68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall 1 on your chosen people. 2
When they 3 are tired, you sustain them, 4
68:10 for you live among them. 5
You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.
68:11 The Lord speaks; 6
many, many women spread the good news. 7
68:19 The Lord deserves praise! 8
Day after day 9 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. 10
1 tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).
2 tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.
3 tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
4 tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
5 tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashvu-vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”
6 tn Heb “gives a word.” Perhaps this refers to a divine royal decree or battle cry.
7 tn Heb “the ones spreading the good news [are] a large army.” The participle translated “the ones spreading the good news” is a feminine plural form. Apparently the good news here is the announcement that enemy kings have been defeated (see v. 12).
8 tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”
9 tn It is possible to take this phrase with what precedes (“The Lord deserves praise day after day”) rather than with what follows.
10 tn Heb “and to the