2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ¹  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

Psalms 3:8

3:8 The Lord delivers; ³ 

you show favor to your people. ⁴  (Selah)

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁵  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁶ 

you crushed ⁷  the people living there ⁸  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁹ 

Proverbs 21:31

21:31 A horse is prepared for the day of battle,

but the victory is from the Lord. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Heb “arose.”

² tn Heb “his hand.”

³ tn Heb “to the Lord [is] deliverance.”

⁴ tn Heb “upon your people [is] your blessing.” In this context God’s “blessing” includes deliverance/protection, vindication, and sustained life (see Pss 21:3, 6; 24:5).

⁵ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

⁶ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

⁷ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

⁸ tn Or “peoples.”

⁹ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

¹⁰ tn Heb “of the Lord.” The victory being “of the Lord” means that it is accomplished by him. Ultimate success comes from the Lord and not from human efforts. The faithful have acknowledged this down through the ages, even though they have been responsible and have prepared for the wars. Without this belief there would have been no prayer on the eve of battle (e.g., Ps 20:7 and 33:17).