Psalms 18:45

18:45 foreigners lose their courage; ¹ 

they shake with fear ²  as they leave ³  their strongholds. ⁴ 

Psalms 48:6

48:6 Look at them shake uncontrollably, ⁵ 

like a woman writhing in childbirth. ⁶ 

Psalms 143:4

143:4 My strength leaves me; ⁷ 

I am absolutely shocked. ⁸ 

[18:45]  ¹ tn Heb “wither, wear out.”

[18:45]  ² tn The meaning of חָרַג (kharag, “shake”) is established on the basis of cognates in Arabic and Aramaic. 2 Sam 22:46 reads חָגַר (khagar), which might mean here, “[they] come limping” (on the basis of a cognate in postbiblical Hebrew). The normal meaning for חָגַר (“gird”) makes little sense here.

[18:45]  ³ tn Heb “from.”

[18:45]  ⁴ tn Heb “their prisons.” The besieged cities of the foreigners are compared to prisons.

[48:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “trembling seizes them there.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[48:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “[with] writhing like one giving birth.”

[143:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[143:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in my midst my heart is shocked.” For a similar use of the Hitpolel of שָׁמֵם (shamem), see Isa 59:16; 63:5.