65:10 You saturate 1 its furrows,
and soak 2 its plowed ground. 3
With rain showers you soften its soil, 4
and make its crops grow. 5
78:6 so that the next generation, children yet to be born,
might know about them.
They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. 6
88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.
I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;
I spread out my hands in prayer to you. 7
104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; 8
the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. 9
144:12 Then 10 our sons will be like plants,
that quickly grow to full size. 11
Our daughters will be like corner pillars, 12
carved like those in a palace. 13
1 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
2 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
3 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
4 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
5 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
6 tn Heb “in order that they might know, a following generation, sons [who] will be born, they will arise and will tell to their sons.”
7 tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.
8 tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”
9 tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).
10 tn Some consider אֲשֶׁר (’asher) problematic, but here it probably indicates the anticipated consequence of the preceding request. (For other examples of אֲשֶׁר indicating purpose/result, see BDB 83 s.v. and HALOT 99 s.v.) If the psalmist – who appears to be a Davidic king preparing to fight a battle (see vv. 10-11) – is victorious, the whole nation will be spared invasion and defeat (see v. 14) and can flourish. Some prefer to emend the form to אַשְׁרֵי (“how blessed [are our sons]”). A suffixed noun sometimes follows אַשְׁרֵי (’ashrey; see 1 Kgs 10:8; Prov 20:7), but the presence of a comparative element (see “like plants”) after the suffixed noun makes the proposed reading too awkward syntactically.
11 tn Heb “grown up in their youth.” The translation assumes that “grown up” modifies “plants” (just as “carved” modifies “corner pillars” in the second half of the verse). Another option is to take “grown up” as a predicate in relation to “our sons,” in which case one might translate, “they will be strapping youths.”
12 tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here and in Zech 9:15, where it refers to the corners of an altar.
13 tn Heb “carved [in] the pattern of a palace.”