18:45 foreigners lose their courage; 1
they shake with fear 2 as they leave 3 their strongholds. 4
34:11 Come children! Listen to me!
I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. 5
75:3 When the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve in fear, 6
I make its pillars secure.” 7 (Selah)
81:15 (May those who hate the Lord 8 cower in fear 9 before him!
May they be permanently humiliated!) 10
91:5 You need not fear the terrors of the night, 11
the arrow that flies by day,
112:7 He does not fear bad news.
He 12 is confident; he trusts 13 in the Lord.
119:120 My body 14 trembles 15 because I fear you; 16
I am afraid of your judgments.
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 “the fear of the
6 tn Heb “melt.”
7 tn The statement is understood in a generalizing sense; God typically prevents the world from being overrun by chaos. One could take this as referring to an anticipated event, “I will make its pillars secure.”
8 tn “Those who hate the
9 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 66:3 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “to be weak; to be powerless” (see also Ps 109:24). The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, parallel to the jussive form in the next line.
10 tc Heb “and may their time be forever.” The Hebrew term עִתָּם (’ittam, “their time”) must refer here to the “time” of the demise and humiliation of those who hate the
tn The verb form at the beginning of the line is jussive, indicating that this is a prayer. The translation assumes that v. 15 is a parenthetical “curse” offered by the psalmist. Having heard the reference to Israel’s enemies (v. 14), the psalmist inserts this prayer, reminding the Lord that they are God’s enemies as well.
11 tn This probably alludes to a sneak attack by enemies in the darkness of night (see Song 3:8).
12 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).
13 tn The passive participle בָּטֻחַ [בָּטוּחַ] (batuakh [batuakh]) expresses a state that results from the subject’s action. See Isa 26:3.
14 tn Heb “my flesh.”
15 tn The Hebrew verb סָמַר (samar, “to tremble”) occurs only here and in Job 4:15.
16 tn Heb “from fear of you.” The pronominal suffix on the noun is an objective genitive.