Psalm 3/Notes/Lexical.v. 3.171678

• The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database has a series of thorough lexical studies on 'Deliverance' Words, the verb ישׁע, and the noun יְשׁוּעָה. For the noun יְשׁוּעָה, which occurs twice in Ps 3 (vv. 3, 9), they argue that it denotes "various kinds of ‘success’ secured by divine acts of power and faithfulness." They argue, contrary to many translations and dictionaries, that "‘salvation, deliverance’ is not central to the meaning of יְשׁוּעָה." They base this claim on the fact that, although יְשׁוּעָה occurs 74 times in poetry, it hardly ever occurs in parallel with other nouns in the 'deliverance' word group. Instead, it is usually parallel with words for success or blessing, power, loyalty and faithfulness, protection, praise, and righteousness. They claim that it refers to "a state of security" rather than "an action that brings it about." In prose, it occurs only four times (Exod 14:13; 1 Sam 14:45; 2 Sam 10:11; 2 Chr 20:17), "all in military contexts where ‘victory, success’ might be appropriate interpretations of the meaning." The military context of Ps 3 (cf. enemies surrounding [vv. 2-3, 7], shield [v. 4a]) makes "victory" an appropriate gloss here as well.