Psalms 5:10

5:10 Condemn them, ¹  O God!

May their own schemes be their downfall! ² 

Drive them away ³  because of their many acts of insurrection, ⁴ 

for they have rebelled against you.

Psalms 7:9

7:9 May the evil deeds of the wicked ⁵  come to an end! ⁶ 

But make the innocent ⁷  secure, ⁸ 

O righteous God,

you who examine ⁹  inner thoughts and motives! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 22:15

22:15 The roof of my mouth ¹¹  is as dry as a piece of pottery;

my tongue sticks to my gums. ¹² 

You ¹³  set me in the dust of death. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 42:6

42:6 I am depressed, ¹⁵ 

so I will pray to you while I am trapped here in the region of the upper Jordan, ¹⁶ 

from Hermon, ¹⁷  from Mount Mizar. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 66:15

66:15 I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,

along with the smell of sacrificial rams.

I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)

Psalms 88:5

88:5 adrift ¹⁹  among the dead,

like corpses lying in the grave,

whom you remember no more,

and who are cut off from your power. ²⁰ 

Psalms 101:2

101:2 I will walk in ²¹  the way of integrity.

When will you come to me?

I will conduct my business with integrity in the midst of my palace. ²² 

Psalms 104:3

104:3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ²³ 

He makes the clouds his chariot,

and travels along on the wings of the wind. ²⁴ 

Psalms 142:3

142:3 Even when my strength leaves me, ²⁵ 

you watch my footsteps. ²⁶ 

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

[5:10]  ¹ tn Heb “declare/regard them as guilty.” Declaring the psalmist’s adversaries guilty is here metonymic for judging them or paying them back for their wrongdoing.

[5:10]  ² tn Heb “may they fall from their plans.” The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation. The psalmist calls judgment down on the evildoers. Their plans will be their downfall in that God will judge them for their evil schemes.

[5:10]  ³ tn Or “banish them.”

[5:10]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew noun used here, פֶּשַׁע (pesha’), refers to rebellious actions. The psalmist pictures his enemies as rebels against God (see the next line).

[7:9]  ⁵ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation here.

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Or “the godly” (see Ps 5:12). The singular form is collective (see the plural “upright in heart” in v. 10), though it may reflect the personal focus of the psalmist in this context.

[7:9]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form expresses the psalmist’s prayer or wish.

[7:9]  ⁹ tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 11:4; 26:2; 139:23.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and [the one who] tests hearts and kidneys, just God.” The translation inverts the word order to improve the English style. The heart and kidneys were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.

[22:15]  ⁹ tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.

[22:15]  ¹⁰ tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”

[22:15]  ¹¹ sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).

[22:15]  ¹² sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.

[42:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “my God, upon me my soul bows down.” As noted earlier, “my God” belongs with the end of v. 6.

[42:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan.” “Remember” is here used metonymically for prayer (see vv. 8-9). As the next line indicates, the region of the upper Jordan, where the river originates, is in view.

[42:6]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “Hermons.” The plural form of the name occurs only here in the OT. Some suggest the plural refers to multiple mountain peaks (cf. NASB) or simply retain the plural in the translation (cf. NEB), but the final mem (ם) is probably dittographic (note that the next form in the text begins with the letter mem) or enclitic. At a later time it was misinterpreted as a plural marker and vocalized accordingly.

[42:6]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term מִצְעָר (mits’ar) is probably a proper name (“Mizar”), designating a particular mountain in the Hermon region. The name appears only here in the OT.

[88:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “set free.”

[88:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from your hand.”

[101:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “take notice of.”

[101:2]  ²² tn Heb “I will walk about in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house.”

[104:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.

[104:3]  ²⁶ sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[142:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[142:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “you know my path.”