1 Kings 4:1--5:18 
Context4:1 King Solomon ruled over all Israel. 4:2 These were his officials:
Azariah son of Zadok was the priest.
4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, wrote down what happened. 1
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of the records.
4:4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was commander of 2 the army.
Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
4:5 Azariah son of Nathan was supervisor of 3 the district governors.
Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and adviser to 4 the king.
4:6 Ahishar was supervisor of the palace. 5
Adoniram son of Abda was supervisor of 6 the work crews. 7
4:7 Solomon had twelve district governors appointed throughout Israel who acquired supplies for the king and his palace. Each was responsible for one month in the year. 4:8 These were their names:
Ben-Hur was in charge of the hill country of Ephraim.
4:9 Ben-Deker was in charge of Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan.
4:10 Ben-Hesed was in charge of Arubboth; he controlled Socoh and all the territory of Hepher.
4:11 Ben-Abinadab was in charge of Naphath Dor. (He was married to Solomon’s daughter Taphath.)
4:12 Baana son of Ahilud was in charge of Taanach and Megiddo, 8 as well as all of Beth Shan next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth Shan to Abel Meholah and on past Jokmeam.
4:13 Ben-Geber was in charge of Ramoth Gilead; he controlled the tent villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan, including sixty large walled cities with bronze bars locking their gates.
4:14 Ahinadab son of Iddo was in charge of Mahanaim.
4:15 Ahimaaz was in charge of Naphtali. (He married Solomon’s daughter Basemath.)
4:16 Baana son of Hushai was in charge of Asher and Aloth.
4:17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah was in charge of Issachar.
4:18 Shimei son of Ela was in charge of Benjamin.
4:19 Geber son of Uri was in charge of the land of Gilead (the territory which had once belonged to King Sihon of the Amorites and to King Og of Bashan). He was sole governor of the area.
4:20 The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy. 4:21 (5:1) 9 Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River 10 to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms paid tribute as Solomon’s subjects throughout his lifetime. 11 4:22 Each day Solomon’s royal court consumed 12 thirty cors 13 of finely milled flour, sixty cors of cereal, 4:23 ten calves fattened in the stall, 14 twenty calves from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, not to mention rams, gazelles, deer, and well-fed birds. 4:24 His royal court was so large because 15 he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River from Tiphsah 16 to Gaza; he was at peace with all his neighbors. 17 4:25 All the people of Judah and Israel had security; everyone from Dan to Beer Sheba enjoyed the produce of their vines and fig trees throughout Solomon’s lifetime. 18 4:26 Solomon had 4,000 19 stalls for his chariot horses and 12,000 horses. 4:27 The district governors acquired supplies for King Solomon and all who ate in his royal palace. 20 Each was responsible for one month in the year; they made sure nothing was lacking. 4:28 Each one also brought to the assigned location his quota of barley and straw for the various horses. 21
4:29 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding 22 was as infinite as the sand on the seashore. 4:30 Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt. 23 4:31 He was wiser than any man, including Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He was famous in all the neighboring nations. 24 4:32 He composed 25 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. 4:33 He produced manuals on botany, describing every kind of plant, 26 from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on walls. He also produced manuals on biology, describing 27 animals, birds, insects, and fish. 4:34 People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s display of wisdom; 28 they came from all the kings of the earth who heard about his wisdom.
5:1 (5:15) 29 King Hiram of Tyre 30 sent messengers 31 to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place. (Hiram had always been an ally of David.) 5:2 Solomon then sent this message to Hiram: 5:3 “You know that my father David was unable to build a temple to honor the Lord 32 his God, for he was busy fighting battles on all fronts while the Lord subdued his enemies. 33 5:4 But now the Lord my God has made me secure on all fronts; there is no adversary or dangerous threat. 5:5 So I have decided 34 to build a temple to honor the Lord 35 my God, as the Lord instructed my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, is the one who will build a temple to honor me.’ 36 5:6 So now order some cedars of Lebanon to be cut for me. My servants will work with your servants. I will pay your servants whatever you say is appropriate, for you know that we have no one among us who knows how to cut down trees like the Sidonians.”
