Psalms 37:34

37:34 Rely ¹  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ² 

Then he will permit you ³  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ⁴ 

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁵  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁶ 

you crushed ⁷  the people living there ⁸  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁹ 

Psalms 69:35

69:35 For God will deliver Zion

and rebuild the cities of Judah,

and his people ¹⁰  will again live in them and possess Zion. ¹¹ 

[37:34]  ¹ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  ² tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[37:34]  ³ tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

[37:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[44:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ⁷ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ⁸ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[69:35]  ⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[69:35]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to “Zion” (see Pss 48:12; 102:14); thus the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.