Psalm 21:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).
2. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.
3. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).
4. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.
5. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “seed.”
6. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “sons of man.”
7. Psalm 21:11 tn Or “for.”
8. Psalm 21:11 tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).
9. Psalm 21:11 sn See Ps 10:2.
10. Psalm 21:11 tn Heb “they lack ability.”