In these two verses the psalmist prays to God to deliver him from death; there is no obvious connection between this petition and the glad cry of praise for God’s help in verses 11-12. From here to the end of Psalm 10 the composition has the form of a lament by an individual.

Be gracious: see comments on 4.1.

What I suffer translates a word that is used also in verse 12, there translated “the afflicted.”

“My enemies” (Good News Translation) is literally those who hate me (Revised Standard Version); the same verb is used in 5.5. Instead of the verb meaning “to hate,” one Hebrew manuscript has the verb for “to lift up”; so New English Bible “… look upon my affliction, thou who hast lifted me up….”

Good News Translation has translated verse 13c as a plea, “Rescue me” (so Dahood, who comments that the participle “apparently has the force of an imperative”; also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version). Such interpretation fits better with the following verse, “in order that…,” as a consequence of the action requested. Most translations, however, take it as a participial phrase descriptive of Yahweh as “you who rescue me from death.” Bible de Jérusalem translates as a statement, “You rescue me.”

The gates of death is a figurative phrase for the world of the dead, Sheol, as a city with gates (see Job 38.17; Psa 107.18; Isa 38.10; Matt 16.18); for “Sheol” see comments on 6.5. The gates of death must usually be replaced by a nonmetaphor meaning simply “death,” as in Good News Translation. “To lift up from the gates of death” means to save from death, to prevent the person from dying. As elsewhere, this refers to premature death, to sudden, unexpected death caused by disease or enemies.

In verse 14 the psalmist expresses his desire to recount all thy praises … in the gates of the daughter of Zion (“stand before the people of Jerusalem and tell them,” Good News Translation).

Recount or “tell” translates the verb used also in 9.1.

Thy praises translates a word meaning praise offered to God, thanksgiving, gratitude, which is often used in Psalms (in Hebrew the Book of Psalms has the title “Praises”).

In the gates represents the open place near the gates, inside the city, where people gathered for social, legal, and commercial purposes; so Good News Translation‘s rendering, “before the people of Jerusalem.”

The Hebrew expression the daughter of Zion is a poetic name for Jerusalem and its people; it is more correctly translated “Daughter Zion.” New Jerusalem Bible attempts to catch the poetic quality with “Fair Zion.”

Good News Translation “that I may stand before the people” would imply in some languages that the psalmist is simply reclining and wants to stand upright, rather than to appear in their presence. Therefore this clause may be recast as “in order that I may go to the people of Jerusalem.”

Rejoice: the Hebrew verb means to express joy by means of glad cries.

For deliverance see comments on 3.8; this salvation is from imminent death.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .