2:10 So now, you kings, do what is wise; 1
you rulers of the earth, submit to correction! 2
17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; 3
they intend to throw me to the ground. 4
39:7 But now, O Lord, upon what am I relying?
You are my only hope! 5
74:6 And now 6 they are tearing down 7 all its engravings 8
with axes 9 and crowbars. 10
113:2 May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore!
115:18 But we will praise the Lord
now and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!
119:44 Then I will keep 11 your law continually
now and for all time. 12
119:67 Before I was afflicted I used to stray off, 13
but now I keep your instructions. 14
121:8 The Lord will protect you in all you do, 15
now and forevermore.
125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, 16
so the Lord surrounds his people,
now and forevermore.
1 sn The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings.
2 tn The Niphal has here a tolerative nuance; the kings are urged to submit themselves to the advice being offered.
3 tc Heb “our steps, now they surround me.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “surround me,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has “surround us,” harmonizing the pronoun to the preceding “our steps.” The first person plural pronoun does not fit the context, where the psalmist speaks as an individual. In the preceding verses the psalmist uses a first person singular verbal or pronominal form twenty times. For this reason it is preferable to emend “our steps” to אִשְּׁרוּנִי (’ishÿruni, “they attack me”) from the verbal root אָשֻׁר (’ashur, “march, stride, track”).
4 tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”
5 tn Heb “my hope, for you it [is].”
6 tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
7 tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
8 tn Heb “its engravings together.”
9 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).
10 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”).
11 tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the negated jussive (see v. 43).
12 tn Or “forever and ever.”
13 tn Heb “before I suffered, I was straying off.”
14 tn Heb “your word.”
15 tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.”
16 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.