28:9 Deliver your people!
Empower 1 the nation that belongs to you! 2
Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms 3 at all times! 4
33:12 How blessed 5 is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession. 6
47:4 He picked out for us a special land 7
to be a source of pride for 8 Jacob, 9 whom he loves. 10 (Selah)
68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall 11 on your chosen people. 12
When they 13 are tired, you sustain them, 14
74:2 Remember your people 15 whom you acquired in ancient times,
whom you rescued 16 so they could be your very own nation, 17
as well as Mount Zion, where you dwell!
78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;
he assigned them their tribal allotments 18
and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. 19
106:5 so I may see the prosperity 20 of your chosen ones,
rejoice along with your nation, 21
and boast along with the people who belong to you. 22
1 tn Or “bless.”
2 tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.
3 tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”
4 tn Or “forever.”
5 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
6 tn Heb “inheritance.”
9 tn Heb “he chose for us our inheritance.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite (see “subdued” in v. 3).
10 tn Heb “the pride of.” The phrase is appositional to “our inheritance,” indicating that the land is here described as a source of pride to God’s people.
11 tn That is, Israel.
12 sn Jacob whom he loves. The Lord’s covenantal devotion to his people is in view.
13 tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).
14 tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.
15 tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
16 tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
17 tn Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.
18 tn Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).
19 tn Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19).
21 tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”
22 tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”
25 tn Heb “good.”
26 tn Heb “in order that [I may] rejoice with the rejoicing of your nation.”
27 tn Heb “with your inheritance.”