Psalms 51:5

51:5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ¹ 

Psalms 27:10

27:10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, ² 

the Lord would take me in. ³ 

Psalms 109:14

109:14 May his ancestors’ ⁴  sins be remembered by the Lord!

May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ⁵ 

Psalms 113:9

113:9 He makes the barren woman of the family ⁶ 

a happy mother of children. ⁷ 

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 35:14

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ⁸ 

I bowed down ⁹  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 131:2

131:2 Indeed ¹¹  I am composed and quiet, ¹² 

like a young child carried by its mother; ¹³ 

I am content like the young child I carry. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 22:10

22:10 I have been dependent on you since birth; ¹⁵ 

from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 22:9

22:9 Yes, you are the one who brought me out ¹⁷  from the womb

and made me feel secure on my mother’s breasts.

Psalms 139:13

139:13 Certainly ¹⁸  you made my mind and heart; ¹⁹ 

you wove me together ²⁰  in my mother’s womb.

Psalms 50:20

50:20 You plot against your brother; ²¹ 

you slander your own brother. ²² 

Psalms 71:6

71:6 I have leaned on you since birth; ²³ 

you pulled me ²⁴  from my mother’s womb.

I praise you continually. ²⁵ 

Psalms 69:8

69:8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger;

they act as if I were a foreigner. ²⁶ 

Psalms 78:71

78:71 He took him away from following the mother sheep, ²⁷ 

and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and of Israel, his chosen nation. ²⁸ 

[51:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, in wrongdoing I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The prefixed verbal form in the second line is probably a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive), stating a simple historical fact. The psalmist is not suggesting that he was conceived through an inappropriate sexual relationship (although the verse has sometimes been understood to mean that, or even that all sexual relationships are sinful). The psalmist’s point is that he has been a sinner from the very moment his personal existence began. By going back beyond the time of birth to the moment of conception, the psalmist makes his point more emphatically in the second line than in the first.

[27:10]  ² tn Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”

[27:10]  ³ tn Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”

[109:14]  ³ tn Or “fathers’ sins.”

[109:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “not be wiped out.”

[113:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “of the house.”

[113:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[35:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ⁶ sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”

[131:2]  ⁶ tn Or “but.”

[131:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “I make level and make quiet my soul.”

[131:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a weaned [one] upon his mother.”

[131:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the weaned [one] upon me, my soul.”

[22:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”

[22:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.”

[22:9]  ⁸ tn Or “the one who pulled me.” The verb is derived from either גָחָה (gakhah; see HALOT 187 s.v. גחה) or גִּיחַ (giyakh; see BDB 161 s.v. גִּיחַ) and seems to carry the nuance “burst forth” or “pull out.”

[139:13]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[139:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my kidneys.” The kidneys were sometimes viewed as the seat of one’s emotions and moral character (cf. Pss 7:9; 26:2). A number of translations, recognizing that “kidneys” does not communicate this idea to the modern reader, have generalized the concept: “inmost being” (NAB, NIV); “inward parts” (NASB, NRSV); “the delicate, inner parts of my body” (NLT). In the last instance, the focus is almost entirely on the physical body rather than the emotions or moral character. The present translation, by using a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms), links the concepts of emotion (heart) and moral character (mind).

[139:13]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave together”) is an alternate form of שָׂכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave”) used in Job 10:11.

[50:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you sit, against your brother you speak.” To “sit” and “speak” against someone implies plotting against that person (see Ps 119:23).

[50:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “against the son of your mother you give a fault.”

[71:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the womb.”

[71:6]  ¹² tc The form in the MT is derived from גָזָה (gazah, “to cut off”), perhaps picturing God as the one who severed the psalmist’s umbilical cord. Many interpreters and translators prefer to emend the text to גֹחִי (gokhiy), from גוּח (gukh) or גִיח, (gikh, “pull out”; see Ps 22:9; cf. the present translation) or to עוּזִּי (’uzziy, “my strength”; cf. NEB “my protector since I left my mother’s womb”).

[71:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “in you [is] my praise continually.”

[69:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and I am estranged to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.”

[78:71]  ¹³ tn Heb “from after the ewes he brought him.”

[78:71]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.”