³ tn Heb “by your great power and your outstretched arm.” See 21:5; 27:5; and the marginal note on 27:5 for this idiom.

¹ tn Heb “by my great power and my outstretched arm.” Again “arm” is symbolical for “strength.” Compare the similar expression in 21:5.

¹ tn Heb “And I, behold, I am in your hand.” Hand is quite commonly used for “power” or “control” in biblical contexts.

¹ tn Heb “with outstretched hand and with strong arm.” These are, of course, figurative of God’s power and might. He does not literally have hands and arms.

³ tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substituting the abstract “royalty, royal power” for the concrete “kings” who exercise it.

¹ tn The Lord’s right hand and strong arm here symbolize his power and remind the audience that his might guarantees the fulfillment of the following promise.

¹ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

⁴ sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.

² tn Heb “his arm rules for him” (so NIV, NRSV). The Lord’s “arm” symbolizes his military power (see Isa 51:9-10; 63:5).

² sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

³ sn The proverb makes an observation about a king’s power to terrify or to refresh. It advises people to use tact with a king.

⁴ tn The adjective is singular. A plurality of people crouching before a single person portrays an even greater extent of difference in power between them.

¹ sn Psalm 97. The psalmist depicts the Lord as the sovereign, just king of the world who comes in power to vindicate his people.

² sn The image behind the language of vv. 4-5 is that of a powerful wild ox that confidently raises its head before its enemies.

² tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.

¹ sn Psalm 68. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior and celebrates the fact that God exerts his power on behalf of his people.

¹ tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ברך pi).

² tn Heb “like a sharpened razor, doer of deceit.” The masculine participle עָשָׂה (ʿasah) is understood as a substantival vocative, addressed to the powerful man.

⁴ tn Or “blesses you forever.” Here “bless” means to “endue with the power and skill to rule effectively,” as the following verses indicate.

² 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.