Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ² 

you crushed ³  the people living there ⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁵ 

Psalms 78:55

78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments ⁶ 

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 18:9-10

18:9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish ⁸  a nation or kingdom. 18:10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

[44:2]  ¹ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ⁵ 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.

[78:55]  ⁶ tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”

[78:55]  ⁷ tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”

[18:9]  ⁸ sn Heb “plant.” The terms “uproot,” “tear down,” “destroy,” “build,” and “plant” are the two sides of the ministry Jeremiah was called to (cf. Jer 1:10).