2 Samuel 7:18-20

David Offers a Prayer to God

7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ¹  that you should have brought me to this point? 7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ²  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ³  O Lord God? 7:20 What more can David say to you? You have given your servant special recognition, ⁴  O Lord God!

Psalms 34:1-6

Psalm 34 ⁵ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ⁶ 

34:1 I will praise ⁷  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ⁸ 

34:2 I will boast ⁹  in the Lord;

let the oppressed hear and rejoice! ¹⁰ 

34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!

Let’s praise ¹¹  his name together!

34:4 I sought the Lord’s help ¹²  and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ¹³ 

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ¹⁴  from all his troubles.

Psalms 107:1

Book 5
(Psalms 107-150)

Psalm 107 ¹⁵ 

107:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

and his loyal love endures! ¹⁶ 

Psalms 107:8

107:8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ¹⁷ 

Psalms 107:15

107:15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ¹⁸ 

Psalms 107:43

107:43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things!

Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love!

Psalms 116:1-7

Psalm 116 ¹⁹ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ²⁰ 

116:2 and listened to me. ²¹ 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ²² 

116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, ²³ 

the snares ²⁴  of Sheol confronted me.

I was confronted ²⁵  with trouble and sorrow.

116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;

our God is compassionate.

116:6 The Lord protects ²⁶  the untrained; ²⁷ 

I was in serious trouble ²⁸  and he delivered me.

116:7 Rest once more, my soul, ²⁹ 

for the Lord has vindicated you. ³⁰ 

Luke 2:19

2:19 But Mary treasured up all these words, pondering in her heart what they might mean. ³¹ 

Luke 2:51

2:51 Then ³²  he went down with them and came to Nazareth, ³³  and was obedient ³⁴  to them. But ³⁵  his mother kept all these things ³⁶  in her heart. ³⁷ 

[7:18]  ¹ tn Heb “house.”

[7:19]  ² tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

[7:19]  ³ tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

[7:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you know your servant.” The verb here refers to recognizing another in a special way and giving them special treatment (see 1 Chr 17:18). Some English versions take this to refer to the Lord’s knowledge of David himself: CEV “you know my thoughts”; NLT “know what I am really like.”

[34:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[34:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.

[34:2]  ¹⁰ tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).

[34:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “exalt.”

[34:4]  ¹² tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”

[34:5]  ¹³ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[107:1]  ¹⁵ sn Psalm 107. The psalmist praises God for his kindness to his exiled people.

[107:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”

[107:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.”

[107:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.” See v. 8.

[116:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

[116:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

[116:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

[116:2]  ²² tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

[116:3]  ²³ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[116:3]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.

[116:3]  ²⁵ tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.

[116:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “guards.” The active participle indicates this is a characteristic of the Lord.

[116:6]  ²⁷ tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Ps 19:7.

[116:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I was low.”

[116:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “return, my soul, to your place of rest.”

[116:7]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense (cf. Ps 13:5).

[2:19]  ³¹ tn The term συμβάλλουσα (sumballousa) suggests more than remembering. She is trying to put things together here (Josephus, Ant. 2.5.3 [2.72]). The words “what they might mean” have been supplied in the translation to make this clear. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[2:51]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[2:51]  ³³ map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.

[2:51]  ³⁴ tn Or “was submitting.”

[2:51]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast.

[2:51]  ³⁶ tn Or “all these words.”

[2:51]  ³⁷ sn On the phrase his mother kept all these things in her heart compare Luke 2:19.