Mazmur 132:4

132:4 I will not allow my eyes to sleep,

or my eyelids to slumber,

Mazmur 121:3-4

121:3 May he not allow your foot to slip!

May your protector ¹  not sleep! ² 

121:4 Look! Israel’s protector ³ 

does not sleep or slumber!

Mazmur 76:5

76:5 The bravehearted ⁴  were plundered; ⁵ 

they “fell asleep.” ⁶ 

All the warriors were helpless. ⁷ 

[121:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the one who guards you.”

[121:3]  ² tn The prefixed verbal forms following the negative particle אל appear to be jussives. As noted above, if they are taken as true jussives of prayer, then the speaker in v. 3 would appear to be distinct from both the speaker in vv. 1-2 and the speaker in vv. 4-8. However, according to GKC 322 §109.e), the jussives are used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one should probably translate, “he will not allow your foot to slip, your protector will not sleep,” and understand just one speaker in vv. 4-8.

[121:4]  ³ tn Heb “the one who guards Israel.”

[76:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

[76:5]  ⁵ tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

[76:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

[76:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”