Psalms 16:11

16:11 You lead me in ¹  the path of life; ² 

I experience absolute joy in your presence; ³ 

you always give me sheer delight. ⁴ 

Psalms 21:6

21:6 For you grant him lasting blessings;

you give him great joy by allowing him into your presence. ⁵ 

Psalms 30:11

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ⁶ 

Psalms 43:4

43:4 Then I will go ⁷  to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ⁸ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ⁹  O God, my God, with a harp.

Psalms 106:5

106:5 so I may see the prosperity ¹⁰  of your chosen ones,

rejoice along with your nation, ¹¹ 

and boast along with the people who belong to you. ¹² 

Psalms 137:3

137:3 for there our captors ask us to compose songs; ¹³ 

those who mock us demand that we be happy, saying: ¹⁴ 

“Sing for us a song about Zion!” ¹⁵ 

[16:11]  ¹ tn Heb “cause me to know”; or “cause me to experience.”

[16:11]  ² tn This is a metaphorical way of saying, “you preserve my life.” The phrase “path of life” stands in contrast to death/Sheol in Prov 2:18-19; 5:5-6; 15:24.

[16:11]  ³ tn Heb “abundance of joy [is] with your face.” The plural form of the noun שִׂמְחָה (simkhah, “joy”) occurs only here and in Ps 45:15. It may emphasize the degree of joy experienced.

[16:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “delight [is] in your right hand forever.” The plural form of the adjective נָעִים (na’im, “pleasant, delightful”) may here emphasize the degree of delight experienced (see Job 36:11).

[21:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “you make him happy with joy with [i.e., “close by” or “in”] your face.” On the idiom “with your face” (i.e., “in your presence”) see Ps 16:11 and BDB 816 s.v. פָּנֻה II.2.a.

[30:11]  ⁹ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

[43:4]  ¹³ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”

[43:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[43:4]  ¹⁵ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.

[106:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “good.”

[106:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in order that [I may] rejoice with the rejoicing of your nation.”

[106:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “with your inheritance.”

[137:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “ask us [for] the words of a song.”

[137:3]  ²² tn Heb “our [?] joy.” The derivation and meaning of the Hebrew phrase תוֹלָלֵינוּ (tolalenu, “our [?]”) are uncertain. A derivation from תָּלַל (talal, “to mock”) fits contextually, but this root occurs only in the Hiphil stem. For a discussion of various proposals, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 236.

[137:3]  ²³ tn Heb “from a song of Zion.” Most modern translations read, “one of the songs of Zion,” taking the preposition מִן (min, “from”) as partitive and “song” as collective. The present translation assumes the mem (ם) is enclitic, being misunderstood later as the prefixed preposition.