Psalms 22:17

22:17 I can count ¹  all my bones;

my enemies ²  are gloating over me in triumph. ³ 

Psalms 33:13

33:13 The Lord watches ⁴  from heaven;

he sees all people. ⁵ 

Psalms 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ⁶ 

Psalms 74:20

74:20 Remember your covenant promises, ⁷ 

for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. ⁸ 

Psalms 84:9

84:9 O God, take notice of our shield! ⁹ 

Show concern for your chosen king! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 119:6

119:6 Then I would not be ashamed,

if ¹¹  I were focused on ¹²  all your commands.

[22:17]  ¹ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 17-18 draw attention to the progressive nature of the action.

[22:17]  ² tn Heb “they.” The masculine form indicates the enemies are in view. The referent (the psalmist’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:17]  ³ tn Heb “they gaze, they look upon me.”

[33:13]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal forms in v. 13 state general facts.

[33:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “all the sons of men.”

[34:5]  ⁷ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[74:20]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word (כִּי) begins with kaf (כ).

[74:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol (Ps 88:6) or to hiding places likened to Sheol (Ps 143:3; Lam 3:6).

[84:9]  ¹³ tn The phrase “our shield” refers metaphorically to the Davidic king, who, as God’s vice-regent, was the human protector of the people. Note the parallelism with “your anointed one” here and with “our king” in Ps 89:18.

[84:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “look [on] the face of your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “your anointed one”) refers here to the Davidic king (see Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17).

[119:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “when.”

[119:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I gaze at.”