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Psalm 144:4-6
New English Translation
Psalm 144:4-6
New English Translation
4 People[a] are like a vapor,
their days like a shadow that disappears.[b]
5 O Lord, make the sky sink[c] and come down.[d]
Touch the mountains and make them smolder.[e]
6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter the enemy.
Shoot your arrows and rout them.[f]
Footnotes
- Psalm 144:4 tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”
- Psalm 144:4 tn Heb “his days [are] like a shadow that passes away,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness. See Ps 102:11.
- Psalm 144:5 tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. See Ps 18:9.
- Psalm 144:5 tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.
- Psalm 144:5 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
- Psalm 144:6 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
New English Translation (NET)
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