Psalms 12:7

12:7 You, Lord, will protect them; ¹ 

you will continually shelter each one from these evil people, ² 

Psalms 31:6

31:6 I hate those who serve worthless idols, ³ 

but I trust in the Lord.

Psalms 37:34

37:34 Rely ⁴  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ⁵ 

Then he will permit you ⁶  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ⁷ 

Psalms 41:2

41:2 May the Lord protect him and save his life! ⁸ 

May he be blessed ⁹  in the land!

Do not turn him over ¹⁰  to his enemies! ¹¹ 

Psalms 56:6

56:6 They stalk ¹²  and lurk; ¹³ 

they watch my every step, ¹⁴ 

as ¹⁵  they prepare to take my life. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 86:2

86:2 Protect me, ¹⁷  for I am loyal!

O my God, deliver your servant, who trusts in you!

Psalms 97:10

97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!

He protects ¹⁸  the lives of his faithful followers;

he delivers them from the power ¹⁹  of the wicked.

Psalms 99:7

99:7 He spoke to them from a pillar of cloud; ²⁰ 

they obeyed his regulations and the ordinance he gave them.

Psalms 140:4

140:4 O Lord, shelter me from the power ²¹  of the wicked!

Protect me from violent men,

who plan to knock me over. ²² 

Psalms 145:20

145:20 The Lord protects those who love him,

but he destroys all the wicked.

Psalms 146:6

146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them,

who remains forever faithful, ²³ 

Psalms 146:9

146:9 The Lord protects those residing outside their native land;

he lifts up the fatherless and the widow, ²⁴ 

but he opposes the wicked. ²⁵ 

[12:7]  ¹ tn The third person plural pronominal suffix on the verb is masculine, referring back to the “oppressed” and “needy” in v. 5 (both of those nouns are plural in form), suggesting that the verb means “protect” here. The suffix does not refer to אִמֲרוֹת (’imarot, “words”) in v. 6, because that term is feminine gender.

[12:7]  ² tn Heb “you will protect him from this generation permanently.” The third masculine singular suffix on the verb “protect” is probably used in a distributive sense, referring to each one within the group mentioned previously (the oppressed/needy, referred to as “them” in the preceding line). On this grammatical point see GKC 396 §123.f (where the present text is not cited). (Some Hebrew mss and ancient textual witnesses read “us,” both here and in the preceding line.) The noun דוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the psalmist’s contemporaries, who were characterized by deceit and arrogance (see vv. 1-2). See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[31:6]  ³ tn Heb “the ones who observe vain things of falsehood.” See Jonah 2:9.

[37:34]  ⁵ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[37:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

[37:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[41:2]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal forms are taken as jussives in the translation because the jussive is clearly used in the final line of the verse, suggesting that this is a prayer. The psalmist stops to pronounce a prayer of blessing on the godly individual envisioned in v. 1. Of course, he actually has himself primarily in view. He mixes confidence (vv. 1, 3) with petition (v. 2) because he stands in the interval between the word of assurance and the actual intervention by God.

[41:2]  ⁸ tc The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib), which has a Pual (passive) prefixed form, regarded here as a jussive. The Pual of the verb אָשַׁר (’ashar) also appears in Prov 3:18. The marginal reading (Qere) assumes a vav (ו) consecutive and Pual perfect. Some, with the support of the LXX, change the verb to a Piel (active) form with an objective pronominal suffix, “and may he bless him,” or “and he will bless him” (cf. NIV).

[41:2]  ⁹ tn The negative particle אַל (’al) before the prefixed verbal form indicates the verb is a jussive and the statement a prayer. Those who want to take v. 2 as a statement of confidence suggest emending the negative particle to לֹא (lo’), which is used with the imperfect. See the earlier note on the verbal forms in line one of this verse. According to GKC 322 §109.e, this is a case where the jussive is used rhetorically to “express that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one might translate, “you will not turn him over to his enemies,” and take the preceding verbal forms as indicative in mood.

[41:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not give him over to the desire of his enemies” (see Ps 27:12).

[56:6]  ⁹ tn The verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 59:3.

[56:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “hide.”

[56:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my heels.”

[56:6]  ¹² tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”

[56:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”

[86:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my life.”

[97:10]  ¹³ tn The participle may be verbal, though it might also be understood as substantival and appositional to “the Lord.” In this case one could translate, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, the one who protects the lives…and delivers them.”

[97:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[99:7]  ¹⁵ sn A pillar of cloud. The psalmist refers to the reality described in Exod 33:9-10; Num 12:5; and Deut 31:15.

[140:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “hands.”

[140:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to push down my steps.”

[146:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”

[146:9]  ²¹ sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by resident aliens, the fatherless, and widows.

[146:9]  ²² tn Heb “he makes the way of the wicked twisted.” The “way of the wicked” probably refers to their course of life (see Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1). God makes their path tortuous in the sense that he makes them pay the harmful consequences of their actions.