60:4 You have given your loyal followers 1 a rallying flag,
so that they might seek safety from the bow. 2 (Selah)
78:57 They were unfaithful 3 and acted as treacherously as 4 their ancestors;
they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow. 5
95:6 Come! Let’s bow down and worship! 6
Let’s kneel before the Lord, our creator!
97:7 All who worship idols are ashamed,
those who boast about worthless idols.
All the gods bow down before him. 7
1 tn Heb “those who fear you.”
2 tn There is a ray of hope in that God has allowed his loyal followers to rally under a battle flag. The translation assumes the verb is from the root נוּס (nus, “flee”) used here in the Hitpolel in the sense of “find safety for oneself” (HALOT 681 s.v. נוס) or “take flight for oneself” (BDB 630-31 s.v. נוּס). Another option is to take the verb as a denominative from נֵס (nes, “flag”) and translate “that it may be displayed” (BDB 651 s.v. II נסס) or “that they may assemble under the banner” (HALOT 704 s.v. II נסס). Here קֹשֶׁט (qoshet) is taken as an Aramaized form of קֶשֶׁת (qeshet, “bow”; BDB 905-6 s.v. קֶשֶׁת), though some understand the homonymic קֹשְׁטְ (qosht, “truth”) here (see Prov 22:21; cf. NASB). If one follows the latter interpretation, the line may be translated, “so that they might assemble under the banner for the sake of truth.”
3 tn Heb “they turned back.”
4 tn Or “acted treacherously like.”
5 tn Heb “they turned aside like a deceitful bow.”
6 tn Heb “kneel down.”
7 tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verbal form in the first line is an imperfect (“are ashamed”) and that the ambiguous form in the third line is a perfect (“bow down”) because the psalmist appears to be describing the effect of the