☰ Psalms 124
124
1  A song of ascents,1 by David.
“If the Lord had not been on our side” –
let Israel say this! –
2  if the Lord had not been on our side,
when men attacked us,2
3  they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
4  The water would have overpowered us;
the current3 would have overwhelmed4 us.5
5  The raging water
would have overwhelmed us.6
6  The Lord deserves praise,7
for8 he did not hand us over as prey to their teeth.
7  We escaped with our lives,9 like a bird from a hunter’s snare.
The snare broke, and we escaped.
8  Our deliverer is the Lord,10
the Creator11 of heaven and earth. 12
1 124:1 sn: Psalm 124. Israel acknowledges that the Lord delivered them from certain disaster. 2 124:2 sn: The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21. 3 124:4 tn: Heb “rose up against us.” 4 124:4 tn: Or “stream.” 5 124:4 tn: Heb “would have passed over.” 6 124:5 tn: Heb “our being.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a). 7 124:6 tn: Heb “then they would have passed over our being, the raging waters.” 8 124:6 tn: Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.” 9 124:7 tn: Heb “[the one] who.” 10 124:8 tn: Heb “our life escaped.” 11 124:8 tn: Heb “our help [is] in the name of the Lord.” 12 124:8 tn: Or “Maker.”
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