Psalms 18:34-40

18:34 He trains my hands for battle; ¹ 

my arms can bend even the strongest bow. ² 

18:35 You give me your protective shield; ³ 

your right hand supports me; ⁴ 

your willingness to help ⁵  enables me to prevail. ⁶ 

18:36 You widen my path; ⁷ 

my feet ⁸  do not slip.

18:37 I chase my enemies and catch ⁹  them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

18:38 I beat them ¹⁰  to death; ¹¹ 

they fall at my feet. ¹² 

18:39 You give me strength ¹³  for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me. ¹⁴ 

18:40 You make my enemies retreat; ¹⁵ 

I destroy those who hate me. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 18:47-48

18:47 The one true God ¹⁷  completely vindicates me; ¹⁸ 

he makes nations submit to me. ¹⁹ 

18:48 He delivers me ²⁰  from my enemies;

you snatch me away ²¹  from those who attack me; ²² 

you rescue me from violent men.

Psalms 20:7-8

20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, ²³ 

but we ²⁴  depend on ²⁵  the Lord our God.

20:8 They will fall down, ²⁶ 

but we ²⁷  will stand firm. ²⁸ 

Psalms 149:6-9

149:6 May they praise God

while they hold a two-edged sword in their hand, ²⁹ 

149:7 in order to take ³⁰  revenge on the nations,

and punish foreigners.

149:8 They bind ³¹  their kings in chains,

and their nobles in iron shackles,

149:9 and execute the judgment to which their enemies ³²  have been sentenced. ³³ 

All his loyal followers will be vindicated. ³⁴ 

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 149:2

149:2 Let Israel rejoice in their Creator!

Let the people ³⁵  of Zion delight in their king! ³⁶ 

Psalms 1:6

1:6 Certainly ³⁷  the Lord guards the way of the godly, ³⁸ 

but the way of the wicked ends in destruction. ³⁹ 

[18:34]  ¹ sn He trains my hands. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement. Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.

[18:34]  ² tn Heb “and a bow of bronze is bent by my arms”; or “my arms bend a bow of bronze.” The verb נָחַת (nakhat) apparently means “pull back, bend” here (see HALOT 692 s.v. נחת). The third feminine singular verbal form appears to agree with the feminine singular noun קֶשֶׁת (qeshet, “bow”). In this case the verb must be taken as Niphal (passive). However, it is possible that “my arms” is the subject of the verb and “bow” the object. In this case the verb is Piel (active). For other examples of a feminine singular verb being construed with a plural noun, see GKC 464 §145.k.

[18:35]  ³ tn Heb “and you give to me the shield of your deliverance.”

[18:35]  ⁴ tc 2 Sam 22:36 omits this line, perhaps due to homoioarcton. A scribe’s eye may have jumped from the vav (ו) prefixed to “your right hand” to the vav prefixed to the following “and your answer,” causing the copyist to omit by accident the intervening words (“your right hand supports me and”).

[18:35]  ⁵ tn The MT of Ps 18:35 appears to read, “your condescension,” apparently referring to God’s willingness to intervene (cf. NIV “you stoop down”). However, the noun עֲנָוָה (’anavah) elsewhere means “humility” and is used only here of God. The form עַנְוַתְךָ (’anvatÿkha) may be a fully written form of the suffixed infinitive construct of עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”; a defectively written form of the infinitive appears in 2 Sam 22:36). In this case the psalmist refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer; one might translate, “your favorable response.”

[18:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “makes me great.”

[18:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “you make wide my step under me.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives the psalmist the capacity to run quickly.

[18:36]  ⁸ tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”

[18:37]  ⁹ tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”

[18:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”

[18:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”

[18:38]  ¹² sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.

[18:39]  ¹³ tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.

[18:39]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

[18:40]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

[18:40]  ¹⁶ sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

[18:47]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the God.” See v. 32.

[18:47]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “is the one who grants vengeance to me.” The plural form of the noun indicates degree here, suggesting complete vengeance or vindication.

