Discovery BoxPsalms 84:5 
Context84:5 How blessed are those who 1 find their strength in you,
and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! 2
Psalms 84:10
Context84:10 Certainly 3 spending just one day in your temple courts is better
than spending a thousand elsewhere. 4
I would rather stand at the entrance 5 to the temple of my God
than live 6 in the tents of the wicked.
1 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.
2 tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).
3 tn Or “for.”
4 tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”
5 tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).
6 tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.
