Psalms 58:3

58:3 The wicked turn aside from birth; ¹ 

liars go astray as soon as they are born. ² 

Psalms 69:32

69:32 The oppressed look on – let them rejoice!

You who seek God, ³  may you be encouraged! ⁴ 

Psalms 89:27

89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, ⁵ 

the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

Psalms 119:160

119:160 Your instructions are totally reliable;

all your just regulations endure. ⁶ 

Psalms 132:6

132:6 Look, we heard about it ⁷  in Ephrathah, ⁸ 

we found it in the territory of Jaar. ⁹ 

[58:3]  ¹ tn Heb “from the womb.”

[58:3]  ² tn Heb “speakers of a lie go astray from the womb.”

[69:32]  ³ sn You who seek God refers to those who seek to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him (see Ps 53:2).

[69:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “may your heart[s] live.” See Ps 22:26.

[89:27]  ⁵ sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.

[119:160]  ⁷ tn Heb “the head of your word is truth, and forever [is] all your just regulation.” The term “head” is used here of the “sum total” of God’s instructions.

[132:6]  ⁹ tn Rather than having an antecedent, the third feminine singular pronominal suffix here (and in the next line) appears to refer to the ark of the covenant, mentioned in v. 8. (The Hebrew term אָרוֹן [’aron, “ark”] is sometimes construed as grammatically feminine. See 1 Sam 4:17; 2 Chr 8:11.)

[132:6]  ¹⁰ sn Some understand Ephrathah as a reference to Kiriath-jearim because of the apparent allusion to this site in the next line (see the note on “Jaar”). The ark was kept in Kiriath-jearim after the Philistines released it (see 1 Sam 6:21-7:2). However, the switch in verbs from “heard about” to “found” suggests that Ephrathah not be equated with Jair. The group who is speaking heard about the ark while they were in Ephrath. They then went to retrieve it from Kiriath-jearim (“Jaar”). It is more likely that Ephrathah refers to a site near Bethel (Gen 35:16, 19; 48:7) or to Bethlehem (Ruth 4:11; Mic 5:2).

[132:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fields of the forest.” The Hebrew term יָעַר (ya’ad, “forest”) is apparently a shortened alternative name for קִרְיַת יְעָרִים (qiryat yÿ’arim, “Kiriath-jearim”), the place where the ark was kept after it was released by the Philistines and from which David and his men retrieved it (see 1 Chr 13:6).