¹tn Or “make me secure”; Heb “set me on high.”
²tn Heb “from those who raise themselves up [against] me.”
³tn Heb “from the workers of wickedness.”
⁴tn Heb “from men of bloodshed.”
⁵tn Heb “my life.”
⁶tn The Hebrew verb is from the root rwg, which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 56:8.
⁷sn The point is that the psalmist’s enemies have no justifiable reason for attacking him. He has neither rebelled or sinned against the Lord.
⁸tn Heb “without sin.”
⁹tn Heb “they run and they are determined.”
¹⁰tn Heb “arise to meet me and see.” The Hebrew verb arq (“to meet; to encounter”) here carries the nuance of “to help” (see BDB 897).
¹¹tn Heb “Lord, God, Hosts.” One expects the construct form yhla before twabx (“hosts”). See Ps 89:9, but <yhla hwhy precedes twabx in Pss 80:4, 19; 84:8 as well.
¹²tn Heb “wake up to punish” (see Pss 35:23; 44:23).
¹³tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
¹⁴tn Heb “go around.”
¹⁵tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”
¹⁶tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.
¹⁷sn Laugh in disgust. See Pss 2:4; 37:13.
¹⁸tn Or “scoff at”; or “deride”; or “mock” (see Ps 2:4).
¹⁹tc Heb “his strength, for you I will watch.” “His strength” should be emended to “my strength” (see v. 17). Some also emend hrmva (“I will watch”) to hrmza (“I will sing praises [to you]”) See v. 17.
²⁰tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
²¹tn Heb “the God of my [Qere (marginal reading); the Kethib (consonantal text) has “his”] loyal love will meet me.”
²²tn Heb “will cause me to look upon.”
²³tn Heb “those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 56:2.
²⁴tn Heb “do not kill them, lest my people forget.”
sn My people might forget the lesson. Swift, sudden destruction might be quickly forgotten. The psalmist wants God’s judgment to be prolonged so that it might be a continual reminder of divine justice.
²⁵tn Heb “make them roam around by your strength and bring them down, O our shield, the Lord.”
²⁶tn Heb “the sin of their mouth [is] the word of their lips.”
²⁷tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
²⁸tn Heb “go around.”
²⁹tn Heb “if they are not full, they stay through the night.”
³⁰tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
³¹tn Heb “and my shelter in the day of my distress.”
³²tn Heb “my strength, to you I will sing praises.”
³³tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
³⁴tn Heb “the God of my loyal love.”
³⁵sn Psalm 60. The psalmist grieves over Israel’s humiliation, but in response to God’s assuring word, he asks for divine help in battle and expresses his confidence in victory.
³⁶tn The Hebrew expression means “lily of the testimony.” It may refer to a particular music style or to a tune title.
³⁷tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word <tkm (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56-59, is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 defines it as “inscription.”
³⁸tn Heb “to teach.”
³⁹tn In Josh 8:21 and Judg 20:48 the two verbs “turn back” and “strike down” are also juxtaposed. There they refer to a military counter-attack.
⁴⁰tn Heb “12,000 of Edom.” Perhaps one should read <ra (“Aram”) here rather than <da (“Edom”).
⁴¹sn The heading apparently refers to the military campaign recorded in 2 Sam 10 and 1 Chr 19.