Psalms 10:7

10:7 His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; ¹ 

his tongue injures and destroys. ² 

Psalms 45:5

45:5 Your arrows are sharp

and penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies.

Nations fall at your feet. ³ 

Psalms 45:16

45:16 Your ⁴  sons will carry ⁵  on the dynasty of your ancestors; ⁶ 

you will make them princes throughout the land.

Psalms 91:4

91:4 He will shelter you ⁷  with his wings; ⁸ 

you will find safety under his wings.

His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. ⁹ 

Psalms 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ¹⁰ 

a viper’s ¹¹  venom is behind ¹²  their lips. (Selah)

Psalms 144:2

144:2 who loves me ¹³  and is my stronghold,

my refuge ¹⁴  and my deliverer,

my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,

who makes nations submit to me. ¹⁵ 

[10:7]  ¹ tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”

[10:7]  ² tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.

[45:5]  ³ tn Heb “your arrows are sharp – peoples beneath you fall – in the heart of the enemies of the king.” The choppy style reflects the poet’s excitement.

[45:16]  ⁵ tn The pronoun is second masculine singular, indicating the king is being addressed from this point to the end of the psalm.

[45:16]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive and the statement interpreted as a prayer, “May your sons carry on the dynasty of your ancestors!” The next line could then be taken as a relative clause, “[your sons] whom you will make princes throughout the land.”

[45:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “in place of your fathers will be your sons.”

[91:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).

[91:4]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).

[91:4]  ⁹ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”

[140:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”

[140:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

[140:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “under.”

[144:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).

[144:2]  ¹² tn Or “my elevated place.”

[144:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”