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 

Psalms 125:1-2

Psalm 125 ¹³ 

A song of ascents. ¹⁴ 

125:1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion;

it cannot be upended and will endure forever.

125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, ¹⁵ 

so the Lord surrounds his people,

now and forevermore.

Psalms 12:7

12:7 You, Lord, will protect them; ¹⁶ 

you will continually shelter each one from these evil people, ¹⁷ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ¹⁸ 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ¹⁹  “There is no God.” ²⁰ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ²¹ 

none of them does what is right. ²² 

Psalms 20:1

Psalm 20 ²³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ²⁴  you ²⁵  when you are in trouble; ²⁶ 

may the God of Jacob ²⁷  make you secure!

Isaiah 4:5-6

4:5 Then the Lord will create

over all of Mount Zion ²⁸ 

and over its convocations

a cloud and smoke by day

and a bright flame of fire by night; ²⁹ 

indeed a canopy will accompany the Lord’s glorious presence. ³⁰ 

4:6 By day it will be a shelter to provide shade from the heat,

as well as safety and protection from the heavy downpour. ³¹ 

Isaiah 37:33-36

37:33 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here. ³² 

He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, ³³ 

nor will he build siege works against it.

37:34 He will go back the way he came –

he will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.

37:35 I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” ³⁴ 

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ³⁵  went out and killed 185,000 troops ³⁶  in the Assyrian camp. When they ³⁷  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ³⁸ 

Zechariah 2:4-5

2:4 and said to him, “Hurry, speak to this young man ³⁹  as follows: ‘Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls ⁴⁰  because of the multitude of people and animals there. 2:5 But I (the Lord says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem ⁴¹  and the source of glory in her midst.’”

[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]  ⁶ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:4]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”

[125:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 125. The psalmist affirms his confidence in the Lord’s protection and justice.

[125:1]  ¹⁴ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[125:2]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[12:7]  ¹⁶ tn The third person plural pronominal suffix on the verb is masculine, referring back to the “oppressed” and “needy” in v. 5 (both of those nouns are plural in form), suggesting that the verb means “protect” here. The suffix does not refer to אִמֲרוֹת (’imarot, “words”) in v. 6, because that term is feminine gender.

[12:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you will protect him from this generation permanently.” The third masculine singular suffix on the verb “protect” is probably used in a distributive sense, referring to each one within the group mentioned previously (the oppressed/needy, referred to as “them” in the preceding line). On this grammatical point see GKC 396 §123.f (where the present text is not cited). (Some Hebrew mss and ancient textual witnesses read “us,” both here and in the preceding line.) The noun דוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the psalmist’s contemporaries, who were characterized by deceit and arrogance (see vv. 1-2). See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[14:1]  ¹⁸ sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ²⁰ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ²² tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[20:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ²⁴ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ²⁵ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[4:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “over all the place, Mount Zion.” Cf. NLT “Jerusalem”; CEV “the whole city.”

[4:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “a cloud by day, and smoke, and brightness of fire, a flame by night.” Though the accents in the Hebrew text suggest otherwise, it might be preferable to take “smoke” with what follows, since one would expect smoke to accompany fire.

[4:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “indeed (or “for”) over all the glory, a canopy.” This may allude to Exod 40:34-35, where a cloud overshadows the meeting tent as it is filled with God’s glory.

[4:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “a shelter it will be for shade by day from heat, and for a place of refuge and for a hiding place from cloudburst and rain.” Since both of the last nouns of this verse can mean rain, they can either refer to the rain storm and the rain as distinct items or together refer to a heavy downpour. Regardless, they do not represent unrelated phenomena.

[37:33]  ³² tn Heb “there” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). In terms of English style “here” is expected in collocation with “this” in the previous line.

[37:33]  ³³ tn Heb “[with] a shield” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[37:35]  ³⁴ tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

[37:36]  ³⁵ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ³⁶ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ³⁷ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ³⁸ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[2:4]  ³⁹ sn That is, to Zechariah.

[2:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Jerusalem will dwell as open regions (פְּרָזוֹת, pÿrazot)”; cf. NAB “in open country”; CEV “won’t have any boundaries.” The population will be so large as to spill beyond the ancient and normal enclosures. The people need not fear, however, for the Lord will be an invisible but strong wall (v. 5).

[2:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.