Psalm 89:50-52

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 89:50 tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).
2. Psalm 89:50 tn Heb “remember, O Lord, the taunt against your servants.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular here, “your servant” (that is, the psalmist).
3. Psalm 89:50 tn Heb “my lifting up in my arms [or “against my chest”] all of the many, peoples.” The term רַבִּים (rabbim, “many”) makes no apparent sense here. For this reason some emend the text to רִבֵי (rive, “attacks by”), a defectively written plural construct form of רִיב (riv, “dispute; quarrel”).
4. Psalm 89:51 tn Heb “[by] which your enemies, O Lord, taunt, [by] which they taunt [at] the heels of your anointed one.”
5. Psalm 89:52 sn The final verse of Ps 89, v. 52, is a conclusion to this third “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the first, second and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 41:13; 72:18-19; 106:48, respectively).
6. Psalm 89:52 tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21.
7. Psalm 89:52 tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [ʾamen v^eʾamen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God; thus it has been translated “We agree! We agree!”