Mazmur 2:2

2:2 The kings of the earth ¹  form a united front; ² 

the rulers collaborate ³ 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ⁴ 

Mazmur 11:7

11:7 Certainly ⁵  the Lord is just; ⁶ 

he rewards godly deeds; ⁷ 

the upright will experience his favor. ⁸ 

Mazmur 18:17

18:17 He rescued me from my strong enemy, ⁹ 

from those who hate me,

for they were too strong for me.

Mazmur 20:3

20:3 May he take notice ¹⁰  of your offerings;

may he accept ¹¹  your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)

Mazmur 25:10

25:10 The Lord always proves faithful and reliable ¹² 

to those who follow the demands of his covenant. ¹³ 

Mazmur 30:11

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 34:4

34:4 I sought the Lord’s help ¹⁵  and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

Mazmur 34:6

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ¹⁶  from all his troubles.

Mazmur 34:16-18

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ¹⁷ 

34:17 The godly ¹⁸  cry out and the Lord hears;

he saves them from all their troubles. ¹⁹ 

34:18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted;

he delivers ²⁰  those who are discouraged. ²¹ 

Mazmur 37:33

37:33 But the Lord does not surrender the godly,

or allow them to be condemned in a court of law. ²² 

Mazmur 69:33

69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;

he does not despise his captive people. ²³ 

Mazmur 77:9

77:9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has his anger stifled his compassion?”

Mazmur 102:20

102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,

and to set free those condemned to die, ²⁴ 

Mazmur 104:3

104:3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ²⁵ 

He makes the clouds his chariot,

and travels along on the wings of the wind. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 104:14

104:14 He provides grass ²⁷  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ²⁸ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ²⁹ 

Mazmur 106:43

106:43 Many times he delivered ³⁰  them,

but they had a rebellious attitude, ³¹ 

and degraded themselves ³²  by their sin.

Mazmur 106:45

106:45 He remembered his covenant with them,

and relented ³³  because of his great loyal love.

Mazmur 110:6

110:6 He executes judgment ³⁴  against ³⁵  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ³⁶ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ³⁷ 

Mazmur 111:5

111:5 He gives ³⁸  food to his faithful followers; ³⁹ 

he always remembers his covenant. ⁴⁰ 

Mazmur 116:8

116:8 Yes, ⁴¹  Lord, ⁴²  you rescued my life from death,

and kept my feet from stumbling.

Mazmur 145:19

145:19 He satisfies the desire ⁴³  of his loyal followers; ⁴⁴ 

he hears their cry for help and delivers them.

Mazmur 147:20

147:20 He has not done so with any other nation;

they are not aware of his regulations.

Praise the Lord!

Mazmur 149:9

149:9 and execute the judgment to which their enemies ⁴⁵  have been sentenced. ⁴⁶ 

All his loyal followers will be vindicated. ⁴⁷ 

Praise the Lord!

[2:2]  ¹ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

[2:2]  ² tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[11:7]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[11:7]  ⁶ tn Or “righteous.”

[11:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “he loves righteous deeds.” The “righteous deeds” are probably those done by godly people (see v. 5). The Lord “loves” such deeds in the sense that he rewards them. Another option is to take צְדָקוֹת (tsÿdaqot) as referring to God’s acts of justice (see Ps 103:6). In this case one could translate, “he loves to do just deeds.”

[11:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the upright will see his face.” The singular subject (“upright”) does not agree with the plural verb. However, collective singular nouns can be construed with a plural predicate (see GKC 462 §145.b). Another possibility is that the plural verb יֶחֱזוּ (yekhezu) is a corruption of an original singular form. To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 17:15 and Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזָה (khazah), is used]). On the form פָנֵימוֹ (fanemo, “his face”) see GKC 300-301 §103.b, n. 3.

[18:17]  ⁹ tn The singular refers either to personified death or collectively to the psalmist’s enemies. The following line, which refers to “those [plural] who hate me,” favors the latter.

[20:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”

[25:10]  ¹² tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.

[25:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

[30:11]  ¹⁴ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

[34:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁶ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[34:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

[34:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they” (i.e., the godly mentioned in v. 15).

[34:17]  ¹⁹ tn The three perfect verbal forms are taken in a generalizing sense in v. 17 and translated with the present tense (note the generalizing mood of vv. 18-22).

[34:18]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the Lord typically delivers the oppressed and needy.

[34:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “the crushed in spirit.”

[37:33]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord does not abandon him into his hand or condemn him when he is judged.” The imperfects draw attention to the Lord’s characteristic behavior in this regard.

[69:33]  ²³ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

[102:20]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.

[104:3]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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.

[104:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

[106:43]  ³⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“he would deliver”).

[106:43]  ³¹ tn Heb “but they rebelled in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“they would have a rebellious attitude”).

[106:43]  ³² tn Heb “they sank down.” The Hebrew verb מָכַךְ (makhakh, “to lower; to sink”) occurs only here in the Qal.

[106:45]  ³³ tn The Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) refers here to God relenting from a punishment already underway.

[110:6]  ³⁴ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ³⁵ tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

[111:5]  ³⁸ tn Or “gave,” if the events of the exodus and conquest period (see v. 6, 9) are primarily in view.

[111:5]  ³⁹ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[111:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “he remembers his covenant forever” (see Ps 105:8).

[116:8]  ⁴¹ tn Or “for.”

[116:8]  ⁴² tn “Lord” is supplied here in the translation for clarification.

[145:19]  ⁴³ tn In this context “desire” refers to the followers’ desire to be delivered from wicked enemies.

[145:19]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the desire of those who fear him, he does.”

[149:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the enemies of the people of God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[149:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “to do against them judgment [that] is written.”

[149:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “it is honor for all his godly ones.” The judgment of the oppressive kings will bring vindication and honor to God’s people (see vv. 4-5).