Psalms 22:20-21

22:20 Deliver me ¹  from the sword!

Save ²  my life ³  from the claws ⁴  of the wild dogs!

22:21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion, ⁵ 

and from the horns of the wild oxen! ⁶ 

You have answered me! ⁷ 

Psalms 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ⁸  among those who want to devour me; ⁹ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 69:14-15

69:14 Rescue me from the mud! Don’t let me sink!

Deliver me ¹¹  from those who hate me,

from the deep water!

69:15 Don’t let the current overpower me!

Don’t let the deep swallow me up!

Don’t let the pit ¹²  devour me! ¹³ 

Psalms 142:6-7

142:6 Listen to my cry for help,

for I am in serious trouble! ¹⁴ 

Rescue me from those who chase me,

for they are stronger than I am.

142:7 Free me ¹⁵  from prison,

that I may give thanks to your name.

Because of me the godly will assemble, ¹⁶ 

for you will vindicate me. ¹⁷ 

[22:20]  ¹ tn Or “my life.”

[22:20]  ² tn The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).

[22:20]  ³ tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.

[22:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the hand.” Here “hand” is understood by metonymy as a reference to the “paw” and thus the “claws” of the wild dogs.

[22:21]  ⁵ sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).

[22:21]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term רֵמִים (remim) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים (rÿ’emim, “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם).

[22:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (see IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7.) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.

[57:4]  ⁸ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[69:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “let me be delivered.”

[69:15]  ¹² tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).

[69:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”

[142:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for I am very low.”

[142:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “bring out my life.”

[142:7]  ¹⁶ tn Or “gather around.”

[142:7]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense.