Psalms 36:7

36:7 How precious ¹  is your loyal love, O God!

The human race finds shelter under your wings. ² 

Psalms 36:10

36:10 Extend ³  your loyal love to your faithful followers, ⁴ 

and vindicate ⁵  the morally upright! ⁶ 

Psalms 52:1

Psalm 52 ⁷ 

For the music director; a well-written song ⁸  by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: “David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.” ⁹ 

52:1 Why do you boast about your evil plans, ¹⁰  O powerful man?

God’s loyal love protects me all day long! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 31:14

31:14 I will provide the priests with abundant provisions. ¹² 

My people will be filled to the full with the good things I provide.”

Zechariah 9:17

9:17 How precious and fair! ¹³  Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the young women.

Zechariah 9:1

The Coming of the True King

9:1 An oracle of the word of the Lord concerning the land of Hadrach, ¹⁴  with its focus on Damascus: ¹⁵ 

The eyes of all humanity, ¹⁶  especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord,

Zechariah 4:7-10

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ¹⁷  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ¹⁸  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ¹⁹  because of this.” 4:8 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me as follows: 4:9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, ²⁰  and his hands will complete it.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you. 4:10 For who dares make light of small beginnings? These seven eyes ²¹  will joyfully look on the tin tablet ²²  in Zerubbabel’s hand. (These are the eyes of the Lord, which constantly range across the whole earth.)

[36:7]  ¹ tn Or “valuable.”

[36:7]  ² tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.

[36:10]  ³ tn Heb “draw out to full length.”

[36:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “to those who know you.” The Hebrew verb יָדַע (yada’, “know”) is used here of those who “know” the Lord in the sense that they recognize his royal authority and obey his will (see Jer 22:16).

[36:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your justice to.” The verb “extend” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the previous line).

[36:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

[52:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.

[52:1]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[52:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’”

[52:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Why do you boast in evil?”

[52:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the loyal love of God [is] all the day.” In this context, where the psalmist is threatened by his enemy, the point seems to be that the psalmist is protected by God’s loyal love at all times.

[31:14]  ¹² tn Heb “I will satiate the priests with fat.” However, the word translated “fat” refers literally to the fat ashes of the sacrifices (see Lev 1:16; 4:2 and cf. BDB 206 s.v. דֶּשֶׁן 2. The word is used more abstractly for “abundance” or “rich food” (see Job 36:16 and BDB 206 s.v. דֶּשֶׁן 1). The people and the priests were prohibited from eating the fat (Lev 7:23-24).

[9:17]  ¹³ sn This expostulation best fits the whole preceding description of God’s eschatological work on behalf of his people. His goodness is especially evident in his nurturing of the young men and women of his kingdom.

[9:1]  ¹⁴ sn The land of Hadrach was a northern region stretching from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south (cf. NLT “Aram”).

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Damascus its resting place.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix on “resting place” (מְנֻחָתוֹ, mÿnukhato), however, precludes “land” or even “Hadrach,” both of which are feminine, from being the antecedent. Most likely “word” (masculine) is the antecedent, i.e., the “word of the Lord” is finding its resting place, that is, its focus in or on Damascus.

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tc Though without manuscript and version support, many scholars suggest emendation here to clarify what, to them, is an unintelligible reading. Thus some propose עָדֵי אָרָם (’ade ’aram, “cities of Aram”; cf. NAB, NRSV) for עֵין אָדָם (’en ’adam, “eye of man”) or אֲדָמָה (’adamah, “ground”) for אָדָם (’adam, “man”), “(surface of) the earth.” It seems best, however, to see “eye” as collective and to understand the passage as saying that the attention of the whole earth will be upon the Lord (cf. NIV, NLT).

[4:7]  ¹⁷ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

[4:7]  ¹⁸ tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ¹⁹ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).

[4:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV).

[4:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “these seven.” Eyes are clearly intended in the ellipsis as v. 10b shows. As in 3:9 the idea is God’s omniscience. He who knows the end from the beginning rejoices at the completion of his purposes.

[4:10]  ²² tn This term is traditionally translated “plumb line” (so NASB, NIV, NLT; cf. KJV, NRSV “plummet”), but it is more likely that the Hebrew בְּדִיל (bÿdil) is to be derived not from בָּדַל (badal), “to divide,” but from a root meaning “tin.” This finds support in the ancient Near Eastern custom of placing inscriptions on tin plates in dedicatory foundation deposits.