Discovery BoxPsalms 2:7 
Context2:7 The king says, 1 “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: 2
‘You are my son! 3 This very day I have become your father!
Psalms 74:2
Context74:2 Remember your people 4 whom you acquired in ancient times,
whom you rescued 5 so they could be your very own nation, 6
as well as Mount Zion, where you dwell!
Psalms 77:6
Context77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;
I will think very carefully.”
I tried to make sense of what was happening. 7
Psalms 79:10
Context79:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants
be avenged among the nations! 8
Psalms 137:7
Context137:7 Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell. 9
They said, “Tear it down, tear it down, 10
right to its very foundation!”
1 tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.
2 tn Or “I will relate the decree. The
3 sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
4 tn Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.
5 tn Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).
6 tn Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19).
7 tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.
8 tn Heb “may it be known among the nations, to our eyes, the vengeance of the shed blood of your servants.”
9 tn Heb “remember, O
10 tn Heb “lay [it] bare, lay [it] bare.”
