Psalms 18:43

18:43 You rescue me from a hostile army; ¹ 

you make me ²  a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ³ 

Psalms 21:3

21:3 For you bring him ⁴  rich ⁵  blessings; ⁶ 

you place a golden crown on his head.

Psalms 22:7

22:7 All who see me taunt ⁷  me;

they mock me ⁸  and shake their heads. ⁹ 

Psalms 23:5

23:5 You prepare a feast before me ¹⁰ 

in plain sight of my enemies.

You refresh ¹¹  my head with oil;

my cup is completely full. ¹² 

Psalms 24:7

24:7 Look up, ¹³  you gates!

Rise up, ¹⁴  you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king ¹⁵  will enter! ¹⁶ 

Psalms 24:9

24:9 Look up, you gates!

Rise up, you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king will enter!

Psalms 38:4

38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; ¹⁷ 

like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear.

Psalms 60:7

60:7 Gilead belongs to me,

as does Manasseh! ¹⁸ 

Ephraim is my helmet, ¹⁹ 

Judah my royal scepter. ²⁰ 

Psalms 68:21

68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,

the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. ²¹ 

Psalms 74:13

74:13 You destroyed ²²  the sea by your strength;

you shattered the heads of the sea monster ²³  in the water.

Psalms 108:8

108:8 Gilead belongs to me,

as does Manasseh! ²⁴ 

Ephraim is my helmet, ²⁵ 

Judah my royal scepter. ²⁶ 

Psalms 110:6

110:6 He executes judgment ²⁷  against ²⁸  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ²⁹ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ³⁰ 

Psalms 140:7

140:7 O sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, ³¹ 

you shield ³²  my head in the day of battle.

[18:43]  ¹ tn Heb “from the strivings of a people.” In this context the Hebrew term רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עָם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. I עַם, עָם 2.d). Some understand the phrase as referring to attacks by the psalmist’s own countrymen, the “nation” being Israel. However, foreign enemies appear to be in view; note the reference to “nations” in the following line.

[18:43]  ² tn 2 Sam 22:44 reads, “you keep me.”

[18:43]  ³ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 44-45). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[21:3]  ⁴ tn Or “meet him [with].”

[21:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “good.”

[21:3]  ⁶ sn You bring him rich blessings. The following context indicates that God’s “blessings” include deliverance/protection, vindication, sustained life, and a long, stable reign (see also Pss 3:8; 24:5).

[22:7]  ⁷ tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”

[22:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.

[22:7]  ⁹ sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.

[23:5]  ¹⁰ sn In v. 5 the metaphor switches. (It would be very odd for a sheep to have its head anointed and be served wine.) The background for the imagery is probably the royal banquet. Ancient Near Eastern texts describe such banquets in similar terms to those employed by the psalmist. (See M. L. Barre and J. S. Kselman, “New Exodus, Covenant, and Restoration in Psalm 23,” The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth, 97-127.) The reality behind the imagery is the Lord’s favor. Through his blessings and protection he demonstrates to everyone, including dangerous enemies, that the psalmist has a special relationship with him.

[23:5]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect verbal form in v. 5a carries on the generalizing mood of vv. 1-4. However, in v. 5b the psalmist switches to a perfect (דִּשַּׁנְתָּ, dishanta), which may have a generalizing force as well. But then again the perfect is conspicuous here and may be present perfect in sense, indicating that the divine host typically pours oil on his head prior to seating him at the banquet table. The verb דָשַׁן (dashan; the Piel is factitive) is often translated “anoint,” but this is misleading, for it might suggest a symbolic act of initiation into royal status. One would expect the verb מָשָׁח (mashan) in this case; דָשַׁן here describes an act of hospitality extended to guests and carries the nuance “refresh.” In Prov 15:30 it stands parallel to “make happy” and refers to the effect that good news has on the inner being of its recipient.

[23:5]  ¹² tn The rare noun רְַָויָה (rÿvayah) is derived from the well-attested verb רָוָה (ravah, “be saturated, drink one’s fill”). In this context, where it describes a cup, it must mean “filled up,” but not necessarily to overflowing.

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “king of glory.”

[24:7]  ¹⁶ tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[38:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “pass over my head.”

[60:7]  ¹⁹ sn Gilead was located east of the Jordan. Half of the tribe of Manasseh lived east of the Jordan in the region of Bashan.

[60:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the protection of my head.”

[60:7]  ²¹ sn Judah, like Ephraim, was the other major tribe west of the Jordan. The Davidic king, symbolized here by the royal scepter, came from this tribe.

[68:21]  ²² tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.

[74:13]  ²⁵ tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ (porarta) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר (parar) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”

[74:13]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.

[108:8]  ²⁸ tn Gilead was located east of the Jordan River. Half of the tribe of Manasseh lived east of the Jordan in the region of Bashan.

[108:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the protection of my head.”

[108:8]  ³⁰ sn Judah, like Ephraim, was the other major tribe west of the Jordan River. The Davidic king, symbolized here by the royal scepter, came from this tribe.

[110:6]  ³¹ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ³² tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ³³ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

[140:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”

[140:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “cover.”