23:27 “I will send my terror 4 before you, and I will destroy 5 all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs 6 to you. 23:28 I will send 7 hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you. 23:29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals 8 multiply against you. 23:30 Little by little 9 I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land. 23:31 I will set 10 your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, 11 for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
23:32 “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods. 23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare 12 to you.”
By David.
35:1 O Lord, fight 15 those who fight with me!
Attack those who attack me!
44:4 You are my 16 king, O God!
Decree 17 Jacob’s 18 deliverance!
44:5 By your power 19 we will drive back 20 our enemies;
by your strength 21 we will trample down 22 our foes! 23
46:7 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! 24
The God of Jacob 25 is our protector! 26 (Selah)
8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
1 tn Heb “at one time.”
2 tn The word order places emphasis on “the
3 tn The imperfect tense needs to be interpreted in contrast to all that Yahweh will be doing. It may be given a potential imperfect nuance (as here), or it may be obligatory to follow the command to stand firm: “you must be still.”
4 tn The word for “terror” is אֵימָתִי (’emati); the word has the thought of “panic” or “dread.” God would make the nations panic as they heard of the exploits and knew the Israelites were drawing near. U. Cassuto thinks the reference to “hornets” in v. 28 may be a reference to this fear, an unreasoning dread, rather than to another insect invasion (Exodus, 308). Others suggest it is symbolic of an invading army or a country like Egypt or literal insects (see E. Neufeld, “Insects as Warfare Agents in the Ancient Near East,” Or 49 [1980]: 30-57).
5 tn Heb “kill.”
6 tn The text has “and I will give all your enemies to you [as] a back.” The verb of making takes two accusatives, the second being the adverbial accusative of product (see GKC 371-72 §117.ii, n. 1).
7 tn Heb “and I will send.”
8 tn Heb “the beast of the field.”
9 tn The repetition expresses an exceptional or super-fine quality (see GKC 396 §123.e).
10 tn The form is a perfect tense with vav consecutive.
11 tn In the Hebrew Bible “the River” usually refers to the Euphrates (cf. NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). There is some thought that it refers to a river Nahr el Kebir between Lebanon and Syria. See further W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:447; and G. W. Buchanan, The Consequences of the Covenant (NovTSup), 91-100.
12 tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.
13 tn Or “to save you” (so KJV, NASB, NCV); or “to deliver you.”
14 sn Psalm 35. The author, who faces ruthless enemies who seek his life for no reason, begs the Lord to fight his battles for him and to vindicate him by annihilating his adversaries.
15 tn Or “contend.”
16 sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.
17 tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).
18 tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.
19 tn Heb “by you.”
20 tn Heb “gore” (like an ox). If this portion of the psalm contains the song of confidence/petition the Israelites recited prior to battle, then the imperfects here and in the next line may express their expectation of victory. Another option is that the imperfects function in an emphatic generalizing manner. In this case one might translate, “you [always] drive back…you [always] trample down.”
21 tn Heb “in your name.” The
22 sn The image of the powerful wild ox continues; see the note on the phrase “drive back” in the preceding line.
23 tn Heb “those who rise up [against] us.”
24 tn Heb “the
25 tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).
26 tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).