Psalms 34:15

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ¹ 

Psalms 35:21

35:21 They are ready to devour me; ² 

they say, “Aha! Aha! We’ve got you!” ³ 

Psalms 60:2

60:2 You made the earth quake; you split it open. ⁴ 

Repair its breaches, for it is ready to fall. ⁵ 

Psalms 74:15

74:15 You broke open the spring and the stream; ⁶ 

you dried up perpetually flowing rivers. ⁷ 

[34:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[35:21]  ² tn Heb “and they cause their mouth to be wide against me.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the generalizing mood of the previous verse. For other examples of this use of the prefixed verbal form with vav consecutive, see GKC 329 §111.t.

[35:21]  ³ tn Heb “our eye sees.” Apparently this is an idiom meaning to “look in triumph” or “gloat over” (see Ps 54:7).

[60:2]  ³ tn The verb פָּצַם (patsam, “split open”) occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “crack,” and an Aramaic cognate is used in Tg. Jer 22:14 with the meaning “break open, frame.” See BDB 822 s.v. and Jastrow 1205 s.v. פְּצַם.

[60:2]  ⁴ sn It is ready to fall. The earth is compared to a wall that has been broken by the force of the earthquake (note the preceding line) and is ready to collapse.

[74:15]  ⁴ sn You broke open the spring and the stream. Perhaps this alludes to the way in which God provided water for the Israelites as they traveled in the wilderness following the exodus (see Ps 78:15-16, 20; 105:41).

[74:15]  ⁵ sn Perpetually flowing rivers are rivers that contain water year round, unlike the seasonal streams that flow only during the rainy season. Perhaps the psalmist here alludes to the drying up of the Jordan River when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan under Joshua (see Josh 3-4).