Psalms 17:5

17:5 I carefully obey your commands; ¹ 

I do not deviate from them. ² 

Psalms 37:31

37:31 The law of their God controls their thinking; ³ 

their ⁴  feet do not slip.

Psalms 17:11

17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; ⁵ 

they intend to throw me to the ground. ⁶ 

Psalms 73:2

73:2 But as for me, my feet almost slipped;

my feet almost slid out from under me. ⁷ 

Psalms 40:2

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ⁸ 

out of the slimy mud. ⁹ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 44:18

44:18 We have not been unfaithful, ¹¹ 

nor have we disobeyed your commands. ¹² 

[17:5]  ¹ tn Heb “my steps stay firm in your tracks.” The infinitive absolute functions here as a finite verb (see GKC 347 §113.gg). God’s “tracks” are his commands, i.e., the moral pathways he has prescribed for the psalmist.

[17:5]  ² tn Heb “my footsteps do not stagger.”

[37:31]  ³ tn Heb “the law of his God [is] in his heart.” The “heart” is here the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.

[37:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “his.” The pronoun has been translated as plural to agree with the representative or typical “godly” in v. 30.

[17:11]  ⁵ tc Heb “our steps, now they surround me.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “surround me,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has “surround us,” harmonizing the pronoun to the preceding “our steps.” The first person plural pronoun does not fit the context, where the psalmist speaks as an individual. In the preceding verses the psalmist uses a first person singular verbal or pronominal form twenty times. For this reason it is preferable to emend “our steps” to אִשְּׁרוּנִי (’ishÿruni, “they attack me”) from the verbal root אָשֻׁר (’ashur, “march, stride, track”).

[17:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”

[73:2]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew verb normally means “to pour out,” but here it must have the nuance “to slide.”

[40:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. 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.

[40:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[44:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” Cf. Ps 78:57.

[44:18]  ¹² tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.