Psalm 112-117

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 112:1 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
2. Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
3. Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “fears.”
4. Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
5. Psalm 112:2 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
6. Psalm 112:2 tn Heb “His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the godly.” The Hebrew term דוֹר (dor, “generation”) could be taken as parallel to “offspring” and translated “posterity,” but the singular more likely refers to the godly as a class. See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.
7. Psalm 112:3 tn Heb “stands forever.”
8. Psalm 112:4 tn In this context “light” symbolizes divine blessing in its various forms (see v. 2), including material prosperity and stability.
9. Psalm 112:4 tn Heb “merciful and compassionate and just.” The Hebrew text has three singular adjectives, which are probably substantival and in apposition to the “godly” (which is plural, however). By switching to the singular, the psalmist focuses on each individual member of the group known as the “godly.” Note how vv. 5-9, like vv. 1-2a, use the singular to describe the representative godly individual who typifies the whole group.
10. Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “man.”
11. Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “he sustains his matters with justice.”
12. Psalm 112:6 tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”
13. Psalm 112:7 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).
14. Psalm 112:8 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.
15. Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “he scatters, he gives.”
16. Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “stands forever.”
17. Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “his horn will be lifted up in honor.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17).
18. Psalm 112:10 tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).
19. Psalm 112:10 tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.
20. Psalm 112:10 tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).
21. Psalm 113:1 sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.
22. Psalm 113:3 tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.
23. Psalm 113:4 tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
24. Psalm 113:5 tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
25. Psalm 113:6 tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
26. Psalm 113:7 sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
27. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “of the house.”
28. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “sons.”
29. Psalm 114:1 sn Psalm 114. The psalmist recalls the events of the exodus and conquest and celebrates God’s kingship over his covenant people.
30. Psalm 114:1 tn Heb “the house of Jacob from a nation speaking a foreign language.”
31. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
32. Psalm 114:3 tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
33. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).
34. Psalm 114:4 sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).
35. Psalm 114:8 sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).
36. Psalm 115:1 sn Psalm 115. The psalmist affirms that Israel’s God is superior to pagan idols and urges Israel to place their confidence in him.
37. Psalm 115:1 tn Or “give glory.”
38. Psalm 115:1 sn The psalmist asks the Lord to demonstrate his loyal love and faithfulness, not simply so Israel may benefit, but primarily so that the Lord will receive honor among the nations, who will recognize, contrary to their present view (see v. 2), that Israel’s God is committed to his people.
39. Psalm 115:3 sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).
40. Psalm 115:4 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
41. Psalm 115:4 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
42. Psalm 115:7 tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).
43. Psalm 115:8 tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.” sn Because the idols are lifeless, they cannot help their worshipers in times of crisis. Consequently the worshipers end up as dead as the gods in which they trust.
44. Psalm 115:9 tn Or “[source of] help.”
45. Psalm 115:9 tn Heb “and their shield.”
46. Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “house.”
47. Psalm 115:10 tn Or “[source of] help.”
48. Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “and their shield.”
49. Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.
50. Psalm 115:11 tn Or “[source of] help.”
51. Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “and their shield.”
52. Psalm 115:12 tn Or “remembers us.”
53. Psalm 115:12 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).
54. Psalm 115:12 tn Heb “house.”
55. Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”
56. Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).
57. Psalm 115:14 tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.
58. Psalm 115:15 tn Or “maker.”
59. Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “the heavens [are] heavens to the Lord.”
60. Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “to the sons of man.”
61. Psalm 115:17 tn Heb “silence,” a metonymy here for death (see Ps 94:17).
62. Psalm 116:1 sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.
63. Psalm 116:1 tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).
64. Psalm 116:2 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”
65. Psalm 116:2 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”
66. Psalm 116:3 tn Heb “surrounded me.”
67. Psalm 116:3 tn The Hebrew noun מֵצַר (metsar, “straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (m^etsade, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.
68. Psalm 116:3 tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.
69. Psalm 116:6 tn Heb “guards.” The active participle indicates this is a characteristic of the Lord.
70. Psalm 116:6 tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Ps 19:7.
71. Psalm 116:6 tn Heb “I was low.”
72. Psalm 116:7 tn Heb “return, my soul, to your place of rest.”
73. Psalm 116:7 tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ʿal) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense (cf. Ps 13:5).
74. Psalm 116:8 tn Or “for.”
75. Psalm 116:8 tn “Lord” is supplied here in the translation for clarification.
76. Psalm 116:9 tn Heb “walk before” (see Ps 56:13). On the meaning of the Hebrew idiom, see the notes at 2 Kgs 20:3/Isa 38:3.
77. Psalm 116:9 tn Heb “lands, regions.”
78. Psalm 116:11 tn Heb “I said in my haste.”
79. Psalm 116:13 tn Heb “a cup of deliverance I will lift up.” Perhaps this alludes to a drink offering the psalmist will present as he thanks the Lord for his deliverance. See v. 17.
80. Psalm 116:15 tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of his godly ones.” The point is not that God delights in or finds satisfaction in the death of his followers! The psalmist, who has been delivered from death, affirms that the life-threatening experiences of God’s followers get God’s attention, just as a precious or rare object would attract someone’s eye. See Ps 72:14 for a similar expression of this belief.
81. Psalm 116:16 tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). It may used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant. Or it may be a reference to the psalmist’s own mother who also was a servant of the Lord.
82. Psalm 116:16 tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).
83. Psalm 117:1 sn Psalm 117. The psalmist tells the nations to praise the Lord for his loyal love and faithfulness.
84. Psalm 117:1 tn Or “peoples” (see Ps 108:3).
85. Psalm 117:2 tn For this sense of the Hebrew verb גָּבַר (gavar), see Ps 103:11 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.