Psalms 18:40

18:40 You make my enemies retreat;

I destroy those who hate me.

Psalms 21:12

21:12 For you make them retreat

when you shoot your arrows at them.

Psalms 48:5

48:5 As soon as they see, they are shocked;

they are terrified, they quickly retreat.

Psalms 104:7

104:7 Your shout made the waters retreat;

at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off –


tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”

tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”

tn The object of “see” is omitted, but v. 3b suggests that the Lord’s self-revelation as the city’s defender is what they see.

tn Heb “they look, so they are shocked.” Here כֵּן (ken, “so”) has the force of “in the same measure.”

tn The translation attempts to reflect the staccato style of the Hebrew text, where the main clauses of vv. 4-6 are simply juxtaposed without connectives.