2:7 The king says, 1 “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: 2
‘You are my son! 3 This very day I have become your father!
29:9 The Lord’s shout bends 4 the large trees 5
and strips 6 the leaves from the forests. 7
Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” 8
46:10 He says, 9 “Stop your striving and recognize 10 that I am God!
I will be exalted 11 over 12 the nations! I will be exalted over 13 the earth!”
55:3 because of what the enemy says, 14
and because of how the wicked 15 pressure me, 16
for they hurl trouble 17 down upon me 18
and angrily attack me.
91:14 The Lord says, 19
“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;
I will protect him 20 because he is loyal to me. 21
95:8 He says, 22 “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah, 23
like they were that day at Massah 24 in the wilderness, 25
1 tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.
2 tn Or “I will relate the decree. The
3 sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
4 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.
5 tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the
6 tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.
7 tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).
sn The Lord’s thunderous shout is accompanied by high winds which damage the trees of the forest.
8 tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”
9 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 tn Heb “do nothing/be quiet (see 1 Sam 15:16) and know.” This statement may be addressed to the hostile nations, indicating they should cease their efforts to destroy God’s people, or to Judah, indicating they should rest secure in God’s protection. Since the psalm is an expression of Judah’s trust and confidence, it is more likely that the words are directed to the nations, who are actively promoting chaos and are in need of a rebuke.
11 tn Elsewhere in the psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”) when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 18:46; 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 57:5, 11).
12 tn Or “among.”
13 tn Or “in.”
14 tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”
15 tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.
16 tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).
17 tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.
18 tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).
19 tn The words “the
20 tn Or “make him secure” (Heb “set him on high”).
21 tn Heb “because he knows my name” (see Ps 9:10).
22 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the following words are spoken by the Lord (see vv. 9-11).
23 sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, see also Pss 81:7; 106:32). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.
24 sn The name Massah means “testing.” This was another name (along with Meribah) given to the place where Israel complained following the Red Sea Crossing (see Exod 17:1-7, as well as Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8).
25 tn Heb “do not harden your heart[s] as [at] Meribah, as [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness.”