Psalms 20:3-5

20:3 May he take notice ¹  of your offerings;

may he accept ²  your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)

20:4 May he grant your heart’s desire; ³ 

may he bring all your plans to pass! ⁴ 

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ⁵  victory;

we will rejoice ⁶  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

[20:3]  ¹ tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.

[20:3]  ² tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”

[20:4]  ³ tn Heb “may he give to you according to your heart.” This probably refers to the king’s prayer for protection and victory in battle. See vv. 5-6.

[20:4]  ⁴ sn May he bring all your plans to pass. This probably refers to the king’s strategy for battle.

[20:5]  ⁵ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

[20:5]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).