Text -- Psalms 48:9-14 (NET)

48:9 We reflect on your loyal love, O God, within your temple. 48:10 The praise you receive as far away as the ends of the earth is worthy of your reputation, O God. You execute justice! 48:11 Mount Zion rejoices; the towns of Judah are happy, because of your acts of judgment. 48:12 Walk around Zion! Encircle it! Count its towers! 48:13 Consider its defenses! Walk through its fortresses, so you can tell the next generation about it! 48:14 For God, our God, is our defender forever! He guides us!

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 48:10

¹ tn Heb “like your name, O God, so [is] your praise to the ends of the earth.” Here “name” refers to God’s reputation and revealed character.

² tn Heb “your right hand is full of justice.” The “right hand” suggests activity and power.

NET Notes: Psa 48:11

¹ tn Heb “daughters.” The reference is to the cities of Judah surrounding Zion (see Ps 97:8 and H. Haag, TDOT 2:336).

² tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as generalizing imperfects. (For other examples of an imperfect followed by causal לְמַעַן [lÿma’an], see Ps 23:3; Isa 49:7; 55:5.) Another option is to interpret the forms as jussives, “Let Mount Zion rejoice! Let the towns of Judah be happy!” (cf. NASB, NRSV; note the imperatives in vv. 12-13.)

³ sn These acts of judgment are described in vv. 4-7.

NET Notes: Psa 48:12

¹ tn The verb forms in vv. 12-13 are plural; the entire Judahite community is addressed.

NET Notes: Psa 48:13

¹ tn Heb “set your heart to its rampart.”

² tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word translated “walk through,” which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Cf. NEB “pass…in review”; NIV “view.”

³ sn The city’s towers, defenses, and fortresses are outward reminders and tangible symbols of the divine protection the city enjoys.

NET Notes: Psa 48:14

¹ tn Heb “for this is God, our God, forever and ever.” “This” might be paraphrased, “this protector described and praised in the preceding verses.”

² tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

³ tn In the Hebrew text the psalm ends with the words עַל־מוּת (’al-mut, “upon [unto?] dying”), which make little, if any, sense. M. Dahood (Psalms [AB], 1:293) proposes an otherwise unattested plural form עֹלָמוֹת (’olamot; from עוֹלָם, ’olam, “eternity”). This would provide a nice parallel to עוֹלָם וָעֶד (’olam va’ed, “forever”) in the preceding line, but elsewhere the plural of עוֹלָם appears as עֹלָמִים (’olamim). It is preferable to understand the phrase as a musical direction of some sort (see עַל־מוּת [’al-mut] in the superscription of Ps 9) or to emend the text to עַל־עֲלָמוֹת (’al-’alamot, “according to the alamoth style”; see the heading of Ps 46). In either case it should be understood as belonging with the superscription of the following psalm.