Psalms 45:4

45:4 Appear in your majesty and be victorious! ¹ 

Ride forth for the sake of what is right, ² 

on behalf of justice! ³ 

Then your right hand will accomplish mighty acts! ⁴ 

Psalms 47:2-3

47:2 For the sovereign Lord ⁵  is awe-inspiring; ⁶ 

he is the great king who rules the whole earth! ⁷ 

47:3 He subdued nations beneath us ⁸ 

and countries ⁹  under our feet.

Psalms 66:3

66:3 Say to God:

“How awesome are your deeds!

Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear ¹⁰  before you.

Psalms 76:3-9

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ¹¹ 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ¹²  (Selah)

76:4 You shine brightly and reveal your majesty,

as you descend from the hills where you killed your prey. ¹³ 

76:5 The bravehearted ¹⁴  were plundered; ¹⁵ 

they “fell asleep.” ¹⁶ 

All the warriors were helpless. ¹⁷ 

76:6 At the sound of your battle cry, ¹⁸  O God of Jacob,

both rider ¹⁹  and horse “fell asleep.” ²⁰ 

76:7 You are awesome! Yes, you!

Who can withstand your intense anger? ²¹ 

76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. ²² 

The earth ²³  was afraid and silent

76:9 when God arose to execute judgment,

and to deliver all the oppressed of the earth. (Selah)

Deuteronomy 4:34

4:34 Or has God ²⁴  ever before tried to deliver ²⁵  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ²⁶  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ²⁷  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Deuteronomy 10:21

10:21 He is the one you should praise; ²⁸  he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen.

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ²⁹  went out and killed 185,000 troops ³⁰  in the Assyrian camp. When they ³¹  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ³² 

[45:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and your majesty, be successful.” The syntax is awkward. The phrase “and your majesty” at the beginning of the verse may be accidentally repeated (dittography); it appears at the end of v. 3.

[45:4]  ² tn Or “for the sake of truth.”

[45:4]  ³ tc The precise meaning of the MT is uncertain. The form עַנְוָה (’anvah) occurs only here. One could emend the text to עֲנָוָה וְצֶדֶק (’anavah vÿtsedeq, “[for the sake of truth], humility, and justice”). In this case “humility” would perhaps allude to the king’s responsibility to “serve” his people by promoting justice (cf. NIV “in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness”). The present translation assumes an emendation to יַעַן (ya’an, “because; on account of”) which would form a suitable parallel to עַל־דְּבַר (’al-dÿvar, “because; for the sake of”) in the preceding line.

[45:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and your right hand will teach you mighty acts”; or “and may your right hand teach you mighty acts.” After the imperatives in the first half of the verse, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive likely indicates purpose (“so that your right hand might teach you mighty acts”) or result (see the present translation). The “right hand” here symbolizes the king’s military strength. His right hand will “teach” him mighty acts by performing them and thereby causing him to experience their magnificence.

[47:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord Most High.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures the Lord as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked.

[47:2]  ⁶ tn Or “awesome.” The Niphal participle נוֹרָא (nora’), when used of God in the psalms, focuses on the effect that his royal splendor and powerful deeds have on those witnessing his acts (Pss 66:3, 5; 68:35; 76:7, 12; 89:7; 96:4; 99:3; 111:9). Here it refers to his capacity to fill his defeated foes with terror and his people with fearful respect.

[47:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “a great king over all the earth.”

[47:3]  ⁸ tn On the meaning of the verb דָּבַר (davar, “subdue”), a homonym of דָּבַר (“speak”), see HALOT 209-10 s.v. I דבר. See also Ps 18:47 and 2 Chr 22:10. The preterite form of the verb suggests this is an historical reference and the next verse, which mentions the gift of the land, indicates that the conquest under Joshua is in view.

[47:3]  ⁹ tn Or “peoples” (see Pss 2:1; 7:7; 9:8; 44:2).

[66:3]  ¹⁰ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).

[76:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ¹² tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “radiant [are] you, majestic from the hills of prey.” God is depicted as a victorious king and as a lion that has killed its victims.

[76:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

[76:5]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

[76:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

[76:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”

[76:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from your shout.” The noun is derived from the Hebrew verb גָּעַר (ga’ar), which is often understood to mean “rebuke.” In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Pss 68:30; 106:9; Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 9:5; 18:15; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.

[76:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “chariot,” but even so the term is metonymic for the charioteer.

[76:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he fell asleep, and [the] chariot and [the] horse.” Once again (see v. 5) “sleep” refers here to the “sleep” of death.

[76:7]  ²¹ tc Heb “and who can stand before you from the time of your anger?” The Hebrew expression מֵאָז (me’az, “from the time of”) is better emended to מֵאֹז (me’oz, “from [i.e., “because of”] the strength of your anger”; see Ps 90:11).

[76:8]  ²² tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”

[76:8]  ²³ tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.

[4:34]  ²⁴ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ²⁵ tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ²⁶ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ²⁷ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[10:21]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your praise.” The pronoun is subjective and the noun “praise” is used here metonymically for the object of their praise (the Lord).

[37:36]  ²⁹ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ³⁰ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ³¹ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ³² tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”