68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle, 1
when you march through the desert, 2 (Selah)
68:19 The Lord deserves praise! 3
Day after day 4 he carries our burden,
the God who delivers us. (Selah)
68:20 Our God is a God who delivers;
the Lord, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death. 5
68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,
the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. 6
68:22 The Lord says,
“I will retrieve them 7 from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
68:23 so that your feet may stomp 8 in their blood,
and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” 9
1 tn Heb “when you go out before your people.” The Hebrew idiom “go out before” is used here in a militaristic sense of leading troops into battle (see Judg 4:14; 9:39; 2 Sam 5:24).
2 sn When you march through the desert. Some interpreters think that v. 7 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt and its subsequent travels in the desert. Another option is that v. 7, like v. 8, echoes Judg 5:4, which describes how the God of Sinai marched across the desert regions to do battle with Sisera and his Canaanite army.
3 tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”
4 tn It is possible to take this phrase with what precedes (“The Lord deserves praise day after day”) rather than with what follows.
5 tn Heb “and to the
6 tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.
7 tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.
8 tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).
9 tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”