Psalms 21:3

21:3 For you bring him ¹  rich ²  blessings; ³ 

you place a golden crown on his head.

Psalms 21:6

21:6 For you grant him lasting blessings;

you give him great joy by allowing him into your presence. ⁴ 

Psalms 84:6

84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, ⁵ 

he provides a spring for them. ⁶ 

The rain ⁷  even covers it with pools of water. ⁸ 

[21:3]  ¹ tn Or “meet him [with].”

[21:3]  ² tn Heb “good.”

[21:3]  ³ 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).

[21:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “you make him happy with joy with [i.e., “close by” or “in”] your face.” On the idiom “with your face” (i.e., “in your presence”) see Ps 16:11 and BDB 816 s.v. פָּנֻה II.2.a.

[84:6]  ⁷ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

[84:6]  ⁸ tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

[84:6]  ⁹ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

[84:6]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).