17:10 For you ignore 1 the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector. 2
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines. 3
32:2 Each of them 4 will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from a rainstorm;
like streams of water in a dry region
and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.
32:4 As for the Rock, 5 his work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
He is a reliable God who is never unjust,
he is fair 6 and upright.
32:15 But Jeshurun 7 became fat and kicked,
you 8 got fat, thick, and stuffed!
Then he deserted the God who made him,
and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.
32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, 9 my stronghold, 10 my deliverer.
My God is my rocky summit where 11 I take shelter, 12
my shield, the horn that saves me, 13 and my refuge. 14
1 tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”
3 tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.
4 tn Heb “a man,” but אִישׁ (’ish) probably refers here to “each” of the officials mentioned in the previous verse.
5 tc The LXX reads Θεός (qeos, “God”) for the MT’s “Rock.”
6 tn Or “just” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “righteous” (NASB).
7 tn To make the continuity of the referent clear, some English versions substitute “Jacob” here (NAB, NRSV) while others replace “Jeshurun” with “Israel” (NCV, CEV, NLT) or “the Lord’s people” (TEV).
8 tc The LXX reads the third person masculine singular (“he”) for the MT second person masculine singular (“you”), but such alterations are unnecessary in Hebrew poetic texts where subjects fluctuate frequently and without warning.
9 sn 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.
10 sn My stronghold. David often found safety in such strongholds. See 1 Sam 22:4-5; 24:22; 2 Sam 5:9, 17; 23:14.
11 tn Or “in whom.”
12 sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
13 tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”
14 tn Or “my elevated place.” The parallel version of this psalm in 2 Sam 22:3 adds at this point, “my refuge, my savior, [you who] save me from violence.”