Psalms 80:8

80:8 You uprooted a vine ¹  from Egypt;

you drove out nations and transplanted it.

Psalms 104:16

104:16 The trees of the Lord ²  receive all the rain they need, ³ 

the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,

Psalms 107:37

107:37 They cultivated ⁴  fields,

and planted vineyards,

which yielded a harvest of fruit. ⁵ 

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁶  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁷ 

you crushed ⁸  the people living there ⁹  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 80:15

80:15 the root ¹¹  your right hand planted,

the shoot you made to grow! ¹² 

Psalms 94:9

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ¹³ 

[80:8]  ¹ sn The vine is here a metaphor for Israel (see Ezek 17:6-10; Hos 10:1).

[104:16]  ² sn The trees of the Lord are the cedars of Lebanon (see the next line), which are viewed as special because of their great size and grandeur. The Lebanon forest was viewed elsewhere in the OT as the “garden of God” (see Ezek 31:8).

[104:16]  ³ tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).

[107:37]  ³ tn Heb “sowed seed in.”

[107:37]  ⁴ tn Heb “fruit [as] produce.”

[44:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ⁶ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ⁷ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[80:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן emends the form to כַּנָּהּ (kannah, “its shoot”).

[80:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and upon a son you strengthened for yourself.” In this context, where the extended metaphor of the vine dominates, בֵּן (ben, “son”) probably refers to the shoots that grow from the vine. Cf. Gen 49:22.

[94:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”