior self-revelation as ancient events are reactualized in the psalmist’s experience. (For a similar literary technique, see Hab 3.)

[68:9]  ⁵ tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).

[68:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.

[68:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:10]  ⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashvu-vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”