19:3 There is no actual speech or word,
nor is its 1 voice literally heard.
22:13 They 2 open their mouths to devour me 3
like a roaring lion that rips its prey. 4
24:2 For he set its foundation upon the seas,
and established 5 it upon the ocean currents. 6
46:3 when its waves 7 crash 8 and foam,
and the mountains shake 9 before the surging sea. 10 (Selah)
55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, 11
while wickedness and destruction 12 are within it.
55:11 Disaster is within it;
violence 13 and deceit do not depart from its public square.
67:6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us!
74:6 And now 14 they are tearing down 15 all its engravings 16
with axes 17 and crowbars. 18
83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,
lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. 19 (Selah)
85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, 20
and our land will yield 21 its crops.
89:9 You rule over the proud sea. 22
When its waves surge, 23 you calm them.
104:5 He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be upended.
107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, 24
because of the sin of its inhabitants.
119:96 I realize that everything has its limits,
but your commands are beyond full comprehension. 25
136:14 and led Israel through its midst,
for his loyal love endures,
147:15 He 26 sends his command through the earth; 27
swiftly his order reaches its destination. 28
1 tn Heb “their.” The antecedent of the plural pronoun is “heavens” (v. 1).
2 tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”
3 tn Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8; Lam 2:16).
4 tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”
5 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, referring to the creation of the world.
6 sn He…established it upon the ocean currents. The description reflects ancient Israelite prescientific cosmology, which is based on outward appearances. The language also suggests that God’s creative work involved the subjugation of chaos, symbolized by the sea.
7 tn Heb “its waters.”
8 tn Or “roar.”
9 tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the characteristic nature of the activity described.
10 tn Heb “at its swelling.” The Hebrew word often means “pride.” If the sea is symbolic of hostile nations, then this may be a case of double entendre. The surging, swelling sea symbolizes the proud, hostile nations. On the surface the psalmist appears to be depicting a major natural catastrophe, perhaps a tidal wave. If so, then the situation would be hypothetical. However, the repetition of the verbs הָמָה (hamah, “crash; roar,” v. 3) and מוֹט (mot, “shake,” v. 2) in v. 6, where nations/kingdoms “roar” and “shake,” suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).
11 tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.
12 sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.
13 tn Or “injury, harm.”
14 tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
15 tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
16 tn Heb “its engravings together.”
17 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).
18 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).
19 tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.
sn The descendants of Lot were the Moabites and Ammonites.
20 tn Heb “what is good.”
21 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.
22 tn Heb “the majesty of the sea.”
23 tn Heb “rise up.”
24 tn Heb “a salty land.”
25 tn Heb “to every perfection I have seen an end, your command is very wide.” God’s law is beyond full comprehension, which is why the psalmist continually studies it (vv. 95, 97).
26 tn Heb “the one who.”
27 tn Heb “the one who sends his word, the earth.” The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) is an adverbial accusative; one must supply a preposition before it (such as “through” or “to”) in the English translation.
28 tn Heb “swiftly his word runs.”