Mazmur 71:3-4

71:3 Be my protector and refuge, ¹ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ² 

For you are my high ridge ³  and my stronghold.

71:4 My God, rescue me from the power ⁴  of the wicked,

from the hand of the cruel oppressor!

Mazmur 71:7

71:7 Many are appalled when they see me, ⁵ 

but you are my secure shelter.

[71:3]  ¹ tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term מָעוֹן (ma’on, “dwelling place”) should probably be emended to מָעוֹז (ma’oz, “refuge”; see Ps 31:2).

[71:3]  ² tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ (lavo’ tamid tsivvita, “to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to לְבֵית מְצוּדוֹת (lÿvet mÿtsudot, “a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).

[71:3]  ³ sn You are my high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[71:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[71:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a sign [i.e., portent or bad omen] I am to many.”