Mazmur 7:3

7:3 O Lord my God, if I have done what they say, ¹ 

or am guilty of unjust actions, ² 

Mazmur 9:8

9:8 He judges the world fairly;

he makes just legal decisions for the nations. ³ 

Mazmur 34:11

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ⁴ 

Mazmur 35:24

35:24 Vindicate me by your justice, O Lord my God!

Do not let them gloat ⁵  over me!

Mazmur 37:5

37:5 Commit your future to the Lord! ⁶ 

Trust in him, and he will act on your behalf. ⁷ 

Mazmur 44:24

44:24 Why do you look the other way, ⁸ 

and ignore ⁹  the way we are oppressed and mistreated? ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 46:8

46:8 Come! Witness the exploits ¹¹  of the Lord,

who brings devastation to the earth! ¹² 

Mazmur 49:12

49:12 but, despite their wealth, people do not last, ¹³ 

they are like animals ¹⁴  that perish. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 49:20

49:20 Wealthy people do not understand; ¹⁶ 

they are like animals ¹⁷  that perish. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 50:4

50:4 He summons the heavens above,

as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 50:8

50:8 I am not condemning ²⁰  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ²¹ 

Mazmur 51:6

51:6 Look, ²²  you desire ²³  integrity in the inner man; ²⁴ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 57:2

57:2 I cry out for help to the sovereign God, ²⁶ 

to the God who vindicates ²⁷  me.

Mazmur 60:11

60:11 Give us help against the enemy,

for any help men might offer is futile. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 63:6

63:6 whenever ²⁹  I remember you on my bed,

and think about you during the nighttime hours.

Mazmur 66:5

66:5 Come and witness ³⁰  God’s exploits! ³¹ 

His acts on behalf of people are awesome! ³² 

Mazmur 73:5

73:5 They are immune to the trouble common to men;

they do not suffer as other men do. ³³ 

Mazmur 73:8

73:8 They mock ³⁴  and say evil things; ³⁵ 

they proudly threaten violence. ³⁶ 

Mazmur 73:10

73:10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat,

and even suck up the water of the sea. ³⁷ 

Mazmur 78:35

78:35 They remembered that God was their protector, ³⁸ 

and that the sovereign God was their deliverer. ³⁹ 

Mazmur 78:59

78:59 God heard and was angry;

he completely rejected Israel.

Mazmur 90:13

90:13 Turn back toward us, O Lord!

How long must this suffering last? ⁴⁰ 

Have pity on your servants! ⁴¹ 

Mazmur 103:14

103:14 For he knows what we are made of; ⁴² 

he realizes ⁴³  we are made of clay. ⁴⁴ 

Mazmur 107:6

107:6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Mazmur 107:13

107:13 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Mazmur 107:19

107:19 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Mazmur 107:28

107:28 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Mazmur 108:12

108:12 Give us help against the enemy,

for any help men might offer is futile. ⁴⁵ 

Mazmur 109:25

109:25 I am disdained by them. ⁴⁶ 

When they see me, they shake their heads. ⁴⁷ 

Mazmur 114:5-6

114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?

Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?

114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,

like lambs, O hills?

Mazmur 118:5

118:5 In my distress ⁴⁸  I cried out to the Lord.

The Lord answered me and put me in a wide open place. ⁴⁹ 

Mazmur 119:37

119:37 Turn my eyes away from what is worthless! ⁵⁰ 

Revive me with your word! ⁵¹ 

Mazmur 119:152

119:152 I learned long ago that

you ordained your rules to last. ⁵² 

Mazmur 127:3

127:3 Yes, ⁵³  sons ⁵⁴  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Mazmur 133:1

Psalm 133 ⁵⁵ 

A song of ascents, ⁵⁶  by David.

133:1 Look! How good and how pleasant it is

when brothers live together! ⁵⁷ 

Mazmur 138:5

138:5 Let them sing about the Lord’s deeds, ⁵⁸ 

for the Lord’s splendor is magnificent. ⁵⁹ 

Mazmur 139:3

139:3 You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; ⁶⁰ 

you are aware of everything I do. ⁶¹ 

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “if I have done this.”

