Discovery BoxPsalms 69:23-36
Context69:23 May their eyes be blinded! 1
Make them shake violently! 2
69:24 Pour out your judgment 3 on them!
May your raging anger 4 overtake them!
69:25 May their camp become desolate,
their tents uninhabited! 5
69:26 For they harass 6 the one whom you discipline; 7
they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. 8
69:27 Hold them accountable for all their sins! 9
Do not vindicate them! 10
69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! 11
Do not let their names be listed with the godly! 12
69:29 I am oppressed and suffering!
O God, deliver and protect me! 13
69:30 I will sing praises to God’s name! 14
I will magnify him as I give him thanks! 15
69:31 That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull
with horns and hooves.
69:32 The oppressed look on – let them rejoice!
You who seek God, 16 may you be encouraged! 17
69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;
he does not despise his captive people. 18
69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
along with the seas and everything that swims in them!
69:35 For God will deliver Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah,
and his people 19 will again live in them and possess Zion. 20
69:36 The descendants of his servants will inherit it,
[69:23] 1 tn Heb “may their eyes be darkened from seeing.”
[69:23] 2 tn Heb “make their hips shake continually.”
[69:24] 3 tn Heb “anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger.
[69:24] 4 tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971), 17-81.
[69:25] 5 tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”
[69:26] 6 tn Or “persecute”; Heb “chase.”
[69:26] 7 tn Heb “for you, the one whom you strike, they chase.”
[69:26] 8 tn Heb “they announce the pain of your wounded ones” (i.e., “the ones whom you wounded,” as the parallel line makes clear).
[69:27] 9 tn Heb “place sin upon their sin.”
[69:27] 10 tn Heb “let them not come into your vindication.”
[69:28] 11 tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”
[69:28] 12 tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”
[69:29] 13 tn Heb “your deliverance, O God, may it protect me.”
[69:30] 14 tn Heb “I will praise the name of God with a song.”
[69:30] 15 tn Heb “I will magnify him with thanks.”
[69:32] 16 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] 17 tn Heb “may your heart[s] live.” See Ps 22:26.
[69:33] 18 tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”
[69:35] 19 tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[69:35] 20 tn Heb “it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to “Zion” (see Pss 48:12; 102:14); thus the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[69:36] 21 tn Heb “the lovers of his name.” The phrase refers to those who are loyal to God (cf. v. 35). See Pss 5:11; 119:132; Isa 56:6.
[69:36] 22 sn Verses 35-36 appear to be an addition to the psalm from the time of the exile. The earlier lament reflects an individual’s situation, while these verses seem to reflect a communal application of it.
