Psalms 34:18

34:18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted;

he delivers ¹  those who are discouraged. ² 

Psalms 69:20

69:20 Their insults are painful ³  and make me lose heart; ⁴ 

I look ⁵  for sympathy, but receive none, ⁶ 

for comforters, but find none.

Psalms 74:13

74:13 You destroyed ⁷  the sea by your strength;

you shattered the heads of the sea monster ⁸  in the water.

Psalms 76:3

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ⁹ 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ¹⁰  (Selah)

Psalms 124:7

124:7 We escaped with our lives, ¹¹  like a bird from a hunter’s snare.

The snare broke, and we escaped.

[34:18]  ¹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the Lord typically delivers the oppressed and needy.

[34:18]  ² tn Heb “the crushed in spirit.”

[69:20]  ³ tn Heb “break my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the origin of the psalmist’s emotions.

[69:20]  ⁴ tn The verb form appears to be a Qal preterite from an otherwise unattested root נוּשׁ (nush), which some consider an alternate form of אָנַשׁ (’anash, “be weak; be sick”; see BDB 60 s.v. I אָנַשׁ). Perhaps the form should be emended to a Niphal, וָאֵאָנְשָׁה (va’e’onshah, “and I am sick”). The Niphal of אָנַשׁ occurs in 2 Sam 12:15, where it is used to describe David’s sick child.

[69:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “wait.”

[69:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I wait for sympathy, but there is none.” The form נוּד (nud) is an infinitive functioning as a verbal noun:, “sympathizing.” Some suggest emending the form to a participle נָד (nad, “one who shows sympathy”). The verb נוּד (nud) also has the nuance “show sympathy” in Job 2:11; 42:11 and Isa 51:19.

[74:13]  ⁵ tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ (porarta) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר (parar) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”

[74:13]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.

[76:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[124:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “our life escaped.”