Psalms 76:5

The bravehearted ¹  were plundered; ²  they “fell asleep.” ³  All the warriors were helpless. ⁴ 

Job 40:10-12; Ps 13:3; Isa 31:8; Isa 37:36; Isa 46:12; Jer 51:39; Eze 30:21-25; Da 4:37; Na 3:18; Lu 1:51,52

¹ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

² tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

³ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

⁴ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”