Discovery BoxPsalms 7:12 
Context7:12 If a person 1 does not repent, God sharpens his sword 2
and prepares to shoot his bow. 3
Psalms 27:10
Context27:10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, 4
the Lord would take me in. 5
Psalms 37:24
Context37:24 Even if 6 he trips, he will not fall headlong, 7
for the Lord holds 8 his hand.
Psalms 44:20
Context44:20 If we had rejected our God, 9
and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, 10
Psalms 63:5
Context63:5 As if with choice meat 11 you satisfy my soul. 12
My mouth joyfully praises you, 13
Psalms 66:18
Context66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 14
the Lord would not have listened.
Psalms 69:8
Context69:8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger;
they act as if I were a foreigner. 15
Psalms 73:9
Context73:9 They speak as if they rule in heaven,
and lay claim to the earth. 16
Psalms 89:31
Context89:31 if they break 17 my rules
and do not keep my commandments,
Psalms 94:18
Context94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.
Psalms 102:9
Context102:9 For I eat ashes as if they were bread, 18
and mix my drink with my tears, 19
Psalms 119:92
Context119:92 If I had not found encouragement in your law, 20
I would have died in my sorrow. 21
Psalms 124:2
Context124:2 if the Lord had not been on our side,
when men attacked us, 22
Psalms 137:5
Context137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand be crippled! 23
Psalms 139:19
Context139:19 If only 24 you would kill the wicked, O God!
Get away from me, you violent men! 25
1 tn Heb “If he”; the referent (a person who is a sinner) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The subject of the first verb is understood as the sinner who fails to repent of his ways and becomes the target of God’s judgment (vv. 9, 14-16).
2 tn Heb “if he does not return, his sword he sharpens.” The referent (God) of the pronominal subject of the second verb (“sharpens”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “his bow he treads and prepares it.” “Treading the bow” involved stepping on one end of it in order to string it and thus prepare it for battle.
4 tn Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”
5 tn Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”
6 tn Other translation options for כִּי in this context are “when” (so NASB) or “though” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).
7 tn Heb “be hurled down.”
8 tn The active participle indicates this is characteristically true. See v. 17.
9 tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the
10 tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).
11 tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”
12 tn Or “me.”
13 tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”
14 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
15 tn Heb “and I am estranged to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.”
16 tn Heb “they set in heaven their mouth, and their tongue walks through the earth.” The meaning of the text is uncertain. Perhaps the idea is that they lay claim to heaven (i.e., speak as if they were ruling in heaven) and move through the earth declaring their superiority and exerting their influence. Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) the first line as adversative and translate, “they set their mouth against heaven,” that is, they defy God.
17 tn Or “desecrate.”
18 sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).
19 tn Heb “weeping.”
20 tn Heb “if your law had not been my delight.”
21 tn Or “my suffering.”
22 tn Heb “rose up against us.”
23 tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.
24 tn The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (see Pss 81:8; 95:7, as well as GKC 321 §109.b).
25 tn Heb “men of bloodshed.”
