¹ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

² tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

³ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

⁴ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

⁵ tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”

⁶ tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”

⁷ tn Heb “in this [i.e., “during this situation”] I am trusting.”

⁸ tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

⁹ tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

¹⁰ tn Or “javelin.” On the meaning of this word, which occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, see M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:210-11.

¹¹ tn Heb “draw out spear and lance to meet.”

¹² tn Heb “say to me,” or “say to my soul.”

¹³ sn In vv. 4-10 the psalmist recites the prayer of petition and lament he offered to the Lord.

¹⁴ tn Heb “man of my peace.” The phrase here refers to one’s trusted friend (see Jer 38:22; Obad 7).

¹⁵ tn Heb “has made a heel great against me.” The precise meaning of this phrase, which appears only here, is uncertain.

sn The language of this verse is applied to Judas Iscariot in John 13:18.

¹⁶ sn Psalm 43. Many medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalm 43 and Psalm 42 into one psalm. Psalm 43 is the only psalm in Book 2 of the Psalter (Psalms 42-72) that does not have a heading, suggesting that it was originally the third and concluding section of Psalm 42. Ps 43:5 is identical to the refrain in Ps 42:11 and almost identical to the refrain in Ps 42:5.

¹⁷ tn Or “argue my case.”

¹⁸ tn The imperfect here expresses a request or wish. Note the imperatives in the first half of the verse. See also v. 3.

¹⁹ tn Heb “from the deceitful and evil man.” The Hebrew text uses the singular form “man” in a collective sense, as the reference to a “nation” in the parallel line indicates.

²⁰ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

²¹ tn Or “for.”

²² tn Some take the Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “on high; above”) as an adverb modifying the preceding participle and translate, “proudly” (cf. NASB; NIV “in their pride”). The present translation assumes the term is a divine title here. The Lord is pictured as enthroned “on high” in Ps 92:8. (Note the substantival use of the term in Isa 24:4 and see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:34), who prefer to place the term at the beginning of the next verse.)

²³ tn Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his 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.

²⁴ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

²⁵ tn Heb “the words of God.”

²⁶ tn Heb “the counsel of the Most High.”

²⁷ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

²⁸ tn Or “among.”

²⁹ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

³⁰ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

³¹ tn Or “signs” (see Ps 65:8).

³² tn Or “portents”; “omens” (see Ps 71:7). The Egyptian plagues are alluded to here.