Psalms 44:1

Psalm 44 ¹ 

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ² 

44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; ³ 

our ancestors ⁴  have told us

what you did ⁵  in their days,

in ancient times. ⁶ 

Psalms 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ⁷ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ⁸ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ⁹  (Selah)

Exodus 12:26-27

12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ¹⁰  – 12:27 then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ¹¹  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ¹²  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ¹³  to the ground,

Exodus 13:8

13:8 You are to tell your son ¹⁴  on that day, ¹⁵  ‘It is ¹⁶  because of what ¹⁷  the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Exodus 13:14-15

13:14 ¹⁸ In the future, ¹⁹  when your son asks you ²⁰  ‘What is this?’ ²¹  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ²²  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ²³  13:15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused ²⁴  to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. ²⁵  That is why I am sacrificing ²⁶  to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’

[44:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.

[44:1]  ² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.

[44:1]  ³ tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”

[44:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.

[44:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the work you worked.”

[44:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.

[48:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ⁹ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[12:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what is this service to you?”

[12:27]  ¹¹ sn This expression “the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover” occurs only here. The word זֶבַח (zevakh) means “slaughtering” and so a blood sacrifice. The fact that this word is used in Lev 3 for the peace offering has linked the Passover as a kind of peace offering, and both the Passover and the peace offerings were eaten as communal meals.

[12:27]  ¹² tn The verb means “to strike, smite, plague”; it is the same verb that has been used throughout this section (נָגַף, nagaf). Here the construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

[12:27]  ¹³ tn The two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “and the people bowed down and they worshiped.” The words are synonymous, and so one is taken as the adverb for the other.

[13:8]  ¹⁴ tn The form is the Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence forward: “and you will declare to your son.”

[13:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “day, saying.” “Tell…saying” is redundant, so “saying” has not been included in the translation here.

[13:8]  ¹⁶ tn “it is” has been supplied.

[13:8]  ¹⁷ tn The text uses זֶה (zeh), which Gesenius classifies as the use of the pronoun to introduce a relative clause after the preposition (GKC 447 §138.h) – but he thinks the form is corrupt. B. S. Childs, however, sees no reason to posit a corruption in this form (Exodus [OTL], 184).

[13:14]  ¹⁸ sn As with v. 8, the Law now requires that the children be instructed on the meaning of this observance. It is a memorial of the deliverance from bondage and the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

[13:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “tomorrow.”

[13:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and it will be when your son will ask you.”

[13:14]  ²¹ tn The question is cryptic; it simply says, “What is this?” but certainly refers to the custom just mentioned. It asks, “What does this mean?” or “Why do we do this?”

[13:14]  ²² tn The expression is “with strength of hand,” making “hand” the genitive of specification. In translation “strength” becomes the modifier, because “hand” specifies where the strength was. But of course the whole expression is anthropomorphic for the power of God.

[13:14]  ²³ tn Heb “house of slaves.”

[13:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “dealt hardly in letting us go” or “made it hard to let us go” (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 110). The verb is the simple Hiphil perfect הִקְשָׁה (hiqshah, “he made hard”); the infinitive construct לְשַׁלְּחֵנוּ (lÿshallÿkhenu, “to release us”) could be taken epexegetically, meaning “he made releasing us hard.” But the infinitive more likely gives the purpose or the result after the verb “hardened himself.” The verb is figurative for “be stubborn” or “stubbornly refuse.”

[13:15]  ²⁵ tn The text uses “man” and “beast.”

[13:15]  ²⁶ tn The form is the active participle.