Psalms 41:2

May the Lord protect him and save his life! ¹  May he be blessed ²  in the land! Do not turn him over ³  to his enemies! ⁴ 

biblegateway Psa 41:2

The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.

biblegateway Psa 41:2

The LORD will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.

biblegateway Psa 41:2

The LORD protects them and keeps them alive. He gives them prosperity and rescues them from their enemies.

biblegateway Psa 41:2

GOD looks after us all, makes us robust with life--Lucky to be in the land, we're free from enemy worries.

SABDAweb Psa 41:2

The Lord will keep him safe, and give him life; the Lord will let him be a blessing on the earth, and will not give him into the hand of his haters.

bibleoremus Psa 41:2

The LORD protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.

biblegateway Psa 41:2

The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.

biblegateway Psa 41:2

May the Lord protect him and save his life! ¹  May he be blessed ²  in the land! Do not turn him over ³  to his enemies! ⁴ 

¹ tn The prefixed verbal forms are taken as jussives in the translation because the jussive is clearly used in the final line of the verse, suggesting that this is a prayer. The psalmist stops to pronounce a prayer of blessing on the godly individual envisioned in v. 1. Of course, he actually has himself primarily in view. He mixes confidence (vv. 1, 3) with petition (v. 2) because he stands in the interval between the word of assurance and the actual intervention by God.

² tc The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib), which has a Pual (passive) prefixed form, regarded here as a jussive. The Pual of the verb אָשַׁר (’ashar) also appears in Prov 3:18. The marginal reading (Qere) assumes a vav (ו) consecutive and Pual perfect. Some, with the support of the LXX, change the verb to a Piel (active) form with an objective pronominal suffix, “and may he bless him,” or “and he will bless him” (cf. NIV).

³ tn The negative particle אַל (’al) before the prefixed verbal form indicates the verb is a jussive and the statement a prayer. Those who want to take v. 2 as a statement of confidence suggest emending the negative particle to לֹא (lo’), which is used with the imperfect. See the earlier note on the verbal forms in line one of this verse. According to GKC 322 §109.e, this is a case where the jussive is used rhetorically to “express that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one might translate, “you will not turn him over to his enemies,” and take the preceding verbal forms as indicative in mood.

⁴ tn Heb “do not give him over to the desire of his enemies” (see Ps 27:12).