Psalm 68:9-10 New English Translation
9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall[a] on your chosen people.[b]
When they[c] are tired, you sustain them,[d]
10 for you live among them.[e]
You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.
Footnotes
- Psalm 68:9 tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).
- Psalm 68:9 tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, venilʾah) makes this syntactically unlikely.
- Psalm 68:9 tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
- Psalm 68:9 tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
- Psalm 68:10 tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashevu vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”
New English Translation (NET)
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