Mazmur 10:16

10:16 The Lord rules forever! ¹ 

The nations are driven out of his land. ² 

Mazmur 18:50

18:50 He ³  gives his chosen king magnificent victories; ⁴ 

he is faithful ⁵  to his chosen ruler, ⁶ 

to David and his descendants ⁷  forever.” ⁸ 

Mazmur 21:4

21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, ⁹ 

and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 24:7

24:7 Look up, ¹¹  you gates!

Rise up, ¹²  you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king ¹³  will enter! ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 24:9

24:9 Look up, you gates!

Rise up, you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king will enter!

Mazmur 45:6

45:6 Your throne, ¹⁵  O God, is permanent. ¹⁶ 

The scepter ¹⁷  of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

Mazmur 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ¹⁸ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ¹⁹ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ²⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 48:14

48:14 For God, our God, is our defender forever! ²¹ 

He guides ²²  us! ²³ 

Mazmur 52:8

52:8 But I ²⁴  am like a flourishing ²⁵  olive tree in the house of God;

I continually ²⁶  trust in God’s loyal love.

Mazmur 61:7

61:7 May he reign ²⁷  forever before God!

Decree that your loyal love and faithfulness should protect him. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 66:7

66:7 He rules ²⁹  by his power forever;

he watches ³⁰  the nations.

Stubborn rebels should not exalt ³¹  themselves. (Selah)

Mazmur 73:12

73:12 Take a good look! This is what the wicked are like, ³² 

those who always have it so easy and get richer and richer. ³³ 

Mazmur 78:66

78:66 He drove his enemies back;

he made them a permanent target for insults. ³⁴ 

Mazmur 89:1-2

Psalm 89 ³⁵ 

A well-written song ³⁶  by Ethan the Ezrachite.

89:1 I will sing continually ³⁷  about the Lord’s faithful deeds;

to future generations I will proclaim your faithfulness. ³⁸ 

89:2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established; ³⁹ 

in the skies you set up your faithfulness.” ⁴⁰ 

Mazmur 89:4

89:4 ‘I will give you an eternal dynasty ⁴¹ 

and establish your throne throughout future generations.’” ⁴²  (Selah)

Mazmur 89:37

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ⁴³ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ⁴⁴  (Selah)

Mazmur 90:2

90:2 Even before the mountains came into existence, ⁴⁵ 

or you brought the world into being, ⁴⁶ 

you were the eternal God. ⁴⁷ 

Mazmur 103:17

103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, ⁴⁸ 

and is faithful to their descendants, ⁴⁹ 

Mazmur 104:5

104:5 He established the earth on its foundations;

it will never be upended.

Mazmur 105:10

105:10 He gave it to Jacob as a decree,

to Israel as a lasting promise, ⁵⁰ 

Mazmur 106:31

106:31 This brought him a reward,

an eternal gift. ⁵¹ 

Mazmur 112:6

112:6 For he will never be upended;

others will always remember one who is just. ⁵² 

Mazmur 113:2

113:2 May the Lord’s name be praised

now and forevermore!

Mazmur 115:18

115:18 But we will praise the Lord

now and forevermore.

Praise the Lord!

Mazmur 121:8

121:8 The Lord will protect you in all you do, ⁵³ 

now and forevermore.

Mazmur 125:2

125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, ⁵⁴ 

so the Lord surrounds his people,

now and forevermore.

Mazmur 131:3

131:3 O Israel, hope in the Lord

now and forevermore!

Mazmur 139:24

139:24 See if there is any idolatrous tendency ⁵⁵  in me,

and lead me in the reliable ancient path! ⁵⁶ 

Mazmur 143:3

143:3 Certainly ⁵⁷  my enemies ⁵⁸  chase me.

They smash me into the ground. ⁵⁹ 

They force me to live ⁶⁰  in dark regions, ⁶¹ 

like those who have been dead for ages.

[10:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord is king forever and ever.”

[10:16]  ² tn Or “the nations perish from his land.” The perfect verb form may express what is typical or it may express rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude that God’s deliverance is “as good as done.”

[10:16]  sn The nations may be the underlying reality behind the psalmist’s references to the “wicked” in the earlier verses. This reference to the nations may have motivated the combining of Ps 10 with Ps 9 (see Ps 9:5, 15, 19).

[18:50]  ³ tn Or “the one who.”

[18:50]  ⁴ tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.

[18:50]  ⁵ tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”

[18:50]  ⁶ tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.

[18:50]  ⁷ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[18:50]  ⁸ sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.

[21:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”

[21:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.

[24:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).

[24:7]  ¹² tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Or “king of glory.”

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[45:6]  ¹⁵ sn The king’s throne here symbolizes his rule.

[45:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “forever and ever.”

