9:3 When my enemies turn back,
they trip and are defeated 1 before you.
39:2 I was stone silent; 2
I held back the urge to speak. 3
My frustration grew; 4
70:3 May those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be driven back 5 and disgraced! 6
78:34 When he struck them down, 7 they sought his favor; 8
they turned back and longed for God.
78:66 He drove his enemies back;
he made them a permanent target for insults. 9
85:3 You withdrew all your fury;
you turned back from your raging anger. 10
89:43 You turn back 11 his sword from the adversary, 12
and have not sustained him in battle. 13
94:2 Rise up, O judge of the earth!
Pay back the proud!
114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
1 tn Or “perish”; or “die.” The imperfect verbal forms in this line either emphasize what typically happens or describe vividly the aftermath of a recent battle in which the
2 tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”
3 tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.
sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.
4 tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.
5 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive in this imprecation.
6 tn Heb “May they be turned back according to their shame, those who say, ‘Aha! Aha!’” Ps 40:15 has the verb “humiliated” instead of “turned back” and adds “to me” after “say.”
7 tn Or “killed them,” that is, killed large numbers of them.
8 tn Heb “they sought him.”
9 tn Heb “a permanent reproach he made them.”
10 tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81. See Pss 69:24; 78:49.
11 tn The perfect verbal form predominates in vv. 38-45. The use of the imperfect in this one instance may be for rhetorical effect. The psalmist briefly lapses into dramatic mode, describing the king’s military defeat as if it were happening before his very eyes.
12 tc Heb “you turn back, rocky summit, his sword.” The Hebrew term צוּר (tsur, “rocky summit”) makes no sense here, unless it is a divine title understood as vocative, “you turn back, O Rocky Summit, his sword.” Some emend the form to צֹר (tsor, “flint”) on the basis of Josh 5:2, which uses the phrase חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (kharvot tsurim, “flint knives”). The noun צֹר (tsor, “flint”) can then be taken as “flint-like edge,” indicating the sharpness of the sword. Others emend the form to אָחוֹר (’akhor, “backward”) or to מִצַּר (mitsar, “from the adversary”). The present translation reflects the latter, assuming an original reading תָּשִׁיב מִצָּר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv mitsar kharbo), which was corrupted to תָּשִׁיב צָר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv tsar kharbo) by virtual haplography (confusion of bet/mem is well-attested) with צָר (tsar, “adversary”) then being misinterpreted as צוּר in the later tradition.
13 tn Heb “and you have not caused him to stand in the battle.”