Psalms 7:6-7

7:6 Stand up angrily, ¹  Lord!

Rise up with raging fury against my enemies! ² 

Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them! ³ 

7:7 The countries are assembled all around you; ⁴ 

take once more your rightful place over them! ⁵ 

Psalms 22:21-27

22:21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion, ⁶ 

and from the horns of the wild oxen! ⁷ 

You have answered me! ⁸ 

22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! ⁹ 

In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!

22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, ¹⁰  praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! ¹¹ 

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ¹²  of the oppressed; ¹³ 

he did not ignore him; ¹⁴ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹⁵ 

22:25 You are the reason I offer praise ¹⁶  in the great assembly;

I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers. ¹⁷ 

22:26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled! ¹⁸ 

Let those who seek his help praise the Lord!

May you ¹⁹  live forever!

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ²⁰ 

Let all the nations ²¹  worship you! ²² 

Psalms 34:2

34:2 I will boast ²³  in the Lord;

let the oppressed hear and rejoice! ²⁴ 

Psalms 107:41-42

107:41 Yet he protected ²⁵  the needy from oppression,

and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.

107:42 When the godly see this, they rejoice,

and every sinner ²⁶  shuts his mouth.

Psalms 119:74

119:74 Your loyal followers will be glad when they see me, ²⁷ 

for I find hope in your word.

[7:6]  ¹ tn Heb “in your anger.”

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “Lift yourself up in the angry outbursts of my enemies.” Many understand the preposition prefixed to עַבְרוֹת (’avrot, “angry outbursts”) as adversative, “against,” and the following genitive “enemies” as subjective. In this case one could translate, “rise up against my furious enemies” (cf. NIV, NRSV). The present translation, however, takes the preposition as indicating manner (cf. “in your anger” in the previous line) and understands the plural form of the noun as indicating an abstract quality (“fury”) or excessive degree (“raging fury”). Cf. Job 21:30.

[7:6]  ³ tc Heb “Wake up to me [with the] judgment [which] you have commanded.” The LXX understands אֵלִי (’eliy, “my God”) instead of אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”; the LXX reading is followed by NEB, NIV, NRSV.) If the reading of the MT is retained, the preposition probably has the sense of “on account of, for the sake of.” The noun מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”) is probably an adverbial accusative, modifying the initial imperative, “wake up.” In this case צִוִּיתָ (tsivvita, “[which] you have commanded”) is an asyndetic relative clause. Some take the perfect as precative. In this case one could translate the final line, “Wake up for my sake! Decree judgment!” (cf. NIV). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[7:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the assembly of the peoples surrounds you.” Some understand the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may the assembly of the peoples surround you.”

[7:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “over it (the feminine suffix refers back to the feminine noun “assembly” in the preceding line) on high return.” Some emend שׁוּבָה (shuvah, “return”) to שֵׁבָה (shevah, “sit [in judgment]”) because they find the implication of “return” problematic. But the psalmist does not mean to imply that God has abandoned his royal throne and needs to regain it. Rather he simply urges God, as sovereign king of the world, to once more occupy his royal seat of judgment and execute judgment, as the OT pictures God doing periodically.

[22:21]  ⁶ sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).

[22:21]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term רֵמִים (remim) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים (rÿ’emim, “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם).

[22:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (see IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7.) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.

[22:22]  ⁹ tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).

[22:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

[22:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fear him.”

[22:24]  ¹² tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ¹³ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “heard.”

[22:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”

[22:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.

[22:26]  ¹⁸ sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.

[22:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “may your heart[s].”

[22:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ²² tn Heb “before you.”

[34:2]  ²³ tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.

[34:2]  ²⁴ tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).

[107:41]  ²⁵ tn Heb “set on high.”

[107:42]  ²⁶ tn Heb “all evil,” which stands metonymically for those who do evil.

[119:74]  ²⁷ tn Heb “those who fear you will see me and rejoice.”