[45:6]  sn O God. The king is clearly the addressee here, as in vv. 2-5 and 7-9. Rather than taking the statement at face value, many prefer to emend the text because the concept of deifying the earthly king is foreign to ancient Israelite thinking (cf. NEB “your throne is like God’s throne, eternal”). However, it is preferable to retain the text and take this statement as another instance of the royal hyperbole that permeates the royal psalms. Because the Davidic king is God’s vice-regent on earth, the psalmist addresses him as if he were God incarnate. God energizes the king for battle and accomplishes justice through him. A similar use of hyperbole appears in Isa 9:6, where the ideal Davidic king of the eschaton is given the title “Mighty God” (see the note on this phrase there). Ancient Near Eastern art and literature picture gods training kings for battle, bestowing special weapons, and intervening in battle. According to Egyptian propaganda, the Hittites described Rameses II as follows: “No man is he who is among us, It is Seth great-of-strength, Baal in person; Not deeds of man are these his doings, They are of one who is unique” (see Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:67). Ps 45:6 and Isa 9:6 probably envision a similar kind of response when friends and foes alike look at the Davidic king in full battle regalia. When the king’s enemies oppose him on the battlefield, they are, as it were, fighting against God himself.

[45:6]  ¹⁷ sn The king’s scepter symbolizes his royal authority.

[48:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[48:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “for this is God, our God, forever and ever.” “This” might be paraphrased, “this protector described and praised in the preceding verses.”

[48:14]  ²² tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[48:14]  ²³ tn In the Hebrew text the psalm ends with the words עַל־מוּת (’al-mut, “upon [unto?] dying”), which make little, if any, sense. M. Dahood (Psalms [AB], 1:293) proposes an otherwise unattested plural form עֹלָמוֹת (’olamot; from עוֹלָם, ’olam, “eternity”). This would provide a nice parallel to עוֹלָם וָעֶד (’olam va’ed, “forever”) in the preceding line, but elsewhere the plural of עוֹלָם appears as עֹלָמִים (’olamim). It is preferable to understand the phrase as a musical direction of some sort (see עַל־מוּת [’al-mut] in the superscription of Ps 9) or to emend the text to עַל־עֲלָמוֹת (’al-’alamot, “according to the alamoth style”; see the heading of Ps 46). In either case it should be understood as belonging with the superscription of the following psalm.

[52:8]  ²⁴ tn The disjunctive construction (vav [ו] + subject) highlights the contrast between the evildoer’s destiny (vv. 5-7) and that of the godly psalmist’s security.

[52:8]  ²⁵ tn Or “luxuriant, green, leafy.”

[52:8]  ²⁶ tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever and ever.”

[61:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “sit [enthroned].” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive here, expressing the psalmist’s prayer.

[61:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “loyal love and faithfulness appoint, let them protect him.”

[66:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”

[66:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.

[66:7]  ³¹ tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -לְ (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.

[73:12]  ³² tn Heb “Look, these [are] the wicked.”

[73:12]  ³³ tn Heb “the ones who are always at ease [who] increase wealth.”

[78:66]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a permanent reproach he made them.”

[89:1]  ³⁵ sn Psalm 89. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign creator of the world. He recalls God’s covenant with David, but then laments that the promises of the covenant remain unrealized. The covenant promised the Davidic king military victories, but the king has now been subjected to humiliating defeat.

[89:1]  ³⁶ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 88.

[89:1]  ³⁷ tn Or “forever.”

[89:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “to a generation and a generation I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.”

[89:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “built.”

[89:2]  ⁴⁰ sn You set up your faithfulness. This may allude to the Lord’s heavenly throne, which symbolizes his just rule and from which the Lord decrees his unconditional promises (see vv. 8, 14).

[89:4]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “forever I will establish your offspring.”

[89:4]  ⁴² tn Heb “and I will build to a generation and a generation your throne.”

[89:37]  ⁴³ tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.

[90:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “were born.”

[90:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and you gave birth to the earth and world.” The Polel verbal form in the Hebrew text pictures God giving birth to the world. The LXX and some other ancient textual witnesses assume a polal (passive) verbal form here. In this case the earth becomes the subject of the verb and the verb is understood as third feminine singular rather than second masculine singular.

[90:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and from everlasting to everlasting you [are] God.” Instead of אֵל (’el, “God”) the LXX reads אַל (’al, “not”) and joins the negative particle to the following verse, making the verb תָּשֵׁב (tashev) a jussive. In this case v. 3a reads as a prayer, “do not turn man back to a low place.” However, taking תָּשֵׁב as a jussive is problematic in light of the following following wayyiqtol form וַתֹּאמֶר (vato’mer, “and you said/say”).

[103:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”

[105:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “eternal covenant.”

[106:31]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.

[106:31]  sn Brought him a reward. See Num 25:12-13.

[112:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”

[121:8]  ⁵³ tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.”

[125:2]  ⁵⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[139:24]  ⁵⁵ tn Many understand the Hebrew term עֹצֶב (’otsev) as a noun meaning “pain,” and translate the phrase דֶּרֶךְ עֹצֶב (derekh ’otsev) as “of pain,” but this makes little sense here. (Some interpret it to refer to actions which bring pain to others.) It is preferable to take עֹצֶב as “idol” (see HALOT 865 s.v. I עֹצֶב) and understand “way of an idol” to refer to idolatrous actions or tendency. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 253.

[139:24]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “in the path of antiquity.” This probably refers to the moral path prescribed by the Lord at the beginning of Israel’s history. See Jer 6:16; 18:15, as well as L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 253.

[143:3]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “for.”

[143:3]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).

[143:3]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”

[143:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “sit.”

[143:3]  ⁶¹ sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).