Psalms 43:3

43:3 Reveal ¹  your light ²  and your faithfulness!

They will lead me, ³ 

they will escort ⁴  me back to your holy hill, ⁵ 

and to the place where you live. ⁶ 

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁷  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁸ 

you crushed ⁹  the people living there ¹⁰  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ¹¹ 

Psalms 78:49

78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, ¹² 

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster. ¹³ 

Psalms 111:9

111:9 He delivered his people; ¹⁴ 

he ordained that his covenant be observed forever. ¹⁵ 

His name is holy and awesome.

Psalms 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹⁶  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹⁷ 

and your right hand delivers me.

Psalms 144:7

144:7 Reach down ¹⁸  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ¹⁹ 

from the power of foreigners, ²⁰ 

[43:3]  ¹ tn Heb “send.”

[43:3]  ² sn God’s deliverance is compared here to a light which will lead the psalmist back home to the Lord’s temple. Divine deliverance will in turn demonstrate the Lord’s faithfulness to his people.

[43:3]  ³ tn Or “may they lead me.” The prefixed verbal forms here and in the next line may be taken as jussives.

[43:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “bring.”

[43:3]  ⁵ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill is Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[43:3]  ⁶ tn Or “to your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the Lord’s special dwelling place (see Pss 46:4; 84:1; 132:5, 7).

[44:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ¹¹ 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.

[78:49]  ¹³ tn Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[78:49]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

[111:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “redemption he sent for his people.”

[111:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he commanded forever his covenant.”

[138:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

[144:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

[144:7]  ³² tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

[144:7]  ³³ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”