18:45 foreigners lose their courage; 1
they shake with fear 2 as they leave 3 their strongholds. 4
21:10 You destroy their offspring 5 from the earth,
their descendants 6 from among the human race. 7
49:6 They trust 8 in their wealth
and boast 9 in their great riches.
64:3 They 10 sharpen their tongues like a sword;
they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, 11
64:8 Their slander will bring about their demise. 12
All who see them will shudder, 13
73:7 Their prosperity causes them to do wrong; 14
their thoughts are sinful. 15
78:28 He caused them to fall right in the middle of their camp,
all around their homes.
78:30 They were not yet filled up, 16
their food was still in their mouths,
78:35 They remembered that God was their protector, 17
and that the sovereign God was their deliverer. 18
78:44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.
78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.
78:48 He rained hail down on their cattle, 19
and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. 20
78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, 21
and made him jealous with their idols.
78:64 Their 22 priests fell by the sword,
but their 23 widows did not weep. 24
81:14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and attack 25 their adversaries.”
83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, 26
and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, 27
105:30 Their land was overrun by frogs,
which even got into the rooms of their kings.
105:33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,
and broke the trees throughout their territory.
105:35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,
and devoured the crops of their fields. 28
105:36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power. 29
106:39 They were defiled by their deeds,
and unfaithful in their actions. 30
106:44 Yet he took notice of their distress,
when he heard their cry for help.
107:6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;
he delivered them from their troubles.
107:13 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;
he delivered them from their troubles.
107:17 They acted like fools in their rebellious ways, 31
and suffered because of their sins.
107:19 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;
he delivered them from their troubles.
107:28 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;
he delivered them from their troubles.
140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; 32
a viper’s 33 venom is behind 34 their lips. (Selah)
149:2 Let Israel rejoice in their Creator!
Let the people 35 of Zion delight in their king! 36
149:5 Let the godly rejoice because of their vindication! 37
Let them shout for joy upon their beds! 38
149:8 They bind 39 their kings in chains,
and their nobles in iron shackles,
1 tn Heb “wither, wear out.”
2 tn The meaning of חָרַג (kharag, “shake”) is established on the basis of cognates in Arabic and Aramaic. 2 Sam 22:46 reads חָגַר (khagar), which might mean here, “[they] come limping” (on the basis of a cognate in postbiblical Hebrew). The normal meaning for חָגַר (“gird”) makes little sense here.
3 tn Heb “from.”
4 tn Heb “their prisons.” The besieged cities of the foreigners are compared to prisons.
5 tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.
6 tn Heb “seed.”
7 tn Heb “sons of man.”
8 tn Heb “the ones who trust.” The substantival participle stands in apposition to “those who deceive me” (v. 5).
9 tn The imperfect verbal form emphasizes their characteristic behavior.
10 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “a bitter word.”
12 tc The MT reads literally, “and they caused him to stumble, upon them, their tongue.” Perhaps the third plural subject of the verb is indefinite with the third singular pronominal suffix on the verb being distributive (see Ps 63:10). In this case one may translate, “each one will be made to stumble.” The preposition עַל (’al) might then be taken as adversative, “against them [is] their tongue.” Many prefer to emend the text to וַיַּכְשִׁילֵמוֹ עֲלֵי לְשׁוֹנָם (vayyakhshilemo ’aley lÿshonam, “and he caused them to stumble over their tongue”). However, if this reading is original, it is difficult to see how the present reading of the MT arose. Furthermore, the preposition is not collocated with the verb כָּשַׁל (kashal) elsewhere. It is likely that the MT is corrupt, but a satisfying emendation has not yet been proposed.
13 tn The Hitpolel verbal form is probably from the root נוּד (nud; see HALOT 678 s.v. נוד), which is attested elsewhere in the Hitpolel stem, not the root נָדַד (nadad, as proposed by BDB 622 s.v. I נָדַד), which does not occur elsewhere in this stem.
14 tc The MT reads “it goes out from fatness their eye,” which might be paraphrased, “their eye protrudes [or “bulges”] because of fatness.” This in turn might refer to their greed; their eyes “bug out” when they see rich food or produce (the noun חֵלֶב [khelev, “fatness”] sometimes refers to such food or produce). However, when used with the verb יָצָא (yatsa’, “go out”) the preposition מִן (“from”) more naturally indicates source. For this reason it is preferable to emend עֵינֵמוֹ (’enemo, “their eye”) to עֲוֹנָמוֹ, (’avonamo, “their sin”) and read, “and their sin proceeds forth from fatness,” that is, their prosperity gives rise to their sinful attitudes. If one follows this textual reading, another interpretive option is to take חֵלֶב (“fatness”) in the sense of “unreceptive, insensitive” (see its use in Ps 17:10). In this case, the sin of the wicked proceeds forth from their spiritual insensitivity.
15 tn Heb “the thoughts of [their] heart [i.e., mind] cross over” (i.e., violate God’s moral boundary, see Ps 17:3).
16 tn Heb “they were not separated from their desire.”
17 tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”
18 tn Heb “and [that] God Most High [was] their redeemer.”
19 tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”
20 tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.
21 tn Traditionally, “high places.”
22 tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).
23 tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).
24 sn Because of the invading army and the ensuing panic, the priests’ widows had no time to carry out the normal mourning rites.
25 tn Heb “turn my hand against.” The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack” (see Isa 1:25; Ezek 38:12; Amos 1:8; Zech 13:7).
26 sn Oreb and Zeeb were the generals of the Midianite army that was defeated by Gideon. The Ephraimites captured and executed both of them and sent their heads to Gideon (Judg 7:24-25).
27 sn Zebah and Zalmunna were the Midianite kings. Gideon captured them and executed them (Judg 8:1-21).
28 tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”
29 tn Heb “the beginning of all their strength,” that is, reproductive power (see Ps 78:51).
sn Verses 28-36 recall the plagues in a different order than the one presented in Exodus: v. 28 (plague 9), v. 29 (plague 1), v. 30 (plague 2), v. 31a (plague 4), v. 31b (plague 3), vv. 32-33 (plague 7), vv. 34-35 (plague 8), v. 36 (plague 10). No reference is made in Ps 105 to plagues 5 and 6.
30 tn Heb “and they committed adultery in their actions.” This means that they were unfaithful to the
31 tn Heb “fools [they were] because of the way of their rebellion.”
32 tn Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”
33 tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.
34 tn Heb “under.”
35 tn Heb “sons.”
36 sn The
37 tn Heb “in glory.” Here “glory” probably refers to the “honor” that belongs to the
38 tn The significance of the reference to “beds” is unclear. Perhaps the point is that they should rejoice at all times, even when falling asleep or awaking.
39 tn Heb “to bind.”