Footnotes

1. Psalm 25:1 sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.
2. Psalm 25:1 tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.
3. Psalm 25:3 tn Heb “those who deal in treachery in vain.” The adverb רֵיקָם (reqam, “in vain”) probably refers to the failure (or futility) of their efforts. Another option is to understand it as meaning “without cause” (cf. NIV “without excuse”; NRSV “wantonly treacherous”).
4. Psalm 25:4 sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.
5. Psalm 25:5 sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.
6. Psalm 25:6 tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.
7. Psalm 25:6 tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”
8. Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.
9. Psalm 25:7 sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.
10. Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”
11. Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “good and just.”
12. Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”
13. Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive; the psalmist expresses his prayer.
14. Psalm 25:9 tn Heb “may he guide the humble into justice.” The Hebrew term עֲנָוִים (ʿanavim, “humble”) usually refers to the oppressed, but in this context, where the psalmist confesses his sin and asks for moral guidance, it apparently refers to sinners who humble themselves before God and seek deliverance from their sinful condition.
15. Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is interpreted as a jussive (it stands parallel to the jussive form, “may he guide”).
16. Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.
17. Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”
18. Psalm 25:11 tn Heb “name.” By forgiving the sinful psalmist, the Lord’s reputation as a merciful God will be enhanced.
19. Psalm 25:11 sn Forgive my sin, because it is great. The psalmist readily admits his desperate need for forgiveness.
20. Psalm 25:12 tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).
21. Psalm 25:13 tn Heb “his life in goodness dwells.” The singular is representative (see v. 14).
22. Psalm 25:13 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
23. Psalm 25:13 tn Or “earth.”
24. Psalm 25:14 tn Heb “the advice of the Lord belongs to those who fear him.”
25. Psalm 25:14 tn Heb “and his covenant, to make them know.”
26. Psalm 25:15 tn Heb “my eyes continually [are] toward the Lord.”
27. Psalm 25:15 tn Heb “for he will bring out from a net my feet.” The hostility of the psalmist’s enemies is probably in view (see v. 19).
28. Psalm 25:16 tn That is, helpless and vulnerable.
29. Psalm 25:17 tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.
30. Psalm 25:17 tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”
31. Psalm 25:18 tn Heb “lift up all my sins.”
32. Psalm 25:19 tn Heb “see my enemies for they are numerous, and [with] violent hatred they hate me.”
33. Psalm 25:20 tn Or “my life.”
34. Psalm 25:22 tn Or “redeem.”
35. Psalm 25:22 tn Heb “his distresses.”sn O God, rescue Israel from all their distress. It is possible that the psalmist speaks on behalf of the nation throughout this entire psalm. Another option is that v. 22 is a later addition to the psalm which applies an original individual lament to the covenant community. If so, it may reflect an exilic setting.