Psalms 10:10

10:10 His victims are crushed and beaten down;

they are trapped in his sturdy nets. ¹ 

Psalms 73:18

73:18 Surely ²  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ³  to ruin.

Psalms 78:28

78:28 He caused them to fall right in the middle of their camp,

all around their homes.

Psalms 78:64

78:64 Their ⁴  priests fell by the sword,

but their ⁵  widows did not weep. ⁶ 

Psalms 82:7

82:7 Yet you will die like mortals; ⁷ 

you will fall like all the other rulers.” ⁸ 

Psalms 106:26-27

106:26 So he made a solemn vow ⁹ 

that he would make them die ¹⁰  in the desert,

106:27 make their descendants ¹¹  die ¹²  among the nations,

and scatter them among foreign lands. ¹³ 

Psalms 118:13

118:13 “You aggressively attacked me ¹⁴  and tried to knock me down, ¹⁵ 

but the Lord helped me.

[10:10]  ¹ tn Heb “he crushes, he is bowed down, and he falls into his strong [ones], [the] unfortunate [ones].” This verse presents several lexical and syntactical difficulties. The first word (יִדְכֶּה, yidekeh) is an otherwise unattested Qal form of the verb דָּכָה (dakhah, “crush”). (The Qere [marginal] form is imperfect; the consonantal text [Kethib] has the perfect with a prefixed conjunction vav [ו].) If the wicked man’s victim is the subject, which seems to be the case (note the two verbs which follow), then the form should be emended to a Niphal (יִדָּכֶה, yiddakheh). The phrase בַּעֲצוּמָיו (ba’atsumayv, “into his strong [ones]”), poses interpretive problems. The preposition -בְּ (bet) follows the verb נָפַל (nafal, “fall”), so it may very well carry the nuance “into” here, with “his strong [ones]” then referring to something into which the oppressed individual falls. Since a net is mentioned in the preceding verse as the instrument used to entrap the victim, it is possible that “strong [ones]” here refers metonymically to the wicked man’s nets or traps. Ps 35:8 refers to a man falling into a net (רֶשֶׁת, reshet), as does Ps 141:10 (where the plural of מִכְמָר [mikhmar, “net”] is used). A hunter’s net (רֶשֶׁת), is associated with snares (פַּח [pakh], מֹקְשִׁים, [moqÿshim]) and ropes (חֲבָלִים, khavalim) in Ps 140:5. The final word in the verse (חֶלְכָּאִים (khelka’im, “unfortunate [ones]”) may be an alternate form of חֵלְכָח (khelkhakh, “unfortunate [one]”; see vv. 8, 14). The Qere (marginal reading) divides the form into two words, חֵיל כָּאִים (khel ka’im, “army/host of disheartened [ones]”). The three verb forms in v. 10 are singular because the representative “oppressed” individual is the grammatical subject (see the singular עָנִי [’aniy] in v. 9).

[73:18]  ² tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ³ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[78:64]  ³ tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).

[78:64]  ⁴ tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).

[78:64]  ⁵ sn Because of the invading army and the ensuing panic, the priests’ widows had no time to carry out the normal mourning rites.

[82:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “men.” The point in the context is mortality, however, not maleness.

[82:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “like one of the rulers.” The comparison does not necessarily imply that they are not rulers. The expression “like one of” can sometimes mean “as one of” (Gen 49:16; Obad 11) or “as any other of” (Judg 16:7, 11).

[106:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).

[106:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”

[106:27]  ⁶ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[106:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).

[106:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[118:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “pushing, you pushed me.” The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea. The psalmist appears to address the nations as if they were an individual enemy. Some find this problematic and emend the verb form (which is a Qal perfect second masculine singular with a first person singular suffix) to נִדְחֵיתִי (nidkheti), a Niphal perfect first common singular, “I was pushed.”

[118:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “to fall,” i.e., “that [I] might fall.”