17:6 I call to you for you will answer me, O God.
Listen to me! 1
Hear what I say! 2
20:9 The Lord will deliver the king; 3
he will answer us 4 when we call to him for help! 5
89:26 He will call out to me,
‘You are my father, 6 my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ 7
116:2 and listened to me. 8
As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. 9
1 tn Heb “Turn your ear toward me.”
2 tn Heb “my word.”
3 tc This translation assumes an emendation of the verbal form הוֹשִׁיעָה (hoshi’ah). As it stands, the form is an imperative. In this case the people return to the petitionary mood with which the psalm begins (“O
4 tn If the imperative is retained in the preceding line, then the prefixed verbal form is best taken as a jussive of prayer, “may he answer us.” However, if the imperative in the previous line is emended to a perfect, the prefixed form is best taken as imperfect, “he will answer us” (see the note on the word “king” at the end of the previous line).
5 tn Heb “in the day we call.”
6 sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
7 tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”
8 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”
9 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”