5:12 Certainly 1 you reward 2 the godly, 3 Lord.
Like a shield you protect 4 them 5 in your good favor. 6
19:11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; 7
those who obey them receive a rich reward. 8
127:3 Yes, 9 sons 10 are a gift from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb is a reward.
1 tn Or “For.”
2 tn Or “bless.” The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line highlight how God characteristically rewards and protects the godly.
3 tn Or “innocent.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense.
4 tn Heb “surround.” In 1 Sam 23:26 the verb describes how Saul and his men hemmed David in as they chased him.
5 tn Heb “him.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense and is thus translated “them.”
6 tn Or “with favor” (cf. NRSV). There is no preposition before the noun in the Hebrew text, nor is there a pronoun attached. “Favor” here stands by metonymy for God’s defensive actions on behalf of the one whom he finds acceptable.
7 tn Heb “moreover your servant is warned by them.”
8 tn Heb “in the keeping of them [there is] a great reward.”
9 tn or “look.”
10 tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.