¹ tn Or “defend your cause.”

¹ sn Defend yourself. The Lord challenges Israel to defend itself against the charges he is bringing.

⁴ tn Grk “their conscience bearing witness and between the thoughts accusing or also defending one another.”

⁴ tn Or “he defended,” “he retaliated” (BDAG 55 s.v. ἀμύνομαι).

⁴ sn The Lord here identifies with the oppressed and comes as their defender and vindicator.

¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s summons to the defendant follows.

³ sn “Should we use our swords?” The disciples’ effort to defend Jesus recalls Luke 22:35-38. One individual did not wait for the answer.

³ tn Some prefer to translate the phrase לִצְבֹּא עַל (litsboʾ ʿal) as “fight against,” but the following context pictures the Lord defending, not attacking, Zion.

¹ sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.

² sn These people are called God’s oppressed ones because he is their defender (see Pss 9:12, 18; 10:12; 12:5).

¹ tn The object of “see” is omitted, but v. 3b suggests that the Lord’s self-revelation as the city’s defender is what they see.

² tn D. W. Thomas defends a meaning “cover” for the verb עָשָׂה (ʿasah). See “Translating Hebrew ʿasah,” BT 17 [1966]: 190-93.

¹ tn Heb “He called him on that day Jerub Baal.” The name means, at least by popular etymology, “Let Baal fight” or “Let Baal defend himself.”

³ tn The verb once again is יָכָה (yakhah, in the Hiphil, “argue a case, plead, defend, contest”). But because the word usually means “accuse” rather than “defend,” I. L. Seeligmann proposed changing “my ways” to “his ways” (“Zur Terminologie für das Gerichtsverfahren im Wortschatz des biblischen Hebräisch,” VTSup 16 [1967]: 251-78). But the word can be interpreted appropriately in the context without emendation.

¹ sn The instruction to “open your mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it means “speak up for” (so NIV, TEV, NLT) or in this context “serve as an advocate in judgment” (cf. CEV “you must defend”).

¹ tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender—this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.

¹ sn I am like a deaf man…like a mute. The psalmist is like a deaf mute; he is incapable of defending himself and is vulnerable to his enemies’ deception (see v. 14).

¹ sn Peake’s observation is worth noting, namely, that as Job attacks the unrighteousness of God boldly he nonetheless has confidence in God’s righteousness that would not allow liars to defend him.

¹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

⁴ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.