Mazmur 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated ¹  and absolutely terrified! ² 

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Mazmur 30:6-7

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ³ 

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ⁴ 

Then you rejected me ⁵  and I was terrified.

Mazmur 55:3

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ⁶ 

and because of how the wicked ⁷  pressure me, ⁸ 

for they hurl trouble ⁹  down upon me ¹⁰ 

and angrily attack me.

Mazmur 56:10

56:10 In God – I boast in his promise ¹¹  –

in the Lord – I boast in his promise ¹²  –

Mazmur 60:2

60:2 You made the earth quake; you split it open. ¹³ 

Repair its breaches, for it is ready to fall. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ¹⁵  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹⁶  I will not be upended. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ¹⁸  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹⁹  I will not be upended. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 77:16

77:16 The waters ²¹  saw you, O God,

the waters saw you and trembled. ²² 

Yes, the depths of the sea ²³  shook with fear. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 104:29

104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. ²⁵ 

When you take away their life’s breath, they die

and return to dust.

[6:10]  ¹ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

[6:10]  ² tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

[30:6]  ³ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[30:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[55:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ⁷ tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ¹⁰ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).

[56:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in God I praise a word.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult. The statement is similar to that of v. 4, except that the third person pronominal suffix is omitted here, where the text has simply “a word” instead of “his word.” (1) One could translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” refers to a song of praise. (2) If one assumes that God’s word is in view, as in v. 4, then one option is to translate, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” In this case the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and “[his] word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. (3) The present translation reflects another option: In this case “I praise [his] word” is a parenthetical statement, with “[his] word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in v. 11, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:10]  ¹² tn The phrase “in the Lord” parallels “in God” in the first line. Once again the psalmist parenthetically remarks “I boast in [his] word” before completing the sentence in v. 11.

[60:2]  ¹³ tn The verb פָּצַם (patsam, “split open”) occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “crack,” and an Aramaic cognate is used in Tg. Jer 22:14 with the meaning “break open, frame.” See BDB 822 s.v. and Jastrow 1205 s.v. פְּצַם.

[60:2]  sn You made the earth quake; you split it open. The psalmist uses the imagery of an earthquake to describe the nation’s defeat.

[60:2]  ¹⁴ sn It is ready to fall. The earth is compared to a wall that has been broken by the force of the earthquake (note the preceding line) and is ready to collapse.

[62:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) at the end of the line. It is unusual for this adverb to follow a negated verb. Some see this as qualifying the assertion to some degree, but this would water down the affirmation too much (see v. 6b, where the adverb is omitted). If the adverb has a qualifying function, it would suggest that the psalmist might be upended, though not severely. This is inconsistent with the confident mood of the psalm. The adverb probably has an emphatic force here, “I will not be greatly upended” meaning “I will not be annihilated.”

[62:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ²⁰ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[77:16]  ²¹ tn The waters of the Red Sea are here personified; they are portrayed as seeing God and fearing him.

[77:16]  ²² tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

[77:16]  ²³ tn The words “of the sea” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[77:16]  ²⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

[104:29]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”