9:12 For the one who takes revenge against murderers took notice of the oppressed; 1
he did not overlook 2 their cry for help 3
For the music director; a psalm of David.
21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; 5
he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. 6
63:11 But the king 7 will rejoice in God;
everyone who takes oaths in his name 8 will boast,
for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. 9
115:12 The Lord takes notice of us, 10 he will bless 11 –
he will bless the family 12 of Israel,
he will bless the family of Aaron.
1 tn Heb “for the one who seeks shed blood remembered them.” The idiomatic expression “to seek shed blood” seems to carry the idea “to seek payment/restitution for one’s shed blood.” The plural form דָּמִים (damim, “shed blood”) occurs only here as the object of דָּרַשׁ (darash); the singular form דָּם (dam, “blood”) appears with the verb in Gen 9:5; 42:22; Ezek 33:6. “Them,” the pronominal object of the verb “remembered,” refers to the oppressed, mentioned specifically in the next line, so the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “did not forget.”
3 tn Heb “the cry for help of the oppressed.” In this context the “oppressed” are the psalmist and those he represents, whom the hostile nations have threatened.
4 sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.
5 tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).
6 tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”
7 sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.
8 tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”
9 tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.
10 tn Or “remembers us.”
11 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).
12 tn Heb “house.”