Psalms 18:44

18:44 When they hear of my exploits, they submit to me. ¹ 

Foreigners are powerless ²  before me;

Psalms 22:28-29

22:28 For the Lord is king ³ 

and rules over the nations.

22:29 All of the thriving people ⁴  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ⁵ 

all those who are descending into the grave ⁶  will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives. ⁷ 

Psalms 68:30

68:30 Sound your battle cry ⁸  against the wild beast of the reeds, ⁹ 

and the nations that assemble like a herd of calves led by bulls! ¹⁰ 

They humble themselves ¹¹  and offer gold and silver as tribute. ¹² 

God ¹³  scatters ¹⁴  the nations that like to do battle.

Psalms 81:15

81:15 (May those who hate the Lord ¹⁵  cower in fear ¹⁶  before him!

May they be permanently humiliated!) ¹⁷ 

[18:44]  ¹ tn Heb “at a report of an ear they submit to me.” The report of the psalmist’s exploits is so impressive that those who hear it submit to his rulership without putting up a fight.

[18:44]  ² tn For the meaning “be weak, powerless” for כָּחַשׁ (kakhash), see Ps 109:24. The next line (see v. 45a), in which “foreigners” are also mentioned, favors this interpretation. Another option is to translate “cower in fear” (see Deut 33:29; Pss 66:3; 81:15; cf. NIV “cringe”; NRSV “came cringing”).

[22:28]  ³ tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[22:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

[22:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

[22:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

[22:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”

[68:30]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) is often understood to mean “rebuke.” In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts such as Ps 68 this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Ps 106:9 and Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 18:15; 76:6; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.

[68:30]  ⁹ sn The wild beast of the reeds probably refers to a hippopotamus, which in turn symbolizes the nation of Egypt.

[68:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “an assembly of bulls, with calves of the nations.”

[68:30]  ¹¹ tn Heb “humbling himself.” The verb form is a Hitpael participle from the root רָפַס (rafas, “to trample”). The Hitpael of this verb appears only here and in Prov 6:3, where it seems to mean, “humble oneself,” a nuance that fits nicely in this context. The apparent subject is “wild beast” or “assembly,” though both of these nouns are grammatically feminine, while the participle is a masculine form. Perhaps one should emend the participial form to a masculine plural (מִתְרַפִּם, mitrapim) and understand “bulls” or “calves” as the subject.

[68:30]  ¹² tc Heb “with pieces [?] of silver.” The meaning of the Hebrew term רַצֵּי (ratsey) is unclear. It is probably best to emend the text to בֶּצֶר וְכָסֶף (betser vÿkhasef, “[with] gold and silver”).

[68:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[68:30]  ¹⁴ tn The verb בָּזַר (bazar) is an alternative form of פָּזַר (pazar, “scatter”).

[81:15]  ¹⁵ tn “Those who hate the Lord” are also mentioned in 2 Chr 19:2 and Ps 139:21.

[81:15]  ¹⁶ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 66:3 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “to be weak; to be powerless” (see also Ps 109:24). The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, parallel to the jussive form in the next line.

[81:15]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “and may their time be forever.” The Hebrew term עִתָּם (’ittam, “their time”) must refer here to the “time” of the demise and humiliation of those who hate the Lord. Some propose an emendation to בַּעֲתָתָם (ba’atatam) or בִּעֻתָם (bi’utam; “their terror”; i.e., “may their terror last forever”), but the omission of bet (ב) in the present Hebrew text is difficult to explain, making the proposed emendation unlikely.