[7:3]  ² tn Heb “if there is injustice in my hands.” The “hands” figuratively suggest deeds or actions.

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “the peoples.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 8 either describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).

[34:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[35:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “rejoice.”

[37:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “roll your way upon the Lord.” The noun “way” may refer here to one’s activities or course of life.

[37:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “he will act.” Verse 6 explains what is meant; the Lord will vindicate those who trust in him.

[44:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[44:24]  ⁹ tn Or “forget.”

[44:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”

[46:8]  ¹¹ sn In this context the Lord’s exploits are military in nature (see vv. 8b-9).

[46:8]  ¹² tn Heb “who sets desolations in the earth” (see Isa 13:9). The active participle describes God’s characteristic activity as a warrior.

[49:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “but mankind in honor does not remain.” The construction vav (ו) + noun at the beginning of the verse can be taken as contrastive in relation to what precedes. The Hebrew term יְקָר (yÿqar, “honor”) probably refers here to the wealth mentioned in the preceding context. The imperfect verbal form draws attention to what is characteristically true. Some scholars emend יָלִין (yalin, “remains”) to יָבִין (yavin, “understands”) but this is an unnecessary accommodation to the wording of v. 20.

[49:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “cattle.”

[49:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is derived from דָּמָה (damah, “cease; destroy”; BDB 198 s.v.). Another option is to derive the verb from דָּמָה (“be silent”; see HALOT 225 s.v. II דמה, which sees two homonymic roots [דָּמָה, “be silent,” and דָּמָה, “destroy”] rather than a single root) and translate, “they are like dumb beasts.” This makes particularly good sense in v. 20, where the preceding line focuses on mankind’s lack of understanding.

[49:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “mankind in honor does not understand.” The Hebrew term יְקָר (yÿqar, “honor”) probably refers here to the wealth mentioned in the preceding context. The imperfect verbal form draws attention to what is characteristically true. Some emend יָבִין (yavin, “understands”) to יָלִין (yalin, “remains”), but this is an unnecessary accommodation to the wording of v. 12.

[49:20]  ¹⁷ tn Or “cattle.”

[49:20]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew verb is derived from דָּמָה (damah, “cease, destroy”; BDB 198 s.v.). Another option is to derive the verb from דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”; see HALOT 225 s.v. II דמה, which sees two homonymic roots [I דָּמַה, “be silent,” and II דָּמַה, “destroy”] rather than a single root) and translate, “they are like dumb beasts.” This makes particularly good sense here, where the preceding line focuses on mankind’s lack of understanding.

[50:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”

[50:4]  sn The personified heavens and earth (see v. 1 as well) are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people (see Isa 1:2). Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

[50:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[51:6]  ²² sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ²³ tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[51:6]  sn You want me to possess wisdom. Here “wisdom” does not mean “intelligence” or “learning,” but refers to moral insight and skill.

[57:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to God Most High.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.

[57:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “avenges in favor of.”

[60:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and futile [is] the deliverance of man.”

[63:6]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term אִם (’im) is used here in the sense of “when; whenever,” as in Ps 78:34.

[66:5]  ³⁰ tn Or “see.”

[66:5]  ³¹ tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).

[66:5]  ³² tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”

[73:5]  ³³ tn Heb “in the trouble of man they are not, and with mankind they are not afflicted.”

[73:8]  ³⁴ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “oppression from an elevated place they speak.” The traditional accentuation of the MT places “oppression” with the preceding line. In this case, one might translate, “they mock and speak with evil [of] oppression, from an elevated place [i.e., “proudly”] they speak.” By placing “oppression” with what follows, one achieves better poetic balance in the parallelism.

