¹tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me and deliver me.” Ps 31:1 omits “and deliver me.”
²tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”
³tn Ps 31:2 adds “quickly” before “deliver.”
⁴tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term /wum (“dwelling place”) should probably be emended to zwum (“refuge”; see Ps 31:2).
⁵tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase tywx dymt awbl (“to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to twdwxm tybl (“a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).
⁶sn You are my high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
⁷tn Heb “hand.”
⁸tn Heb “for you [are] my hope.”
⁹tn Heb “O Lord, my source of confidence from my youth.”
¹⁰tn Heb “from the womb.”
¹¹tc The form in the MT is derived from hzg, “to cut off,” perhaps picturing God as the one who severed the psalmist’s umbilical cord (see HALOT 186). Many interpreters and translators prefer to emend the text to yjg, from jwg or jyg, “pull out” (see Ps 22:9; cf. the present translation) or to yzwu, “my strength” (cf. NEB “my protector since I left my mother’s womb”).
¹²tn Heb “in you [is] my praise continually.”
¹³tn Heb “like a sign [i.e., portent or bad omen] I am to many.”
¹⁴tn Heb “my mouth is filled [with] your praise, all the day [with] your splendor.”
¹⁵tn Heb “do not cast me away at the time of old age.”
¹⁶tn Heb “those who watch for my life consult together.”
¹⁷tn Heb “saying.”
¹⁸tn Heb “hurry to my help.”
¹⁹tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
²⁰tn Heb “and I add to all your praise.”
²¹tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”
²²tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts (see BDB 708). HALOT 768 understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”
²³tn Heb “I will come with.”
²⁴tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”
²⁵tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”
²⁶tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.
²⁷tn Heb “your justice, O God, [is] unto the height.” The Hebrew term <wrm (“height”) is here a title for the sky/heavens.
sn Extends to the skies above. Similar statements are made in Pss 36:5 and 57:10.
²⁸tn Heb “you who have done great things.”
²⁹tn Or “Who is like you?”
³⁰tn Heb “you who have caused me to see many harmful distresses.”
³¹tn Heb “you return, you give me life.” The Hebrew term bwv (“return”) is used here in an adverbial sense, indicating repetition of the action described by the following verb. The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.) Another option is to understand this as a statement of confidence, “you will revive me once again” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
³²tn Heb “you return, you bring me up.” The Hebrew term bwv (“return”) is used here in an adverbial sense, indicating repetition of the action described by the following verb. The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.) Another option is to understand this as a statement of confidence, “you will bring me up once again” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
³³tn Heb “increase my greatness.” The prefixed verbal form is distinctly jussive, indicating this is a prayer or wish. The psalmist’s request for “greatness” (or “honor”) is not a boastful, self-serving prayer for prominence, but, rather, a request that God would vindicate by elevating him over those who are trying to humiliate him.
³⁴tn The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.)
³⁵tn The word “praising” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
³⁶tn Or “Holy One of Israel.” The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The Lord’s holiness is first and foremost his transcendent sovereignty as the ruler of the world. He is “set apart” from the world over which he rules. At the same time his holiness encompasses his moral authority, which derives from his royal position. As king he has the right to dictate to his subjects how they are to live; indeed his very own character sets the standard for proper behavior. See the notes on Isa 6:3.
³⁷tn Or “when.” The translation assumes that yk has an emphasizing (asseverative) function here.
³⁸tn Heb “and my life [or “soul”] which you will have redeemed.” The perfect verbal form functions here as a future perfect. The psalmist anticipates praising God, for God will have rescued him by that time.
³⁹tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
⁴⁰tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.
⁴¹sn Psalm 72. This royal psalm contains a prayer for the Davidic king (note the imperatival form in v. 1 and the jussive forms in vv. 16-17). It is not entirely clear if vv. 2-15 express a prayer or anticipate a future reign. The translation assumes a blend of petition and vision: (I) opening prayer (v. 1), followed by anticipated results if prayer is answered (vv. 2-7); (II) prayer (v. 8), followed by anticipated results if prayer is answered (vv. 9-14); (III) closing prayer (vv. 15-17). Whether a prayer, vision, or combination of the two, the psalm depicts the king’s universal rule of peace and prosperity. As such it is indirectly messianic, for the ideal it expresses will only be fully realized during the Messiah’s earthly reign. Verses 18-19 are a conclusion for Book 2 of the Psalter (Pss 42-72; cf. Ps 41:13, which contains a similar conclusion for Book 1), while v. 20 appears to be a remnant of an earlier collection of psalms or an earlier edition of the Psalter.
⁴²tn The preposition could be understood as indicating authorship (“Of Solomon”), but since the psalm is a prayer for a king, it may be that the superscription reflects a tradition that understood this as a prayer for Solomon.