20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry 3 and troops 4 who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
By David.
27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! 9
I fear no one! 10
The Lord protects my life!
I am afraid of no one! 11
41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!
Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! 12
I strengthen you –
yes, I help you –
yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! 13
51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. 14
Why are you afraid of mortal men,
of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? 15
12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased 16 to give you the kingdom.
1 tn Heb “do not tremble and do not be afraid.” Two synonymous commands are combined for emphasis.
2 tn Heb “recalling, you must recall.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis. Cf. KJV, ASV “shalt well remember.”
3 tn Heb “horse and chariot.”
4 tn Heb “people.”
5 tn Or “to save you” (so KJV, NASB, NCV); or “to deliver you.”
6 sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.
7 tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here.
8 sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.
9 tn Heb “the
10 tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
11 tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
12 tn According to BDB (1043 s.v. שָׁעָה), the verb תִּשְׁתָּע (tishta’) in the second line of the poetic couplet is a Hitpael form from the root שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “gaze,” with metathesis of the stem prefix and the first root letter). Taking the Hitpael as iterative, one may then translate “do not anxiously look about.” However, the alleged Hitpael form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah) only occurs here and in verse 23. HALOT 1671 s.v. שׁתע proposes that the verb is instead a Qal form from the root שׁתע (“fear”) which is attested in cognate Semitic languages, including Ugaritic (discovered after the publishing of BDB), suggests the existence of this root. The poetic structure of v. 10 also supports the proposal, for the form in question is in synonymous parallelism to יָרֵא (yare’, “fear”).
13 tn The “right hand” is a symbol of the Lord’s power to deliver (Exod 15:6, 12) and protect (Ps 63:9 HT [63:8 ET]). Here צֶדֶק (tsedeq) has its well-attested nuance of “vindicated righteousness,” i.e., “victory, deliverance” (see 45:8; 51:5, and BDB 841-42 s.v.).
14 tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.
15 tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.
16 tn Or perhaps, “your Father chooses.”
17 tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”
18 tn Grk “idolaters.”
19 tn Grk “their share.”
20 tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”
21 tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”