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I call to you because you will answer me, O God.
Listen to me![a]
Hear what I say![b]
Accomplish awesome, faithful deeds,[c]
you who powerfully deliver those who look to you for protection from their enemies.[d]
Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye.[e]
Hide me in the shadow of your wings.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 17:6 tn Heb “Turn your ear toward me.”
  2. Psalm 17:6 tn Heb “my word.”
  3. Psalm 17:7 tn Heb “Set apart faithful acts.”
  4. Psalm 17:7 tn Heb “[O] one who delivers those who seek shelter from the ones raising themselves up, by your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver.sn Those who look to you for protection from their enemies. “Seeking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
  5. Psalm 17:8 tc Heb “Protect me like the pupil, a daughter of an eye.” The noun בַּת (bat, “daughter”) should probably be emended to בָּבַת (bavat, “pupil”). See Zech 2:12 HT (2:8 ET) and HALOT 107 s.v. *בָּבָה.
  6. Psalm 17:8 sn Your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.