Discovery BoxPsalms 51:18 
Context51:18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her! 1
Fortify 2 the walls of Jerusalem! 3
Psalms 55:10
Context55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, 4
while wickedness and destruction 5 are within it.
Psalms 80:12
Context80:12 Why did you break down its walls, 6
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit? 7
Psalms 87:7
Context87:7 As for the singers, as well as the pipers –
all of them sing within your walls. 8
Psalms 89:40
Context89:40 You have broken down all his 9 walls;
you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.
1 tn Heb “do what is good for Zion in your favor.”
2 tn Or “Build.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
3 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
4 tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.
5 sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.
6 sn The protective walls of the metaphorical vineyard are in view here (see Isa 5:5).
7 tn Heb “pluck it.”
8 tc Heb “and singers, like pipers, all my springs [are] in you.” The participial form חֹלְלִים (kholÿlim) appears to be from a denominative verb meaning “play the pipe,” though some derive the form from חוּל (khul, “dance”). In this case the duplicated lamed (ל) requires an emendation to מְחֹלְלִים (mÿkholÿlim, “a Polel form). The words are addressed to Zion. As it stands, the Hebrew text makes little, if any, sense. “Springs” are often taken here as a symbol of divine blessing and life”), but this reading does not relate to the preceding line in any apparent way. The present translation assumes an emendation of כָּל־מַעְיָנַי (kol-ma’yanay, “all my springs”) to כֻּלָּם עָנוּ (kullam ’anu, “all of them sing,” with the form עָנוּ being derived from עָנָה, ’anah, “sing”).
9 tn The king here represents the land and cities over which he rules.
