Mazmur 119:118

119:118 You despise ¹  all who stray from your statutes,

for they are deceptive and unreliable. ² 

Mazmur 119:8

119:8 I will keep your statutes.

Do not completely abandon me! ³ 

Mazmur 17:5

17:5 I carefully obey your commands; ⁴ 

I do not deviate from them. ⁵ 

[119:118]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb סָלָה (salah, “to disdain”) occurs only here and in Lam 1:15. Cognate usage in Aramaic and Akkadian, as well as Lam 1:15, suggest it may have a concrete nuance of “to throw away.”

[119:118]  ² tn Heb “for their deceit [is] falsehood.”

[119:8]  ³ tn Heb “do not abandon me to excess.” For other uses of the phrase עַד מְאֹד (’ad mÿ’od, “to excess”), see Ps 38:6, 8.

[17:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “my steps stay firm in your tracks.” The infinitive absolute functions here as a finite verb (see GKC 347 §113.gg). God’s “tracks” are his commands, i.e., the moral pathways he has prescribed for the psalmist.

[17:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “my footsteps do not stagger.”