Text -- Psalms 55:3 (NET)

55:3 because of what the enemy says, and because of how the wicked pressure me, for they hurl trouble down upon me and angrily attack me.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 55:3

¹ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

² tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

³ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

⁴ tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

⁵ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).