Psalms 37:23

37:23 The Lord grants success to the one

whose behavior he finds commendable. ¹ 

Psalms 37:2

37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,

and wither away like plants. ² 

Psalms 22:18-27

22:18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves;

they are rolling dice ³  for my garments.

22:19 But you, O Lord, do not remain far away!

You are my source of strength! ⁴  Hurry and help me! ⁵ 

22:20 Deliver me ⁶  from the sword!

Save ⁷  my life ⁸  from the claws ⁹  of the wild dogs!

22:21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion, ¹⁰ 

and from the horns of the wild oxen! ¹¹ 

You have answered me! ¹² 

22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! ¹³ 

In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!

22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, ¹⁴  praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! ¹⁵ 

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ¹⁶  of the oppressed; ¹⁷ 

he did not ignore him; ¹⁸ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹⁹ 

22:25 You are the reason I offer praise ²⁰  in the great assembly;

I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers. ²¹ 

22:26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled! ²² 

Let those who seek his help praise the Lord!

May you ²³  live forever!

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ²⁴ 

Let all the nations ²⁵  worship you! ²⁶ 

Psalms 22:1

Psalm 22 ²⁷ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ²⁸  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ²⁹ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ³⁰ 

Psalms 10:9

10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; ³¹ 

he lies in ambush, waiting to catch ³²  the oppressed;

he catches the oppressed ³³  by pulling in his net. ³⁴ 

[37:23]  ¹ tn Heb “from the Lord the steps of a man are established, and in his way he delights.” The second line qualifies the first. The man whose behavior is commendable in God’s sight is the one whose ways are established by God. Another option is that the second line refers to the godly man delighting in God’s “way,” namely the lifestyle which he prescribes for men. In this case one might translate, “The Lord grants success to the one who desires to obey his commands.”

[37:2]  ² tn Heb “like green vegetation.”

[22:18]  ³ tn Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.

[22:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “O my strength.”

[22:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “hurry to my help.”

[22:20]  ⁶ tn Or “my life.”

[22:20]  ⁷ tn The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).

[22:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.

[22:20]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).

[22:21]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[22:22]  ¹³ tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).

[22:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

[22:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fear him.”

[22:24]  ¹⁶ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ¹⁷ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “heard.”

[22:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”

[22:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.

[22:26]  ²² sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.

[22:26]  ²³ tn Heb “may your heart[s].”

[22:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ²⁵ tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “before you.”

[22:1]  ²⁷ sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.

[22:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ²⁹ sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).

[22:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.

[10:9]  ³¹ tn Or “in its den.”

[10:9]  ³² tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.

[10:9]  ³³ tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.

[10:9]  ³⁴ tn Or “when he [i.e., the wicked man] pulls in his net.”