Psalms 36:7

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

The human race finds shelter under your wings. ² 

Psalms 37:20

37:20 But ³  evil men will die;

the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated ⁴  –

they will go up in smoke. ⁵ 

Psalms 45:9

45:9 Princesses ⁶  are among your honored guests, ⁷ 

your bride ⁸  stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir. ⁹ 

[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.

[37:20]  ³ tn Or “for,” but Hebrew כי in this case would have to extend all the way back to v. 17a. Another option is to understand the particle as asseverative, “surely” (see v. 22).

[37:20]  ⁴ tc The meaning of the MT (כִּיקַר כָּרִים [kiqar karim], “like what is precious among the pastures/rams”) is uncertain. One possibility is to take the noun כָּרִים as “pastures” and interpret “what is precious” as referring to flowers that blossom but then quickly disappear (see v. 2 and BDB 430 s.v. יָקָר 3). If כָּרִים is taken as “rams,” then “what is precious” might refer to the choicest portions of rams. The present translation follows a reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpPs37), כיקוד כורם (“like the burning of an oven”). The next line, which pictures the Lord’s enemies being consumed in smoke, supports this reading, which assumes confusion of the Hebrew letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) at the end of the first word in the sequence.

[37:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “they perish in smoke, they perish.” In addition to repeating the verb for emphasis, the psalmist uses the perfect form of the verb to picture the enemies’ demise as if it had already taken place. In this way he draws attention to the certitude of their judgment.

[45:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “daughters of kings.”

[45:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “valuable ones.” The form is feminine plural.

[45:9]  ⁷ tn This rare Hebrew noun apparently refers to the king’s bride, who will soon be queen (see Neh 2:6). The Aramaic cognate is used of royal wives in Dan 5:2-3, 23.

[45:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “a consort stands at your right hand, gold of Ophir.”