Psalms 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, 1 

you have taken many captives. 2 

You receive tribute 3  from 4  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! 5 

Psalms 139:8

139:8 If I were to ascend 6  to heaven, you would be there.

If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. 7 

1 tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

2 tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

3 tn Or “gifts.”

4 tn Or “among.”

5 tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

6 tn The Hebrew verb סָלַק (salaq, “to ascend”) occurs only here in the OT, but the word is well-attested in Aramaic literature from different time periods and displays a wide semantic range (see DNWSI 2:788-90).

7 tn Heb “look, you.”