2 Samuel 23:16-17

23:16 So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord 23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ¹  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ²  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ³ 

Psalms 51:18

51:18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her! ⁴ 

Fortify ⁵  the walls of Jerusalem! ⁶ 

Psalms 55:3-11

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ⁷ 

and because of how the wicked ⁸  pressure me, ⁹ 

for they hurl trouble ¹⁰  down upon me ¹¹ 

and angrily attack me.

55:4 My heart beats violently ¹²  within me;

the horrors of death overcome me. ¹³ 

55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; ¹⁴ 

terror overwhelms ¹⁵  me.

55:6 I say, ¹⁶  “I wish I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and settle in a safe place!

55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;

I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)

55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe

from the strong wind ¹⁷  and the gale.”

55:9 Confuse them, ¹⁸  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ¹⁹ 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ²⁰ 

while wickedness and destruction ²¹  are within it.

55:11 Disaster is within it;

violence ²²  and deceit do not depart from its public square.

Psalms 137:5-6

137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

may my right hand be crippled! ²³ 

137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

and do not give Jerusalem priority

over whatever gives me the most joy. ²⁴ 

[23:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

[23:17]  ² tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

[23:17]  ³ tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”

[51:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “do what is good for Zion in your favor.”

[51:18]  ⁵ tn Or “Build.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:18]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[55:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ⁸ tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ¹¹ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).

[55:4]  ¹² tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”

[55:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”

[55:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”

[55:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.

[55:6]  ¹⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the verbs in v. 5.

[55:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).

[55:9]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”

[55:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ²¹ sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[55:11]  ²² tn Or “injury, harm.”

[137:5]  ²³ tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.

[137:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”