Psalms 35:25

35:25 Do not let them say to themselves, ¹  “Aha! We have what we wanted!” ² 

Do not let them say, “We have devoured him!”

Psalms 56:1-2

Psalm 56 ³ 

For the music director; according to the yonath-elem-rechovim style; ⁴  a prayer ⁵  of David, written when the Philistines captured him in Gath. ⁶ 

56:1 Have mercy on me, O God, for men are attacking me! ⁷ 

All day long hostile enemies ⁸  are tormenting me. ⁹ 

56:2 Those who anticipate my defeat ¹⁰  attack me all day long.

Indeed, ¹¹  many are fighting against me, O Exalted One. ¹² 

Psalms 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ¹³ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ¹⁴  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Psalms 124:3

124:3 they would have swallowed us alive,

when their anger raged against us.

Jeremiah 51:34

51:34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

devoured me and drove my people out.

Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me.

He filled his belly with my riches.

He made me an empty dish.

He completely cleaned me out.” ¹⁵ 

Lamentations 2:5

ה (He)

2:5 The Lord, ¹⁶  like an enemy,

destroyed ¹⁷  Israel.

He destroyed ¹⁸  all her palaces;

he ruined her ¹⁹  fortified cities.

He made everyone in Daughter Judah

mourn and lament. ²⁰ 

Lamentations 2:16

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ²¹ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ²²  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ²³ 

Micah 3:2-3

3:2 yet you ²⁴  hate what is good, ²⁵ 

and love what is evil. ²⁶ 

You flay my people’s skin ²⁷ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ²⁸ 

3:3 You ²⁹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ³⁰  –

like meat in a kettle.

[35:25]  ¹ tn Heb “in their heart[s].”

[35:25]  ² tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.

[56:1]  ³ sn Psalm 56. Despite the threats of his enemies, the psalmist is confident the Lord will keep his promise to protect and deliver him.

[56:1]  ⁴ tn The literal meaning of this phrase is “silent dove, distant ones.” Perhaps it refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a type of musical instrument.

[56:1]  ⁵ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16 and 57-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”

[56:1]  ⁶ sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm when the Philistines seized him and took him to King Achish of Gath (see 1 Sam 21:11-15).

[56:1]  ⁷ tn According to BDB 983 s.v. II שָׁאַף, the verb is derived from שָׁאַף (sha’af, “to trample, crush”) rather than the homonymic verb “pant after.”

[56:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “a fighter.” The singular is collective for his enemies (see vv. 5-6). The Qal of לָחַם (lakham, “fight”) also occurs in Ps 35:1.

[56:1]  ⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the continuing nature of the enemies’ attacks.

[56:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

[56:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “for.”

[56:2]  ¹² tn Some take the Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “on high; above”) as an adverb modifying the preceding participle and translate, “proudly” (cf. NASB; NIV “in their pride”). The present translation assumes the term is a divine title here. The Lord is pictured as enthroned “on high” in Ps 92:8. (Note the substantival use of the term in Isa 24:4 and see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:34), who prefer to place the term at the beginning of the next verse.)

[57:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[51:34]  ¹⁵ tn This verse is extremely difficult to translate because of the shifting imagery, the confusion over the meaning of one of the verbs, and the apparent inconsistency of the pronominal suffixes here with those in the following verse which everyone agrees is connected with it. The pronominal suffixes are first common plural but the versions all read them as first common singular which the Masoretes also do in the Qere. That reading has been followed here for consistency with the next verse which identifies the speaker as the person living in Zion and the personified city of Jerusalem. The Hebrew text reads: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon devoured me [cf. 50:7, 17] and threw me into confusion. He set me down an empty dish. He swallowed me like a monster from the deep [cf. BDB 1072 s.v. תַּנִּין 3 and compare usage in Isa 27:1; Ezek 29:3; 32:2]. He filled his belly with my dainties. He rinsed me out [cf. BDB s.v. דּוּח Hiph.2 and compare the usage in Isa 4:4].” The verb “throw into confusion” has proved troublesome because its normal meaning does not seem appropriate. Hence various proposals have been made to understand it in a different sense. The present translation has followed W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:428) in understanding the verb to mean “disperse” or “route” (see NAB). The last line has seemed out of place and has often been emended to read “he has spewed me out” (so NIV, NRSV, a reading that presupposes הִדִּיחָנִי [hiddikhani] for הֱדִיחָנִי [hedikhani]). The reading of the MT is not inappropriate if it is combined with the imagery of an empty jar and hence is retained here (see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 425, n. 59; H. Freedman, Jeremiah [SoBB], 344; NJPS). The lines have been combined to keep the imagery together.

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”). See the tc note at 1:14.

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “swallowed up.”

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “swallowed up.”

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his.” For consistency this has been translated as “her.”

[2:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “He increased in Daughter Judah mourning and lamentation.”

[2:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ²² tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ²³ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.

[3:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ³⁰ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).