[18:47]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he subdues nations beneath me.” On the meaning of the verb דָּבַר (davar, “subdue,” a homonym of דָּבַר, davar, “speak”), see HALOT 209-10 s.v. I דבר. See also Ps 47:3 and 2 Chr 22:10. 2 Sam 22:48 reads “and [is the one who] brings down nations beneath me.”

[18:48]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[the one who] delivers me.” 2 Sam 22:49 reads “and [the one who] brings me out.”

[18:48]  ²¹ tn Heb “lifts me up.” In light of the preceding and following references to deliverance, the verb רום probably here refers to being rescued from danger (see Ps 9:13). However, it could mean “exalt, elevate” here, indicating that the Lord has given the psalmist victory over his enemies and forced them to acknowledge the psalmist’s superiority (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[18:48]  ²² tn Heb “from those who rise against me.”

[20:7]  ²³ tn Heb “these in chariots and these in horses.” No verb appears; perhaps the verb “invoke” is to be supplied from the following line. In this case the idea would be that some “invoke” (i.e., trust in) their military might for victory (cf. NEB “boast”; NIV “trust”; NRSV “take pride”). Verse 8 suggests that the “some/others” mentioned here are the nation’s enemies.

[20:7]  ²⁴ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronominal subject) highlights the contrast between God’s faithful people and the others mentioned in the previous line.

[20:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “we invoke the name of.” The Hiphil of זָכַר (zakhar), when combined with the phrase “in the name,” means “to invoke” (see Josh 23:7; Isa 48:1; Amos 6:10). By invoking the Lord’s name in prayer, the people demonstrate their trust in him.

[20:8]  ²⁶ tn Or “stumble and fall down.”

[20:8]  ²⁷ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronominal subject) highlights the contrast between God’s victorious people and the defeated enemies mentioned in the previous line. The perfect verbal forms either generalize or, more likely, state rhetorically the people’s confidence as they face the approaching battle. They describe the demise of the enemy as being as good as done.

[20:8]  ²⁸ tn Or “rise up and remain upright.” On the meaning of the Hitpolel of עוּד (’ud), see HALOT 795 s.v. I עוד. The verbal forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) either generalize or, more likely, state rhetorically the people’s confidence as they face the approaching battle.

[149:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “[May] praises of God [be] in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand.”

[149:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to do.”

[149:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “to bind.”

[149:9]  ³² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the enemies of the people of God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[149:9]  ³³ tn Heb “to do against them judgment [that] is written.”

[149:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “it is honor for all his godly ones.” The judgment of the oppressive kings will bring vindication and honor to God’s people (see vv. 4-5).

[149:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[149:2]  ³⁶ sn The Lord is the king here, as the parallelism in the previous line (“their creator”) indicates.

[1:6]  ³⁷ tn The translation understands כי as asseverative. Another option is to translate “for,” understanding v. 6 as a theological explanation for vv. 3-5, which contrasts the respective destinies of the godly and the wicked.

[1:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the Lord knows the way of the righteous.” To “know a way” means, in its most basic sense, “to recognize/acknowledge a pathway, route, or prescribed way of life” (see Josh 3:4; Job 21:14; Ps 67:2; Isa 42:16; Jer 5:4-5). Here it could refer to the Lord recognizing the behavior of the godly and, by metonymy, rewarding their godliness with security and prosperity (resulting in the translation, “the Lord rewards the behavior of the godly”). The present translation takes the verb in the sense of “mark out” (cf. Job 23:10), which metonymically could mean “watch over, protect, guard.” In this case the “way of the godly” is not their behavior, but their course of life or destiny; a translation reflecting this would be “the Lord protects the lives of the godly” or “the Lord watches over the destiny of the godly” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The Hebrew active participle יוֹדֵעַ (yodea’, “knows”) has here a characteristic durative force.

[1:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “but the way of the wicked perishes.” The “way of the wicked” may refer to their course of life (Ps 146:9; Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1) or their sinful behavior (Prov 12:26; 15:9). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form probably describes here what typically happens, though one could take the form as indicating what will happen (“will perish”).