5:7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was very happy. He said, “The Lord is worthy of praise today because he 37 has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” 5:8 Hiram then sent this message to Solomon: “I received 38 the message you sent to me. I will give you all the cedars and evergreens you need. 39 5:9 My servants will bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea. I will send it by sea in raft-like bundles to the place you designate. 40 There I will separate the logs 41 and you can carry them away. In exchange you will supply the food I need for my royal court.” 42
5:10 So Hiram supplied the cedars and evergreens Solomon needed, 43 5:11 and Solomon supplied Hiram annually with 20,000 cors 44 of wheat as provision for his royal court, 45 as well as 20,000 baths 46 of pure 47 olive oil. 48 5:12 So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And Hiram and Solomon were at peace and made a treaty. 49
5:13 King Solomon conscripted 50 work crews 51 from throughout Israel, 30,000 men in all. 5:14 He sent them to Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 men per month. They worked in Lebanon for one month, and then spent two months at home. Adoniram was supervisor of 52 the work crews. 5:15 Solomon also had 70,000 common laborers 53 and 80,000 stonecutters 54 in the hills, 5:16 besides 3,300 55 officials who supervised the workers. 56 5:17 By royal order 57 they supplied large valuable stones in order to build the temple’s foundation with chiseled stone. 5:18 Solomon’s and Hiram’s construction workers, 58 along with men from Byblos, 59 did the chiseling and prepared the wood and stones for the building of the temple. 60
Ephesians 2:1-22
Context2:1 And although you were 61 dead 62 in your transgressions and sins, 2:2 in which 63 you formerly lived 64 according to this world’s present path, 65 according to the ruler of the kingdom 66 of the air, the ruler of 67 the spirit 68 that is now energizing 69 the sons of disobedience, 70 2:3 among whom 71 all of us 72 also 73 formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath 74 even as the rest… 75
2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! 76 – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages 77 the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward 78 us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved 79 through faith, 80 and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from 81 works, so that no one can boast. 82 2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. 83
2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body 84 by human hands – 2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, 85 alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, 86 having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 87 2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one 88 and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 2:15 when he nullified 89 in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man 90 out of two, 91 thus making peace, 2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 92 2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 2:18 so that 93 through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built 94 on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 95 with Christ Jesus himself as 96 the cornerstone. 97 2:21 In him 98 the whole building, 99 being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ezekiel 35:1-15
Context35:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 35:2 “Son of man, turn toward 100 Mount Seir, 101 and prophesy against it. 35:3 Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir;
I will stretch out my hand against you
and turn you into a desolate ruin.
35:4 I will lay waste your cities;
and you will become desolate.
Then you will know that I am the Lord!
35:5 “‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword 102 at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment. 35:6 Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 35:7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; 103 I will cut off 104 from it the one who passes through or returns. 35:8 I will fill its mountains with its dead; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines, those killed by the sword will fall. 35:9 I will turn you into a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
35:10 “‘You said, “These two nations, these two lands 105 will be mine, and we will possess them,” 106 – although the Lord was there – 35:11 therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will deal with you according to your anger, and according to your envy, by which you acted spitefully against them. I will reveal myself to them when I judge you. 35:12 Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They are desolate, they have been given to us for food.” 35:13 You exalted yourselves against me with your speech 107 and hurled many insults against me 108 – I have heard them all! 35:14 This is what the sovereign Lord says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will turn you into a desolation. 35:15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you – you will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom – all of it! Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”
Psalms 85:1-13
ContextFor the music director; written by the Korahites, a psalm.
85:1 O Lord, you showed favor to your land;
you restored the well-being of Jacob. 110
85:2 You pardoned 111 the wrongdoing of your people;
you forgave 112 all their sin. (Selah)
85:3 You withdrew all your fury;
you turned back from your raging anger. 113
85:4 Restore us, O God our deliverer!
Do not be displeased with us! 114
85:5 Will you stay mad at us forever?
Will you remain angry throughout future generations? 115
85:6 Will you not revive us once more?
Then your people will rejoice in you!
85:7 O Lord, show us your loyal love!
Bestow on us your deliverance!
85:8 I will listen to what God the Lord says. 116
For he will make 117 peace with his people, his faithful followers. 118
Yet they must not 119 return to their foolish ways.
85:9 Certainly his loyal followers will soon experience his deliverance; 120
then his splendor will again appear in our land. 121
85:10 Loyal love and faithfulness meet; 122
deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. 123
85:11 Faithfulness grows from the ground,
and deliverance looks down from the sky. 124
85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, 125
and our land will yield 126 its crops.
1 tn Heb “were scribes”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “secretaries”; TEV, NLT “court secretaries.”
2 tn Heb “was over.”
3 tn Heb “was over.”
4 tn Heb “close associate of”; KJV, ASV, NASB “the king’s friend” (a title for an adviser, not just an acquaintance).
5 tn Heb “over the house.”
6 tn Heb “was over.”
7 sn The work crews. This Hebrew word (מַס, mas) refers to a group of laborers conscripted for royal or public service.
8 map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.
9 sn Beginning with 4:21, the verse numbers through 5:18 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:21 ET = 5:1 HT, 4:22 ET = 5:2 HT, etc., through 5:18 ET = 5:32 HT. Beginning with 6:1 the numbering of verses in the English Bible and the Hebrew text is again the same.
10 tn Heb “the River” (also in v. 24). This is the standard designation for the Euphrates River in biblical Hebrew.
11 tn Heb “[They] were bringing tribute and were serving Solomon all the days of his life.”
