Mazmur 15:1

Psalm 15 ¹ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ² 

Who may live on your holy hill? ³ 

Mazmur 35:18

35:18 Then I will give you thanks in the great assembly; ⁴ 

I will praise you before a large crowd of people! ⁵ 

Mazmur 79:2

79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants

to the birds of the sky; ⁶ 

the flesh of your loyal followers

to the beasts of the earth.

Mazmur 91:7

91:7 Though a thousand may fall beside you,

and a multitude on your right side,

it ⁷  will not reach you.

Mazmur 96:3

96:3 Tell the nations about his splendor!

Tell ⁸  all the nations about his amazing deeds!

Mazmur 104:3

104:3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ⁹ 

He makes the clouds his chariot,

and travels along on the wings of the wind. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 128:3

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹¹ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ¹²  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

Mazmur 133:3

133:3 It is like the dew of Hermon, ¹³ 

which flows down upon the hills of Zion. ¹⁴ 

Indeed ¹⁵  that is where the Lord has decreed

a blessing will be available – eternal life. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 138:1

Psalm 138 ¹⁷ 

By David.

138:1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

before the heavenly assembly ¹⁸  I will sing praises to you.

Mazmur 139:15

139:15 my bones were not hidden from you,

when ¹⁹  I was made in secret

and sewed together in the depths of the earth. ²⁰ 

[15:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ² tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ³ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[35:18]  ⁴ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Ps 22:25.

[35:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “among numerous people.”

[79:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”

[91:7]  ⁷ tn Apparently the deadly disease mentioned in v. 6b is the understood subject here.

[96:3]  ⁸ tn The verb “tell” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[104:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.

[104:3]  ¹⁰ sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[128:3]  ¹¹ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ¹² tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.

[133:3]  ¹³ sn Hermon refers to Mount Hermon, located north of Israel.

[133:3]  ¹⁴ sn The hills of Zion are those surrounding Zion (see Pss 87:1; 125:2). The psalmist does not intend to suggest that the dew from Mt. Hermon in the distant north actually flows down upon Zion. His point is that the same kind of heavy dew that replenishes Hermon may also be seen on Zion’s hills. See A. Cohen, Psalms (SoBB), 439. “Dew” here symbolizes divine blessing, as the next line suggests.

[133:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for.”

[133:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forever.”

[138:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 138. The psalmist vows to thank the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

[138:1]  ¹⁸ tn The referent of the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is unclear. It refers either to the angelic assembly (see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5) or to the pagan gods (see Pss 82:1, 6; 86:8; 97:7), in which case the psalmist’s praise takes on a polemical tone.

[139:15]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (ka’asher, “when”). The kaf (כ) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).

[139:15]  ²⁰ sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.