Discovery BoxPsalms 6:8 
Context6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, 1
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! 2
Psalms 6:10
Context6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated 3 and absolutely terrified! 4
May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!
Psalms 9:17
Context9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; 5
this is the destiny of 6 all the nations that ignore 7 God,
Psalms 18:37
Context18:37 I chase my enemies and catch 8 them;
I do not turn back until I wipe them out.
Psalms 41:10
Context41:10 As for you, O Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up,
so I can pay them back!” 9
Psalms 44:5
Context44:5 By your power 10 we will drive back 11 our enemies;
by your strength 12 we will trample down 13 our foes! 14
Psalms 68:22
Context68:22 The Lord says,
“I will retrieve them 15 from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
Psalms 74:21
Context74:21 Do not let the afflicted be turned back in shame!
Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! 16
Psalms 79:12
Context79:12 Pay back our neighbors in full! 17
May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord! 18
Psalms 80:14
Context80:14 O God, invincible warrior, 19 come back!
Look down from heaven and take notice!
Take care of this vine,
Psalms 90:13
Context90:13 Turn back toward us, O Lord!
How long must this suffering last? 20
Have pity on your servants! 21
Psalms 91:8
Context91:8 Certainly you will see it with your very own eyes –
you will see the wicked paid back. 22
Psalms 106:23
Context106:23 He threatened 23 to destroy them,
but 24 Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him 25
and turned back his destructive anger. 26
1 tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.
2 sn The
3 tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.
4 tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the
5 tn Heb “the wicked turn back to Sheol.” The imperfect verbal form either emphasizes what typically happens or describes vividly the aftermath of the
6 tn The words “this is the destiny of” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The verb “are turned back” is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
7 tn Heb “forget.” “Forgetting God” refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see also Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 44:20). The nations’ refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty accounts for their brazen attempt to attack and destroy his people.
8 tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”
9 tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) here indicates purpose or result (“Then I will repay them”) after the preceding imperatives.
10 tn Heb “by you.”
11 tn Heb “gore” (like an ox). If this portion of the psalm contains the song of confidence/petition the Israelites recited prior to battle, then the imperfects here and in the next line may express their expectation of victory. Another option is that the imperfects function in an emphatic generalizing manner. In this case one might translate, “you [always] drive back…you [always] trample down.”
sn The Hebrew verb translated “drive back” is literally “gore”; the imagery is that of a powerful wild ox that “gores” its enemies and tramples them underfoot.
12 tn Heb “in your name.” The
13 sn The image of the powerful wild ox continues; see the note on the phrase “drive back” in the preceding line.
14 tn Heb “those who rise up [against] us.”
15 tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.
16 sn Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! The statement is metonymic. The point is this: May the oppressed be delivered from their enemies! Then they will have ample reason to praise God’s name.
17 tn Heb “Return to our neighbors sevenfold into their lap.” The number seven is used rhetorically to express the thorough nature of the action. For other rhetorical/figurative uses of the Hebrew phrase שִׁבְעָתַיִם (shiv’atayim, “seven times”) see Gen 4:15, 24; Ps 12:6; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.
18 tn Heb “their reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.”
19 tn Heb “O God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also vv. 4, 7 for a similar construction.
20 tn Heb “Return, O
21 tn Elsewhere the Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) + the preposition עַל (’al) + a personal object has the nuance “be comforted concerning [the personal object’s death]” (see 2 Sam 13:39; Jer 31:15). However, here the context seems to demand “feel sorrow for,” “have pity on.” In Deut 32:36 and Ps 135:14, where “servants” is also the object of the preposition, this idea is expressed with the Hitpael form of the verb.
22 tn Heb “retribution on the wicked.”
23 tn Heb “and he said.”
24 tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”
25 tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”
26 tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”
sn Verses 19-23 describe the events of Exod 32:1-35.
