7:15 he digs a pit 1
and then falls into the hole he has made. 2
30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. 3
31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; 4
you will rescue 5 me, O Lord, the faithful God.
33:9 For he spoke, and it 6 came into existence,
he issued the decree, 7 and it stood firm.
44:9 But 8 you rejected and embarrassed us!
You did not go into battle with our armies. 9
60:9 Who will lead me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me to Edom? 10
63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, 11
but they will descend into the depths of the earth. 12
66:11 You led us into a trap; 13
you caused us to suffer. 14
68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle, 15
when you march through the desert, 16 (Selah)
78:44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.
88:4 They treat me like 17 those who descend into the grave. 18
I am like a helpless man, 19
105:30 Their land was overrun by frogs,
which even got into the rooms of their kings.
107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, 20
because of the sin of its inhabitants.
108:10 Who will lead me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me to Edom? 21
109:24 I am so starved my knees shake; 22
I have turned into skin and bones. 23
132:3 He said, 24 “I will not enter my own home, 25
or get into my bed. 26
136:15 and tossed 27 Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea,
for his loyal love endures,
141:10 Let the wicked fall 28 into their 29 own nets,
while I escape. 30
1 tn Heb “a pit he digs and he excavates it.” Apparently the imagery of hunting is employed; the wicked sinner digs this pit to entrap and destroy his intended victim. The redundancy in the Hebrew text has been simplified in the translation.
2 tn The verb forms in vv. 15-16 describe the typical behavior and destiny of those who attempt to destroy others. The image of the evildoer falling into the very trap he set for his intended victim emphasizes the appropriate nature of God’s judgment.
3 sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.
4 tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.
5 tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
6 tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).
7 tn Heb “he commanded.”
8 tn The particle אַף (’af, “but”) is used here as a strong adversative contrasting the following statement with what precedes.
9 tn Heb “you did not go out with our armies.” The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
10 sn In v. 9 the psalmist speaks again and acknowledges his need for help in battle. He hopes God will volunteer, based on the affirmation of sovereignty over Edom in v. 8, but he is also aware that God has seemingly rejected the nation (v. 10, see also v. 1).
11 tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.
12 sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.
13 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
14 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (mu’aqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
15 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).
16 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.
17 tn Heb “I am considered with.”
18 tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.
19 tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”
20 tn Heb “a salty land.”
21 sn The psalmist speaks again and acknowledges his need for help in battle. He hopes God will volunteer, based on the affirmation of sovereignty over Edom in v. 9, but he is also aware that God has seemingly rejected the nation of Israel (v. 11).
22 tn Heb “my knees stagger from fasting.”
23 tn Heb “and my flesh is lean away from fatness [i.e., “lean so as not to be fat”].”
24 tn The words “he said” are supplied in the translation to clarify that what follows is David’s vow.
25 tn Heb “the tent of my house.”
26 tn Heb “go up upon the bed of my couch.”
27 tn Or “shook off.”
28 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate, “the wicked will fall.”
29 tn Heb “his.”
30 tn Heb “at the same [that] I, until I pass by.” Another option is to take יַחַד (yakhad) with the preceding line, “let the wicked fall together into their own nets.”