translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: PSA

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.


text: Heb “there is no silence to me.”


text: Heb “[O] one who sits [on] the praises of Israel.” The verb “receiving” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The metaphorical language pictures the Lord as sitting enthroned as king in his temple, receiving the praises that his people Israel offer up to him.


text: Heb “fathers.”


text: The words “in you” are supplied in the translation. They are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).


text: Or “were not ashamed.”


text: The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s experience and that of his ancestors. When he considers God’s past reliability, it only heightens his despair and confusion, for God’s present silence stands in stark contrast to his past saving acts.


text: The metaphor expresses the psalmist’s self-perception, which is based on how others treat him (see the following line).


text: Or “not a human being.” The psalmist perceives himself as less than human.


text: Heb “a reproach of man and despised by people.”


text: Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”


text: Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.


text: The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.


text: Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גלל here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3 ). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the Lord .”


text: Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: That is, “for he [the Lord ] delights in him [the psalmist].” For other cases where the expression “delight in” refers to God’s delight in a person, see Num 14:8 ; 1 Kgs 10:9 ; Pss 18:19; 40:8 . sn This statement does not necessarily reflect the enemies’ actual belief, but it does reflect the psalmist’s confession. The psalmist’s enemies sarcastically appeal to God to help him, because he claims to be an object of divine favor. However, they probably doubted the reality of his claim.


text: Or “the one who pulled me.” The verb is derived from either גָחָה ( gakhah ; see HALOT 187 s.v. גחה ) or גִּיחַ ( giyakh ; see BDB 161 s.v. גִּיחַ ) and seems to carry the nuance “burst forth” or “pull out.”


text: Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”


text: Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.” sn Despite the enemies’ taunts, the psalmist is certain of his relationship with God, which began from the time of his birth ( from the time I came out of my mother’s womb ).


text: Heb “and there is no helper.”


text: “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”


text: Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8 ; Lam 2:16 ).


text: Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”


text: Heb “like water I am poured out.”


label: NET textual note

text: Heb “my strength” ( כֹּחִי , kokhiy ), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי ( khikiy , “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.


text: Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”


text: Or “for.”


text: Heb “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” This reading is often emended because it is grammatically awkward, but perhaps its awkwardness is by rhetorical design. Its broken syntax may be intended to convey the panic and terror felt by the psalmist. The psalmist may envision a lion pinning the hands and feet of its victim to the ground with its paws (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art), or a lion biting the hands and feet. The line has been traditionally translated, “they pierce my hands and feet,” and then taken as foreshadowing the crucifixion of Christ. Though Jesus does appropriate the language of this psalm while on the cross (compare v. 1 with Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34 ), the NT does not cite this verse in describing the death of Jesus. (It does refer to vv. 7-8 and 18 , however. See Matt 27:35, 39, 43 ; Mark 15:24, 29 ; Luke 23:34 ; John 19:23-24 .) If one were to insist on an emendation of כָּאֲרִי ( ka ’ ariy , “like a lion”) to a verb, the most likely verbal root would be כָּרָה ( karah , “dig”; see the LXX). In this context this verb could refer to the gnawing and tearing of wild dogs (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV). The ancient Greek version produced by Symmachus reads “bind” here, perhaps understanding a verbal root כרך , which is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic and means “to encircle, entwine, embrace” (see HALOT 497-98 s.v. כרך and Jastrow 668 s.v. כָּרַךְ ). Neither one of these proposed verbs can yield a meaning “bore, pierce.”


text: The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 17-18 draw attention to the progressive nature of the action.


text: Heb “they.” The masculine form indicates the enemies are in view. The referent (the psalmist’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “they gaze, they look upon me.”


text: Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.


text: Heb “O my strength.”


text: Heb “hurry to my help.”


text: Or “my life.”


text: The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).


text: Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.


text: Heb “from the hand.” Here “hand” is understood by metonymy as a reference to the “paw” and thus the “claws” of the wild dogs.


text: The Hebrew term רֵמִים ( remim ) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים ( rÿ ’ emim , “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם ).


text: Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (see IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7 .) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.


text: Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23 ).


text: Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord .” See Ps 15:4 .


text: Heb “fear him.”


text: Or “affliction”; or “need.”


text: Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9 . Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14 ).


text: Heb “heard.”


text: Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”


text: Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.


text: Heb “may your heart[s].”


text: Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord .” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.


text: Heb “families of the nations.”


text: Heb “before you.”


text: Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”


text: Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי ( yÿsheney , “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי ( dishney , “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord .


text: Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ ו ] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.


text: Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.


text: Heb “and his life he does not revive.”


text: Heb “offspring.”


text: Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי ( ’adonay ).


text: Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה ( tsidaqah ) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.


text: Heb “to a people [to be] born that he has acted.” The words “they will tell” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.