48:3 God is in its fortresses;
he reveals himself as its defender. 1
48:14 For God, our God, is our defender forever! 2
He guides 3 us! 4
72:12 For he will rescue the needy 5 when they cry out for help,
and the oppressed 6 who have no defender.
1 tn Heb “he is known for an elevated place.”
2 tn Heb “for this is God, our God, forever and ever.” “This” might be paraphrased, “this protector described and praised in the preceding verses.”
3 tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.
4 tn In the Hebrew text the psalm ends with the words עַל־מוּת (’al-mut, “upon [unto?] dying”), which make little, if any, sense. M. Dahood (Psalms [AB], 1:293) proposes an otherwise unattested plural form עֹלָמוֹת (’olamot; from עוֹלָם, ’olam, “eternity”). This would provide a nice parallel to עוֹלָם וָעֶד (’olam va’ed, “forever”) in the preceding line, but elsewhere the plural of עוֹלָם appears as עֹלָמִים (’olamim). It is preferable to understand the phrase as a musical direction of some sort (see עַל־מוּת [’al-mut] in the superscription of Ps 9) or to emend the text to עַל־עֲלָמוֹת (’al-’alamot, “according to the alamoth style”; see the heading of Ps 46). In either case it should be understood as belonging with the superscription of the following psalm.
5 tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.
6 tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.