Net English TranslationPsalms 124 =
Psalm 1241
124

1 A song of ascents,2 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,3
3 they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
4 The water would have overpowered us;
the current4 would have overwhelmed5 us.6
5 The raging water
would have overwhelmed us.7
6 The Lord deserves praise,8
for9 he did not hand us over as prey to their teeth.
7 We escaped with our lives,10 like a bird from a hunter’s snare.
The snare broke, and we escaped.
8 Our deliverer is the Lord,11
the Creator12 of heaven and earth.
1sn Psalm 124. Israel acknowledges that the Lord delivered them from certain disaster. 2sn 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. 3tn Heb “rose up against us.” 4tn Or “stream.” 5tn Heb “would have passed over.” 6tn 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). 7tn Heb “then they would have passed over our being, the raging waters.” 8tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.” 9tn Heb “[the one] who.” 10tn Heb “our life escaped.” 11tn Heb “our help [is] in the name of the Lord.” 12tn Or “Maker.”
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