12 tn Heb “the food of Solomon for each day was.”
13 tn As a unit of dry measure a cor was roughly equivalent to six bushels.
14 tn The words “in the stall” are added for clarification; note the immediately following reference to cattle from the pasture.
15 tn Heb “because.” The words “his royal court was so large” are added to facilitate the logical connection with the preceding verse.
16 sn Tiphsah. This was located on the Euphrates River.
17 tn Heb “for he was ruling over all [the region] beyond the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kingdoms beyond the River, and he had peace on every side all around.”
18 tn Heb “Judah and Israel lived securely, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beer Sheba, all the days of Solomon.”
19 tn The Hebrew text has “40,000,” but this is probably an inflated number (nevertheless it is followed by KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV, TEV, CEV). Some Greek
20 tn Heb “everyone who drew near to the table of King Solomon.”
21 tn Heb “barley and straw for the horses and the steeds they brought to the place which was there, each according to his measure.”
22 tn Heb “heart,” i.e., mind. (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)
23 tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.”
24 tn Heb “his name was in all the surrounding nations.”
25 tn Heb “spoke.”
26 tn Heb “he spoke about plants.”
27 tn Heb “he spoke about.”
28 tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon.”
29 sn The verse numbers in the English Bible differ from those in the Hebrew text (BHS) here; 5:1-18 in the English Bible corresponds to 5:15-32 in the Hebrew text. See the note at 4:21.
30 map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.
31 tn Heb “his servants.”
32 tn Heb “a house for the name of the
33 tn Heb “because of the battles which surrounded him until the
34 tn Heb “Look, I am saying.”
35 tn Heb “a house for the name of the
36 tn Heb “a house for my name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor. The “name” of the
37 tn Or “Blessed be the
38 tn Heb “heard.”
39 tn Heb “I will satisfy all your desire with respect to cedar wood and with respect to the wood of evergreens.”
40 tn Heb “I will place them [on? as?] rafts in the sea to the place where you designate to me.” This may mean he would send them by raft, or that he would tie them in raft-like bundles, and have ships tow them down to an Israelite port.
41 tn Heb “smash them,” i.e., untie the bundles.
42 tn Heb “as for you, you will satisfy my desire by giving food for my house.”
43 tn Heb “and Hiram gave to Solomon cedar wood and the wood of evergreens, all his desire.”
44 sn As a unit of dry measure a cor was roughly equivalent to six bushels.
45 tn Heb “his house.”
46 tc The Hebrew text has “twenty cors,” but the ancient Greek version and the parallel text in 2 Chr 2:10 read “twenty thousand baths.”
sn A bath was a liquid measure equivalent to almost six gallons.
47 tn Or “pressed.”
48 tn Heb “and Solomon supplied Hiram with twenty thousand cors of wheat…pure olive oil. So Solomon would give to Hiram year by year.”
49 tn Heb “a covenant,” referring to a formal peace treaty or alliance.
50 tn Heb “raised up.”
51 sn Work crews. This Hebrew word (מַס, mas) refers to a group of laborers conscripted for royal or public service.
52 tn Heb “was over.”
53 tn Heb “carriers of loads.”
54 tn Heb “cutters” (probably of stones).
55 tc Some Greek
56 tn Heb “besides thirty-three hundred from the officials of Solomon’s governors who were over the work, the ones ruling over the people, the ones doing the work.”
57 tn Heb “and the king commanded.”
58 tn Heb “builders.”
59 tn Heb “the Gebalites.” The reading is problematic and some emend to a verb form meaning, “set the borders.”
60 tc The LXX includes the words “for three years.”
61 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
62 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
63 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
64 tn Grk “walked.”
sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripatew) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
65 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”
sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiwn).
66 tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”
67 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
68 sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).
69 tn Grk “working in.”
70 sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.
71 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
72 tn Grk “we all.”
73 tn Or “even.”
74 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
75 sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.
76 tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).
77 tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”
78 tn Or “upon.”
79 tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.
80 tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.
81 tn Or “not as a result of.”
82 tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”
83 tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).
sn So that we may do them. Before the devil began to control our walk in sin and among sinful people, God had already planned good works for us to do.
84 tn Grk “in the flesh.”
85 tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”
86 tn Or “covenants of the promise.”
87 tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”
sn See the note on “his blood” in 1:7.
88 tn Grk “who made the both one.”
89 tn Or “rendered inoperative.” This is a difficult text to translate because it is not easy to find an English term which communicates well the essence of the author’s meaning, especially since legal terminology is involved. Many other translations use the term “abolish” (so NRSV, NASB, NIV), but this term implies complete destruction which is not the author’s meaning here. The verb καταργέω (katargew) can readily have the meaning “to cause someth. to lose its power or effectiveness” (BDAG 525 s.v. 2, where this passage is listed), and this meaning fits quite naturally here within the author’s legal mindset. A proper English term which communicates this well is “nullify” since this word carries the denotation of “making something legally null and void.” This is not, however, a common English word. An alternate term like “rendered inoperative [or ineffective]” is also accurate but fairly inelegant. For this reason, the translation retains the term “nullify”; it is the best choice of the available options, despite its problems.
