Text -- Psalms 64:6 (NET)

64:6 They devise unjust schemes; they disguise a well-conceived plot. Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 64:6

¹ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

² tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tomnu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).

³ tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

⁴ tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.