Psalms 17:5

17:5 I carefully obey your commands; ¹ 

I do not deviate from them. ² 

Psalms 37:23

37:23 The Lord grants success to the one

whose behavior he finds commendable. ³ 

Psalms 119:116-117

119:116 Sustain me as you promised, ⁴  so that I will live. ⁵ 

Do not disappoint me! ⁶ 

119:117 Support me, so that I will be delivered.

Then I will focus ⁷  on your statutes continually.

Proverbs 16:1

16:1 The intentions of the heart ⁸  belong to a man, ⁹ 

but the answer of the tongue ¹⁰  comes from ¹¹  the Lord. ¹² 

Proverbs 20:24

20:24 The steps of a person ¹³  are ordained by ¹⁴  the Lord –

so how can anyone ¹⁵  understand his own ¹⁶  way?

¹ tn Heb “my steps stay firm in your tracks.” The infinitive absolute functions here as a finite verb (see GKC 347 §113.gg). God’s “tracks” are his commands, i.e., the moral pathways he has prescribed for the psalmist.

² tn Heb “my footsteps do not stagger.”

³ tn Heb “from the Lord the steps of a man are established, and in his way he delights.” The second line qualifies the first. The man whose behavior is commendable in God’s sight is the one whose ways are established by God. Another option is that the second line refers to the godly man delighting in God’s “way,” namely the lifestyle which he prescribes for men. In this case one might translate, “The Lord grants success to the one who desires to obey his commands.”

⁴ tn Heb “according to your word.”

⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

⁶ tn Heb “do not make me ashamed of my hope.” After the Hebrew verb בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “to be ashamed”) the preposition מִן (min, “from”) often introduces the reason for shame.

⁷ tn Or “and that I might focus.” The two cohortatives with vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose/result after the imperative at the beginning of the verse.

⁸ tn Heb “plans of the heart” (so ASV, NASB, NIV). The phrase מַעַרְכֵי־לֵב (ma’arkhe-lev) means “the arrangements of the mind.”

⁹ tn Heb “[are] to a man.”

¹⁰ tn Here “the tongue” is a metonymy of cause in which the instrument of speech is put for what is said: the answer expressed.

¹¹ sn The contrasting prepositions enhance the contrasting ideas – the ideas belong to people, but the words come from the Lord.

¹² sn There are two ways this statement can be taken: (1) what one intends to say and what one actually says are the same, or (2) what one actually says differs from what the person intended to say. The second view fits the contrast better. The proverb then is giving a glimpse of how God even confounds the wise. When someone is trying to speak [“answer” in the book seems to refer to a verbal answer] before others, the Lord directs the words according to his sovereign will.

¹³ tn Heb “the steps of a man”; but “man” is the noun גֶּבֶר (gever, in pause), indicating an important, powerful person. BDB 149-50 s.v. suggests it is used of men in their role of defending women and children; if that can be validated, then a translation of “man” would be appropriate here. But the line seems to have a wider, more general application. The “steps” represent (by implied comparison) the course of life (cf. NLT “the road we travel”).

¹⁴ tn Heb “from the Lord”; NRSV “ordered by the Lord”; NIV “directed by the Lord.”

¹⁵ tn The verse uses an independent nominative absolute to point up the contrast between the mortal and the immortal: “and man, how can he understand his way?” The verb in the sentence would then be classified as a potential imperfect; and the whole question rhetorical. It is affirming that humans cannot understand very much at all about their lives.

¹⁶ tn Heb “his way.” The referent of the third masculine singular pronoun is unclear, so the word “own” was supplied in the translation to clarify that the referent is the human individual, not the Lord.