Psalm 76:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 76:3 tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.
2. Psalm 76:3 tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.sn This verse may allude to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrians in 701 b.c. (see Isa 36-37).
3. Psalm 76:4 tn Heb “radiant [are] you, majestic from the hills of prey.” God is depicted as a victorious king and as a lion that has killed its victims.
4. Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).
5. Psalm 76:5 tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).
6. Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”
7. Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”