Psalms 18:18

18:18 They confronted ¹  me in my day of calamity,

but the Lord helped me. ² 

Psalms 18:1

Psalm 18 ³ 

For the music director; by the Lord’s servant David, who sang ⁴  to the Lord the words of this song when ⁵  the Lord rescued him from the power ⁶  of all his enemies, including Saul. ⁷ 

18:1 He said: ⁸ 

“I love ⁹  you, Lord, my source of strength! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 16:1-2

Psalm 16 ¹¹ 

A prayer ¹²  of David.

16:1 Protect me, O God, for I have taken shelter in you. ¹³ 

16:2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord,

my only source of well-being.” ¹⁴ 

Psalms 2:4

2:4 The one enthroned ¹⁵  in heaven laughs in disgust; ¹⁶ 

the Lord taunts ¹⁷  them.

Psalms 5:3

5:3 Lord, in the morning ¹⁸  you will hear ¹⁹  me; ²⁰ 

in the morning I will present my case to you ²¹  and then wait expectantly for an answer. ²² 

Job 41:11

41:11 (Who has confronted ²³  me that I should repay? ²⁴ 

Everything under heaven belongs to me!) ²⁵ 

Romans 11:35

11:35 Or who has first given to God, ²⁶ 

that God ²⁷  needs to repay him? ²⁸ 

[18:18]  ¹ tn The same verb is translated “trapped” in v. 5. In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect.

[18:18]  ² tn Heb “became my support.”

[18:1]  ³ sn Psalm 18. In this long song of thanks, the psalmist (a Davidic king, traditionally understood as David himself) affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. The psalmist’s experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the psalm appears in 2 Sam 22:1-51.

[18:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “spoke.”

[18:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”

[18:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “hand.”

[18:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”

[18:1]  ⁸ tn A number of translations (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) assign the words “he said” to the superscription, in which case the entire psalm is in first person. Other translations (e.g., NAB) include the introductory “he said” at the beginning of v. 1.

[18:1]  ⁹ tn The verb רָחַם (rakham) elsewhere appears in the Piel (or Pual) verbal stem with the basic meaning, “have compassion.” The verb occurs only here in the basic (Qal) stem. The basic stem of the verbal root also occurs in Aramaic with the meaning “love” (see DNWSI 2:1068-69; Jastrow 1467 s.v. רָחַם; G. Schmuttermayr, “rhm: eine lexikalische Studie,” Bib 51 [1970]: 515-21). Since this introductory statement does not appear in the parallel version in 2 Sam 22:1-51, it is possible that it is a later addition to the psalm, made when the poem was revised for use in worship.

[18:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my strength.” “Strength” is metonymic here, referring to the Lord as the one who bestows strength to the psalmist; thus the translation “my source of strength.”

[16:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 16. The psalmist seeks divine protection because he has remained loyal to God. He praises God for his rich blessings, and is confident God will vindicate him and deliver him from death.

[16:1]  ¹² tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term מִכְתָּם (mikhtam) is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”

[16:1]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results (see 7:1; 11:1).

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my good [is] not beyond you.” For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) in the sense of “beyond,” see BDB 755 s.v. 2.

[2:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12; 123:1).

[2:4]  ¹⁶ tn As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter. The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in vv. 4-5 describe the action from the perspective of an eyewitness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

[2:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”

[5:3]  ¹⁸ sn In the morning is here viewed as the time of prayer (Pss 59:16; 88:13) and/or of deliverance (Ps 30:5).

[5:3]  ¹⁹ tn The imperfect is here understood in a specific future sense; the psalmist is expressing his confidence that God will be willing to hear his request. Another option is to understand the imperfect as expressing the psalmist’s wish or request. In this case one could translate, “Lord, in the morning hear me.”

[5:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “my voice.”

[5:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “I will arrange for you.” Some understand a sacrifice or offering as the implied object (cf. NEB “I set out my morning sacrifice”). The present translation assumes that the implied object is the psalmist’s case/request. See Isa 44:7.

[5:3]  ²² tn Heb “and I will watch.”

[41:11]  ²³ tn The verb קָדַם (qadam) means “to come to meet; to come before; to confront” to the face.

[41:11]  ²⁴ sn The verse seems an intrusion (and so E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and many others change the pronouns to make it refer to the animal). But what the text is saying is that it is more dangerous to confront God than to confront this animal.

[41:11]  ²⁵ tn This line also focuses on the sovereign God rather than Leviathan. H. H. Rowley, however, wants to change לִי־חוּא (li-hu’, “it [belongs] to me”) into לֹא הוּא (lo’ hu’, “there is no one”). So it would say that there is no one under the whole heaven who could challenge Leviathan and live, rather than saying it is more dangerous to challenge God to make him repay.

[11:35]  ²⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:35]  ²⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:35]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Job 41:11.