“Stop urging me to abandon you! 1
For wherever you go, I will go.
Wherever you live, I will live.
Your people will become my people,
and your God will become my God.
17:8 Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye! 2
Hide me in the shadow of your wings! 3
36:7 How precious 4 is your loyal love, O God!
The human race finds shelter under your wings. 5
For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; 7 a prayer 8 of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave. 9
57:1 Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me!
For in you I have taken shelter. 10
In the shadow of your wings 11 I take shelter
until trouble passes.
61:4 I will be a permanent guest in your home; 12
I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. 13 (Selah)
63:7 For you are my deliverer; 14
under your wings 15 I rejoice.
91:4 He will shelter you 16 with his wings; 17
you will find safety under his wings.
His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. 18
23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 19 you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! 20 How often I have longed 21 to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but 22 you would have none of it! 23
1 tn Heb “do not urge me to abandon you to turn back from after you.” Most English versions, following the lead of the KJV, use “leave” here. The use of עזב (“abandon”) reflects Ruth’s perspective. To return to Moab would be to abandon Naomi and to leave her even more vulnerable than she already is.
2 tc Heb “Protect me like the pupil, a daughter of an eye.” The noun בַּת (bat, “daughter”) should probably be emended to בָּבַת (bavat, “pupil”). See Zech 2:12 HT (2:8 ET) and HALOT 107 s.v. *בָּבָה.
3 sn Your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.
4 tn Or “valuable.”
5 tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.
6 sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.
7 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.
8 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
9 sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.
10 tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
11 sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).
12 tn Heb “I will live as a resident alien in your tent permanently.” The cohortative is understood here as indicating resolve. Another option is to take it as expressing a request, “please let me live” (cf. NASB, NRSV).
13 sn I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.
14 tn Or “[source of] help.”
15 tn Heb “in the shadow of your wings.”
16 tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).
17 tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).
18 tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”
19 sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.
20 tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).
21 sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.
22 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
23 tn Grk “you were not willing.”