Discovery BoxPsalms 12:6 
Context12:6 The Lord’s words are absolutely reliable. 1
They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground,
where it is thoroughly refined. 2
Psalms 65:10
Context65:10 You saturate 3 its furrows,
and soak 4 its plowed ground. 5
With rain showers you soften its soil, 6
and make its crops grow. 7
Psalms 69:2
Context69:2 I sink into the deep mire
where there is no solid ground; 8
I am in 9 deep water,
and the current overpowers me.
Psalms 143:3
Context143:3 Certainly 10 my enemies 11 chase me.
They smash me into the ground. 12
They force me to live 13 in dark regions, 14
like those who have been dead for ages.
1 tn Heb “the words of the
2 tn Heb “[like] silver purified in a furnace of [i.e., “on”] the ground, refined seven times.” The singular participle מְזֻקָּק (mÿzuqqaq, “refined”) modifies “silver.” The number seven is used rhetorically to express the thorough nature of the action. For other rhetorical/figurative uses of שִׁבְעָתָיִם (shiv’atayim, “seven times”), see Gen 4:15, 24; Ps 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.
3 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
4 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
5 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
6 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
7 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
8 tn Heb “and there is no place to stand.”
9 tn Heb “have entered.”
10 tn Or “for.”
11 tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).
12 tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”
13 tn Or “sit.”
14 sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).
