Psalms 25:4-5

25:4 Make me understand your ways, O Lord!

Teach me your paths! ¹ 

25:5 Guide me into your truth ²  and teach me.

For you are the God who delivers me;

on you I rely all day long.

Psalms 25:8

25:8 The Lord is both kind and fair; ³ 

that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live. ⁴ 

Psalms 25:12

25:12 The Lord shows his faithful followers

the way they should live. ⁵ 

Psalms 27:11

27:11 Teach me how you want me to live; ⁶ 

lead me along a level path ⁷  because of those who wait to ambush me! ⁸ 

Psalms 32:8

32:8 I will instruct and teach you ⁹  about how you should live. ¹⁰ 

I will advise you as I look you in the eye. ¹¹ 

Psalms 94:12

94:12 How blessed is the one ¹²  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

Psalms 119:33

ה (He)

119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes, ¹³ 

so that I might observe it continually. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ¹⁵ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ¹⁶ 

because I long for you. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 35:8

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹⁸ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ¹⁹  –

fools ²⁰  will not stray into it.

Micah 4:2

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ²¹  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ²² 

and we can live by his laws.” ²³ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ²⁴ 

¹ sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.

² sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.

³ tn Heb “good and just.”

⁴ tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”

⁵ tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).

⁶ tn Heb “teach me your way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the moral principles which he expects the psalmist to follow. See Ps 25:4.

⁷ sn The level path refers to God’s moral principles (see the parallel line), which, if followed, will keep the psalmist blameless before his accusers (see v. 12).

⁸ tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 54:5; 56:2.

⁹ tn The second person pronominal forms in this verse are singular. The psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually (see also the note on the word “eye” in the next line). A less likely option (but one which is commonly understood) is that the Lord addresses the psalmist in vv. 8-9 (cf. NASB “I will instruct you and teach you…I will counsel you with My eye upon you”).

¹⁰ tn Heb “I will instruct you and I will teach you in the way [in] which you should walk.”

¹¹ tn Heb “I will advise, upon you my eye,” that is, “I will offer advice [with] my eye upon you.” In 2 Chr 20:12 the statement “our eye is upon you” means that the speakers are looking to the Lord for intervention. Here the expression “my eye upon you” may simply mean that the psalmist will teach his pupils directly and personally.

¹² tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.

¹³ tn Heb “the way of your statutes.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and I will keep it to the end.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative. The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev) is understood to mean “end” here. Another option is to take עֵקֶב (’eqev) as meaning “reward” here (see Ps 19:11) and to translate, “so that I might observe it and be rewarded.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

¹⁶ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

¹⁷ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).

¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

¹⁹ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

²⁰ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

²¹ tn Heb “house.”

²² tn Heb “ways.”

²³ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

²⁴ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”