¹tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”
²tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.
³tn Heb “the work you worked.”
⁴tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.
⁵tn Heb “you, your hand.”
⁶tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.
⁷tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav consecutive) from uur (“be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from uur (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).
⁸tn Or “peoples.”
⁹tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.
¹⁰tn Or “take possession of.”
¹¹tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
¹²tn Heb “you right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Pss 17:7; 20:6; 21:8).
¹³tn Heb “your arm.”
¹⁴tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
¹⁵tn Or “favorable toward.”
¹⁶sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.
¹⁷tc The LXX assumes a participle here (hwxm, “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (hwx) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem. Note that the preceding word (<yhla) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from <yhla to the beginning of the next word and read hwxm yhla (“[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).
tn Or “command.” This may be the Israelites’ petition prior to the battle. See the introductory note to the psalm.
¹⁸tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.
¹⁹tn Heb “by you.”
²⁰tn Heb “gore” (like an ox). If this portion of the psalm contains the song of confidence/petition the Israelites recited prior to battle, then the imperfects here and in the next line may express their expectation of victory. Another option is that the imperfects function in an emphatic generalizing manner. In this case one might translate, “you [always] drive back…you [always] trample down.”
sn The Hebrew verb translated “drive back” is literally “gore”; the imagery is that of a powerful wild ox that “gores” its enemies and tramples them underfoot.
²¹tn Heb “in your name.” The Lord’s “name” refers here to his revealed character or personal presence. Specifically in this context his ability to deliver, protect, and energize for battle is in view (see Ps 54:1).
²²sn The image of the powerful wild ox continues; see the note on the phrase “drive back” in the preceding line.
²³tn Heb “those who rise up [against] us.”
²⁴tn Or “have delivered,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
²⁵tn Or “have humiliated,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
²⁶tn The particle [a, “but,” is used here as a strong adversative contrasting the following statement with what precedes (see BDB 65 and HALOT 76).
²⁷tn Heb “you did not go out with our armies.” The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav consecutive).
²⁸tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”
²⁹tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase wml (“for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” (BDB 515) or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).
³⁰tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav consecutive).
³¹tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav consecutive).
³²tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”
³³tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”
³⁴tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav consecutive).
³⁵tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”
³⁶tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav consecutive).
³⁷tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”
³⁸tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).
³⁹tn Heb “all the day my humiliation [is] in front of me.”
⁴⁰tn Heb “and the shame of my face covers me.”
⁴¹tn Heb “from the voice of one who ridicules and insults, from the face of an enemy and an avenger.” See Ps 8:2.
⁴²tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.
⁴³tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”
⁴⁴tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” See Ps 78:57 and HALOT 744.
⁴⁵tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.
⁴⁶tn Heb “yet you have battered us in a place of jackals.”
⁴⁷tn The Hebrew term twmlx has traditionally been understood as a compound noun meaning “shadow of death” (lx@ + tw\m*, see BDB 853, cf. NASB). Other scholars prefer to vocalize the form tWml=x^ and understand it as an abstract noun (from the root <lx) meaning “darkness” (cf. NIV, NRSV). An examination of the word’s usage favors the latter derivation. It is frequently associated with darkness/night and contrasted with light/morning (see Job 3:5; 10:21-22; 12:22; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; Ps 107:10, 14; Isa 9:1; Jer 13:16; Amos 5:8). In some cases the darkness described is associated with the realm of death (Job 10:21-22; 38:17), but this is a metaphorical application of the word and does not reflect its inherent meaning. In Ps 44:19 darkness symbolizes defeat and humiliation.
⁴⁸tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).
⁴⁹tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense rz (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see TDOT 4:54-55).
⁵⁰tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.
⁵¹tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.
⁵²tn The statement “because of you” (1) may simply indicate that God is the cause of the Israelites’ defeat (see vv. 9-14, where the nation’s situation is attributed directly to God’s activity, and cf. NEB, NRSV), or (2) it may suggest they suffer because of their allegiance to God (see Ps 69:7 and Jer 15:15). In this case one should translate, “for your sake” (cf. NASB, NIV). The citation of this verse in Rom 8:36 follows the LXX (Ps 43:23 LXX), where the Greek term e{neken (Jeneken; LXX e{neka) may likewise mean “because of” or “for the sake of” (BDAG 334 s.v. e{neka 1).
⁵³tn Or “regarded as.”
⁵⁴tn Heb “like sheep of slaughtering,” that is, sheep destined for slaughter.
⁵⁵sn Wake up! See Ps 35:23.
⁵⁶tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
⁵⁷tn Or “forget.”
⁵⁸tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”
⁵⁹tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of vpn (“being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
⁶⁰tn Or “redeem us.” See Pss 25:22; 26:11; 69:18; 119:134.
⁶¹sn Psalm 45. This is a romantic poem celebrating the Davidic king’s marriage to a lovely princess. The psalmist praises the king for his military prowess and commitment to justice, urges the bride to be loyal to the king, and anticipates that the marriage will be blessed with royal offspring.
⁶²tn Heb “according to lilies.” “Lilies” may be a tune title or musical style, suggestive of romantic love. The imagery of a “lily” appears frequently in the Song of Solomon in a variety of contexts (see 2:1-2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2).
⁶³tn The meaning of the Hebrew term lykcm (“maskil”) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.