Text -- Psalms 76:5 (NET)

76:5 The bravehearted were plundered; they “fell asleep.” All the warriors were helpless.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 76:5

¹ 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).

² 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”).

³ 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.”

⁴ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”