² tn Heb “the scribes.”

¹ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

² tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

¹ tn Heb “the king’s scribe.”

⁶ tn Heb “my tongue [is] a stylus of a skillful scribe.” Words flow from the psalmist’s tongue just as they do from a scribe’s stylus.

² tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.” So also in v. 21.

⁴ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.

¹ tn Or “clerk.” The “scribe” (γραμματεύς, grammateus) was the keeper of the city’s records.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

² tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

³ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor normally trimmed the sheets to be sewn together, scraped them in preparation for writing, and erased errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll served to destroy it.

² tc For the MT reading שָׁפְטִין (shoftim, “judges”) the LXX uses the noun γραμματεῖς (grammateis, “scribes”).

¹ tn Heb “was an adviser, a man of insight, and he was a scribe.”

¹ tn Heb “were scribes”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “secretaries”; TEV, NLT “court secretaries.”

³ tc The MT reads נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”); however, the Masoretic scribes preserve an alternate textual tradition, included in some lists of the Tiqqune Sopherim (“corrections by the scribes”), of נַפְשֶׁךָ (nafshekha, “your soul”).