8:2 From the mouths of children and nursing babies
you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, 1
so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy. 2
56:13 when you deliver 3 my life from death.
You keep my feet from stumbling, 4
so that I might serve 5 God as I enjoy life. 6
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. 7
125:3 Indeed, 8 the scepter of a wicked king 9 will not settle 10
upon the allotted land of the godly.
Otherwise the godly might
do what is wrong. 11
1 tn Heb “you establish strength because of your foes.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation follows the reading of the LXX which has “praise” (αἶνος, ainos) in place of “strength” (עֹז, ’oz); cf. NIV, NCV, NLT.
2 tn Heb “to cause to cease an enemy and an avenger.” The singular forms are collective. The Hitpael participle of נָקַם (naqam) also occurs in Ps 44:16.
3 tn The perfect verbal form is probably future perfect; the psalmist promises to make good on his vows once God has delivered him (see Pss 13:5; 52:9). (2) Another option is to understand the final two verses as being added later, after the
4 tn Heb “are not my feet [kept] from stumbling?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course they are!” The question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarification of meaning.
5 tn Heb “walk before.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254; cf. the same idiom in 2 Kgs 20:3; Isa 38:3.
6 tn Heb “in the light of life.” The phrase is used here and in Job 33:30.
7 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.”
8 tn Or “for.”
9 tn Heb “a scepter of wickedness.” The “scepter” symbolizes royal authority; when collocated with “wickedness” the phrase refers to an oppressive foreign conqueror.
10 tn Or “rest.”
11 tn Heb “so that the godly might not stretch out their hands in wrongdoing.” A wicked king who sets a sinful example can have an adverse moral and ethical effect on the people he rules.