Psalms 5:8

5:8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness ¹ 

because of those who wait to ambush me, ² 

remove the obstacles in the way in which you are guiding me! ³ 

Psalms 107:2-8

107:2 Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, ⁴ 

those whom he delivered ⁵  from the power ⁶  of the enemy,

107:3 and gathered from foreign lands, ⁷ 

from east and west,

from north and south.

107:4 They wandered through the wilderness on a desert road;

they found no city in which to live.

107:5 They were hungry and thirsty;

they fainted from exhaustion. ⁸ 

107:6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

107:7 He led them on a level road, ⁹ 

that they might find a city in which to live.

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

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 143:8-10

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ¹¹ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ¹² 

because I long for you. ¹³ 

143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!

I run to you for protection. ¹⁴ 

143:10 Teach me to do what pleases you, ¹⁵ 

for you are my God.

May your kind presence ¹⁶ 

lead me ¹⁷  into a level land. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 3:6

3:6 Acknowledge ¹⁹  him in all your ways, ²⁰ 

and he will make your paths straight. ²¹ 

Isaiah 30:21

30:21 You ²²  will hear a word spoken behind you, saying,

“This is the correct ²³  way, walk in it,”

whether you are heading to the right or the left.

Isaiah 35:8

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ²⁴ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ²⁵  –

fools ²⁶  will not stray into it.

Isaiah 42:16

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ²⁷ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ²⁸ 

I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,

and level out the rough ground. ²⁹ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

Isaiah 49:10

49:10 They will not be hungry or thirsty;

the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them, ³⁰ 

for one who has compassion on them will guide them;

he will lead them to springs of water.

Jeremiah 10:23

10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. ³¹ 

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. ³² 

[5:8]  ¹ tn God’s providential leading is in view. His צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) includes here the deliverance that originates in his righteousness; he protects and vindicates the one whose cause is just. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 842 s.v.

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 27:11; 56:2.

[5:8]  ³ tn Heb “make level before me your way.” The imperative “make level” is Hiphil in the Kethib (consonantal text); Piel in the Qere (marginal reading). God’s “way” is here the way in which he leads the psalmist providentially (see the preceding line, where the psalmist asks the Lord to lead him).

[107:2]  ⁴ tn Or “let the redeemed of the Lord say [so].”

[107:2]  ⁵ tn Or “redeemed.”

[107:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “hand.”

[107:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “from lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[107:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and their soul in them fainted.”

[107:7]  ⁹ sn A level road. See Jer 31:9.

[107:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.”

[143:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  ¹² sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).

[143:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to you I cover,” which makes no sense. The translation assumes an emendation to נַסְתִּי (nastiy, “I flee,” a Qal perfect, first singular form from נוּס, nos). Confusion of kaf (כ) and nun (נ) is attested elsewhere (see P. K. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 48). The collocation of נוּס (“flee”) with אֶל (’el, “to”) is well-attested.

[143:10]  ¹⁵ tn Or “your will.” See Ps 40:8.

[143:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your good spirit.” God’s “spirit” may refer here to his presence (see the note on the word “presence” in Ps 139:7) or to his personal Spirit (see Ps 51:10).

[143:10]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. Taking the statement as a prayer fits well with the petitionary tone of vv. 7-10a.

[143:10]  ¹⁸ sn A level land (where one can walk free of obstacles) here symbolizes divine blessing and protection. See Pss 26:12 and 27:11 for similar imagery.

[3:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “know him.” The verb יָדַע (yadah, “to know”) includes mental awareness of who God is and the consequential submission to his lordship. To know him is to obey him. The sage is calling for a life of trust and obedience in which the disciple sees the Lord in every event and relies on him. To acknowledge the Lord in every event means trusting and obeying him for guidance in right conduct.

[3:6]  ²⁰ tn The term דֶרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) is figurative (hypocatastasis: implied comparison) referring to a person’s course of life, actions and undertakings (Prov 2:8; 3:6, 23; 11:5; 20:24; 29:27; 31:3; BDB 203 s.v. 5; cf. TEV “in everything you do”; NCV, NLT “in all you do”). This is a call for total commitment in trust for obedience in all things.

[3:6]  ²¹ tn The verb יָשָׁר (yashar) means “to make smooth; to make straight” (BDB 444 s.v.). This phrase means “to make the way free from obstacles,” that is, to make it successful (e.g., Isa 40:3). The straight, even road is the right road; God will make the way smooth for the believer.

[30:21]  ²² tn Heb “your ears” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:21]  ²³ tn The word “correct’ is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[35:8]  ²⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ²⁵ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ²⁶ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[42:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

[42:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

[42:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

[49:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and the heat and the sun will not strike them.” In Isa 35:7, its only other occurrence in the OT, שָׁרָב (sharav) stands parallel to “parched ground” and in contrast to “pool.” In later Hebrew and Aramaic it refers to “dry heat, heat of the sun” (Jastrow 1627 s.v.). Here it likely has this nuance and forms a hendiadys with “sun.”

[10:23]  ³¹ tn Heb “Not to the man his way.” For the nuance of “fate, destiny, or the way things turn out” for the Hebrew word “way” see Hag 1:5, Isa 40:27 and probably Ps 49:13 (cf. KBL 218 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 5). For the idea of “control” or “hold in one’s power” for the preposition “to” see Ps 3:8 (cf. BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.b[a]).

[10:23]  ³² tn Heb “Not to a man the walking and the establishing his step.”