Psalms 5:8

5:8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness ¹ 

because of those who wait to ambush me, ² 

remove the obstacles in the way in which you are guiding me! ³ 

Psalms 34:3

34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!

Let’s praise ⁴  his name together!

Psalms 143:8-10

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ⁵ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ⁶ 

because I long for you. ⁷ 

143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!

I run to you for protection. ⁸ 

143:10 Teach me to do what pleases you, ⁹ 

for you are my God.

May your kind presence ¹⁰ 

lead me ¹¹  into a level land. ¹² 

Proverbs 8:20

8:20 I walk in the path of righteousness,

in the pathway of justice,

Isaiah 42:16

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹³ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ¹⁴ 

I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,

and level out the rough ground. ¹⁵ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

Jeremiah 31:8

31:8 Then I will reply, ¹⁶  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.

I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.

Blind and lame people will come with them,

so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.

A vast throng of people will come back here.

[5:8]  ¹ tn God’s providential leading is in view. His צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) includes here the deliverance that originates in his righteousness; he protects and vindicates the one whose cause is just. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 842 s.v.

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 27:11; 56:2.

[5:8]  ³ tn Heb “make level before me your way.” The imperative “make level” is Hiphil in the Kethib (consonantal text); Piel in the Qere (marginal reading). God’s “way” is here the way in which he leads the psalmist providentially (see the preceding line, where the psalmist asks the Lord to lead him).

[34:3]  ⁴ tn Or “exalt.”

[143:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  ⁶ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).

[143:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “to you I cover,” which makes no sense. The translation assumes an emendation to נַסְתִּי (nastiy, “I flee,” a Qal perfect, first singular form from נוּס, nos). Confusion of kaf (כ) and nun (נ) is attested elsewhere (see P. K. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 48). The collocation of נוּס (“flee”) with אֶל (’el, “to”) is well-attested.

[143:10]  ⁹ tn Or “your will.” See Ps 40:8.

[143:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your good spirit.” God’s “spirit” may refer here to his presence (see the note on the word “presence” in Ps 139:7) or to his personal Spirit (see Ps 51:10).

[143:10]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. Taking the statement as a prayer fits well with the petitionary tone of vv. 7-10a.

[143:10]  ¹² sn A level land (where one can walk free of obstacles) here symbolizes divine blessing and protection. See Pss 26:12 and 27:11 for similar imagery.

[42:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

[42:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

[42:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

[31:8]  ¹⁶ tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.