[73:10]  ³⁷ tc Heb “therefore his people return [so Qere (marginal reading); Kethib (consonantal text) has “he brings back”] to here, and waters of abundance are sucked up by them.” The traditional Hebrew text (MT) defies explanation. The present translation reflects M. Dahood’s proposed emendations (Psalms [AB], 2:190) and reads the Hebrew text as follows: לָכֵן יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם וּמֵי מָלֵא יָמֹצּוּ לָמוֹ (“therefore they are filled with food, and waters of abundance they suck up for themselves”). The reading יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם (yisvÿ’um lekhem, “they are filled with food”) assumes (1) an emendation of יָשׁיּב עַמּוֹ (yashyyv, “he will bring back his people”) to יִשְׂבְעוּם (yisvÿ’um, “they will be filled”; a Qal imperfect third masculine plural form from שָׂבַע [sava’] with enclitic mem [ם]), and (2) an emendation of הֲלֹם (halom, “to here”) to לֶחֶם (“food”). The expression “be filled/fill with food” appears elsewhere at least ten times (see Ps 132:15, for example). In the second line the Niphal form יִמָּצוּ (yimmatsu, derived from מָצָה, matsah, “drain”) is emended to a Qal form יָמֹצּוּ (yamotsu), derived from מָצַץ (matsats, “to suck”). In Isa 66:11 the verbs שָׂבַע (sava’; proposed in Ps 73:10a) and מָצַץ (proposed in Ps 73:10b) are parallel. The point of the emended text is this: Because they are seemingly sovereign (v. 9), they become greedy and grab up everything they need and more.

[78:35]  ³⁸ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[78:35]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and [that] God Most High [was] their redeemer.”

[90:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Return, O Lord! How long?”

[90:13]  ⁴¹ tn Elsewhere the Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) + the preposition עַל (’al) + a personal object has the nuance “be comforted concerning [the personal object’s death]” (see 2 Sam 13:39; Jer 31:15). However, here the context seems to demand “feel sorrow for,” “have pity on.” In Deut 32:36 and Ps 135:14, where “servants” is also the object of the preposition, this idea is expressed with the Hitpael form of the verb.

[103:14]  ⁴² tn Heb “our form.”

[103:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “remembers.”

[103:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “we [are] clay.”

[108:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and futile [is] the deliverance of man.”

[109:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “as for me, I am a reproach to them.”

[109:25]  ⁴⁷ sn They shake their heads. Apparently shaking the head was a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 22:7; Lam 2:15.

[118:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “from the distress.” The noun מֵצַר (metsar, “straits; distress”) occurs only here and in Lam 1:3. In Ps 116:3 מצר should probably be emended to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”).

[118:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the Lord answered me in a wide open place.”

[119:37]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Make my eyes pass by from looking at what is worthless.”

[119:37]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “by your word.”

[119:152]  ⁵² tn Heb “long ago I knew concerning your rules, that forever you established them.” See v. 89 for the same idea. The translation assumes that the preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “your rules” introduces the object of the verb יָדַע (yada’), as in 1 Sam 23:23. Another option is that the preposition indicates source, in which case one might translate, “Long ago I realized from your rules that forever you established them” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[127:3]  ⁵³ tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ⁵⁴ tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.

[133:1]  ⁵⁵ sn Psalm 133. The psalmist affirms the benefits of family unity.

[133:1]  ⁵⁶ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[133:1]  ⁵⁷ sn This statement refers to the extended family structure of ancient Israel, where brothers would often live in proximity to one another (Deut 25:5), giving the family greater social prominence and security. However, in its later application in the Israelite cult it probably envisions unity within the covenant community. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 212-15.

[138:5]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “ways.”

[138:5]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “great.”

[139:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “my traveling and my lying down you measure.” The verb זָרָה (zarah, “to measure”) is probably here a denominative from זָרָת (zarat, “a span; a measure”), though some derive it from זָרָה (zarat, “to winnow; to sift”; see BDB 279-80 s.v. זָרָה).

[139:3]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “all my ways.”