Psalms 21:1-2

Psalm 21 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; ² 

he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. ³ 

21:2 You grant ⁴  him his heart’s desire;

you do not refuse his request. ⁵  (Selah)

Psalms 3:1

Psalm 3 ⁶ 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ⁷ 

3:1 Lord, how ⁸  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ⁹ 

Psalms 22:12-13

22:12 Many bulls ¹⁰  surround me;

powerful bulls of Bashan ¹¹  hem me in.

22:13 They ¹²  open their mouths to devour me ¹³ 

like a roaring lion that rips its prey. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 22:16

22:16 Yes, ¹⁵  wild dogs surround me –

a gang of evil men crowd around me;

like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 37:32

37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly

and try to kill them. ¹⁷ 

Numbers 16:2-3

16:2 and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders ¹⁸  of the community, chosen from the assembly, ¹⁹  famous men. ²⁰  16:3 And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, ²¹  seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”

[21:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”

[21:2]  ⁴ tn The translation assumes the perfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing, stating factually what God typically does for the king. Another option is to take them as present perfects, “you have granted…you have not refused.” See v. 4, which mentions a specific request for a long reign.

[21:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the request of his lips you do not refuse.”

[3:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

[3:1]  ⁷ sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

[3:1]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

[3:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”

[22:12]  ¹⁰ sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.

[22:12]  ¹¹ sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.

[22:13]  ¹² tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”

[22:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8; Lam 2:16).

[22:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”

[22:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for.”

[22:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” This reading is often emended because it is grammatically awkward, but perhaps its awkwardness is by rhetorical design. Its broken syntax may be intended to convey the panic and terror felt by the psalmist. The psalmist may envision a lion pinning the hands and feet of its victim to the ground with its paws (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art), or a lion biting the hands and feet. The line has been traditionally translated, “they pierce my hands and feet,” and then taken as foreshadowing the crucifixion of Christ. Though Jesus does appropriate the language of this psalm while on the cross (compare v. 1 with Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34), the NT does not cite this verse in describing the death of Jesus. (It does refer to vv. 7-8 and 18, however. See Matt 27:35, 39, 43; Mark 15:24, 29; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24.) If one were to insist on an emendation of כָּאֲרִי (ka’ariy, “like a lion”) to a verb, the most likely verbal root would be כָּרָה (karah, “dig”; see the LXX). In this context this verb could refer to the gnawing and tearing of wild dogs (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV). The ancient Greek version produced by Symmachus reads “bind” here, perhaps understanding a verbal root כרך, which is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic and means “to encircle, entwine, embrace” (see HALOT 497-98 s.v. כרך and Jastrow 668 s.v. כָּרַךְ). Neither one of these proposed verbs can yield a meaning “bore, pierce.”

[37:32]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

[16:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).

[16:2]  ¹⁹ tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.

[16:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”

[16:3]  ²¹ tn The meaning of רַב־לָכֶם (rab-lakhem) is something like “you have assumed far too much authority.” It simply means “much to you,” perhaps “you have gone to far,” or “you are overreaching yourselves” (M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 123). He is objecting to the exclusiveness of the system that Moses has been introducing.