translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: PSA

label: NET translator note

text: The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל ( maskil ) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142 , as well as in Ps 47:7 .


text: Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.


text: Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14 ).


text: Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19 ).


text: Heb “lift up your steps to,” which may mean “run, hurry.”


text: Heb “everything [the] enemy has damaged in the holy place.”


text: This verb is often used of a lion’s roar, so the psalmist may be comparing the enemy to a raging, devouring lion.


text: Heb “your meeting place.”


text: Heb “they set up their banners [as] banners.” The Hebrew noun אוֹת (’ ot , “sign”) here refers to the enemy army’s battle flags and banners (see Num 2:12 ).


text: Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.


text: This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”


text: The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.


text: Heb “its engravings together.”


text: This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).


text: This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).


text: Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”


text: Heb “in their heart.”


label: NET textual note

text: Heb “[?] altogether.” The Hebrew form נִינָם ( ninam ) is problematic. It could be understood as the noun נִין ( nin , “offspring”) but the statement “their offspring altogether” would make no sense here. C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs ( Psalms [ICC], 2:159) emends יָחַד ( yakhad , “altogether”) to יָחִיד ( yakhid , “alone”) and translate “let their offspring be solitary” (i.e., exiled). Another option is to understand the form as a Qal imperfect first common plural from יָנָה ( yanah , “to oppress”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix, “we will oppress them.” However, this verb, when used in the finite form, always appears in the Hiphil. Therefore, it is preferable to emend the form to the Hiphil נוֹנֵם ( nonem , “we will oppress them”).


text: Heb “they burn down all the meeting places of God in the land.”


text: Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8 ) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3 ).


text: Heb “there is not still a prophet.”


text: Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”


text: Heb “Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? From the midst of your chest, destroy!” The psalmist pictures God as having placed his right hand (symbolic of activity and strength) inside his robe against his chest. He prays that God would pull his hand out from under his robe and use it to destroy the enemy.


text: The psalmist speaks as Israel’s representative here.


text: Heb “in the midst of the earth.”


text: The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ ( porarta ) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר ( parar ) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”


text: The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14 .


text: The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite in this narrational context.


text: Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”


text: Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר ( ma ’ or , “light”) refers here to the moon.


text: Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”


text: This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16 ) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.


text: Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”


text: Heb “remember this.”


text: Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord .”


text: Heb “do not forget forever.”


text: Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word ( כִּי ) begins with kaf ( כ ).


text: Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol ( Ps 88:6 ) or to hiding places likened to Sheol ( Ps 143:3 ; Lam 3:6 ).


text: Or “defend your cause.”


text: Heb “remember your reproach from a fool all the day.”


text: Or “forget.”


text: Heb “the voice of your enemies.”


text: Heb “the roar of those who rise up against you, which ascends continually.”