90 tn In this context the author is not referring to a new individual, but instead to a new corporate entity united in Christ (cf. BDAG 497 s.v. καινός 3.b: “All the Christians together appear as κ. ἄνθρωπος Eph 2:15”). This is clear from the comparison made between the Gentiles and Israel in the immediately preceding verses and the assertion in v. 14 that Christ “made both groups into one.” This is a different metaphor than the “new man” of Eph 4:24; in that passage the “new man” refers to the new life a believer has through a relationship to Christ.
91 tn Grk “in order to create the two into one new man.” Eph 2:14-16 is one sentence in Greek. A new sentence was started here in the translation for clarity since contemporary English is less tolerant of extended sentences.
92 tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”
93 tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).
94 tn Grk “having been built.”
95 sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.
96 tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”
97 tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.
98 tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).
99 tc Although several important witnesses (א1 A C P 6 81 326 1739c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”
tn Or “every building.” Although “every building” is a more natural translation of the Greek, it does not fit as naturally into the context, which (with its emphasis on corporate unity) seems to stress the idea of one building.
100 tn Heb “set your face against.”
101 sn Mount Seir is to be identified with Edom (Ezek 35:15), home of Esau’s descendants (Gen 25:21-30).
102 tn Or “gave over…to the power of the sword.” This phrase also occurs in Jer 18:21 and Ps 63:10.
103 tc The translation reads with some manuscripts לְשִׁמְמָה וּמְשַׁמָּה (lÿshimmah umÿshammah, “desolate ruin”) as in verse 3 and often in Ezekiel. The majority reading reverses the first mem (מ) with the shin (שׁ) resulting in the repetition of the word desolate: לְשִׁמְמָה וּשְׁמָמָה (lÿshimmah ushÿmamah).
104 tn Or “kill.”
105 sn The reference is to Israel and Judah.
106 tn Heb “it.”
107 tn Heb “your mouth.”
108 tn Heb “and you multiplied against me your words.” The Hebrew verb occurs only here and in Prov 27:6, where it refers to the “excessive” kisses of an enemy. The basic idea of the verb appears to be “to be abundant.” Here it occurs in the causative (Hiphil) stem.
109 sn Psalm 85. God’s people recall how he forgave their sins in the past, pray that he might now restore them to his favor, and anticipate renewed blessings.
110 tn Heb “you turned with a turning [toward] Jacob.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv). See Pss 14:7; 53:6.
111 tn Heb “lifted up.”
112 tn Heb “covered over.”
113 tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81. See Pss 69:24; 78:49.
114 tn Heb “break your displeasure with us.” Some prefer to emend הָפֵר (hafer, “break”) to הָסֵר (haser, “turn aside”).
115 tn Heb “Will your anger stretch to a generation and a generation?”
116 sn I will listen. Having asked for the Lord’s favor, the psalmist (who here represents the nation) anticipates a divine word of assurance.
117 tn Heb “speak.” The idiom “speak peace” refers to establishing or maintaining peaceful relations with someone (see Gen 37:4; Zech 9:10; cf. Ps 122:8).
118 tn Heb “to his people and to his faithful followers.” The translation assumes that “his people” and “his faithful followers” are viewed as identical here.
119 tn Or “yet let them not.” After the negative particle אֵל (’el), the prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating the speaker’s desire or wish.
120 tn Heb “certainly his deliverance [is] near to those who fear him.”
121 tn Heb “to dwell, glory, in our land.” “Glory” is the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive with -לְ (lÿ), “to dwell,” probably indicates result here (“then”). When God delivers his people and renews his relationship with them, he will once more reveal his royal splendor in the land.
122 tn The psalmist probably uses the perfect verbal forms in v. 10 in a dramatic or rhetorical manner, describing what he anticipates as if it were already occurring or had already occurred.
123 sn Deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. The psalmist personifies these abstract qualities to emphasize that God’s loyal love and faithfulness will yield deliverance and peace for his people.
124 sn The psalmist already sees undeniable signs of God’s faithfulness and expects deliverance to arrive soon.
125 tn Heb “what is good.”
126 tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.
127 tn Or “will go.”
128 tn Or “will prepare.”
129 tn Heb “and it prepares for a way his footsteps.” Some suggest emending וְיָשֵׂם (vÿyasem, “and prepares”) to וְשָׁלוֹם (vÿshalom, “and peace”) since “deliverance” and “peace” are closely related earlier in v. 13. This could be translated, “and peace [goes ahead, making] a pathway for his footsteps” (cf. NEB).
