Psalms 76:1-5

Psalm 76 ¹ 

For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.

76:1 God has revealed himself in Judah; ² 

in Israel his reputation ³  is great.

76:2 He lives in Salem; ⁴ 

he dwells in Zion. ⁵ 

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ⁶ 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ⁷  (Selah)

76:4 You shine brightly and reveal your majesty,

as you descend from the hills where you killed your prey. ⁸ 

76:5 The bravehearted ⁹  were plundered; ¹⁰ 

they “fell asleep.” ¹¹ 

All the warriors were helpless. ¹² 

[76:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 76. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior who destroys Israel’s enemies.

[76:1]  ² tn Or “God is known in Judah.”

[76:1]  ³ tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[76:2]  ⁴ sn Salem is a shorter name for Jerusalem (see Gen 14:18).

[76:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and his place of refuge is in Salem, and his lair in Zion.” God may be likened here to a lion (see v. 4).

[76:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “radiant [are] you, majestic from the hills of prey.” God is depicted as a victorious king and as a lion that has killed its victims.

[76:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

[76:5]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

[76:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

[76:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”