Discovery BoxPsalms 18:45 
Context18:45 foreigners lose their courage; 1
they shake with fear 2 as they leave 3 their strongholds. 4
Psalms 22:7
Context22:7 All who see me taunt 5 me;
they mock me 6 and shake their heads. 7
Psalms 46:3
Context46:3 when its waves 8 crash 9 and foam,
and the mountains shake 10 before the surging sea. 11 (Selah)
Psalms 48:6
Context48:6 Look at them shake uncontrollably, 12
like a woman writhing in childbirth. 13
Psalms 109:24-25
Context109:24 I am so starved my knees shake; 14
I have turned into skin and bones. 15
109:25 I am disdained by them. 16
When they see me, they shake their heads. 17
1 tn Heb “wither, wear out.”
2 tn The meaning of חָרַג (kharag, “shake”) is established on the basis of cognates in Arabic and Aramaic. 2 Sam 22:46 reads חָגַר (khagar), which might mean here, “[they] come limping” (on the basis of a cognate in postbiblical Hebrew). The normal meaning for חָגַר (“gird”) makes little sense here.
3 tn Heb “from.”
4 tn Heb “their prisons.” The besieged cities of the foreigners are compared to prisons.
5 tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”
6 tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.
7 sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.
8 tn Heb “its waters.”
9 tn Or “roar.”
10 tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the characteristic nature of the activity described.
11 tn Heb “at its swelling.” The Hebrew word often means “pride.” If the sea is symbolic of hostile nations, then this may be a case of double entendre. The surging, swelling sea symbolizes the proud, hostile nations. On the surface the psalmist appears to be depicting a major natural catastrophe, perhaps a tidal wave. If so, then the situation would be hypothetical. However, the repetition of the verbs הָמָה (hamah, “crash; roar,” v. 3) and מוֹט (mot, “shake,” v. 2) in v. 6, where nations/kingdoms “roar” and “shake,” suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).
12 tn Heb “trembling seizes them there.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
13 tn Heb “[with] writhing like one giving birth.”
sn The language of vv. 5-6 is reminiscent of Exod 15:15.
14 tn Heb “my knees stagger from fasting.”
15 tn Heb “and my flesh is lean away from fatness [i.e., “lean so as not to be fat”].”
16 tn Heb “as for me, I am a reproach to them.”
17 sn They shake their heads. Apparently shaking the head was a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 22:7; Lam 2:15.
