51:18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her! 4
Fortify 5 the walls of Jerusalem! 6
55:3 because of what the enemy says, 7
and because of how the wicked 8 pressure me, 9
for they hurl trouble 10 down upon me 11
and angrily attack me.
55:4 My heart beats violently 12 within me;
the horrors of death overcome me. 13
55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; 14
terror overwhelms 15 me.
55:6 I say, 16 “I wish I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and settle in a safe place!
55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;
I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)
55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe
from the strong wind 17 and the gale.”
55:9 Confuse them, 18 O Lord!
Frustrate their plans! 19
For I see violence and conflict in the city.
55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, 20
while wickedness and destruction 21 are within it.
55:11 Disaster is within it;
violence 22 and deceit do not depart from its public square.
137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand be crippled! 23
137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
and do not give Jerusalem priority
over whatever gives me the most joy. 24
1 tn Heb “Far be it to me, O
2 tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”
3 tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”
4 tn Heb “do what is good for Zion in your favor.”
5 tn Or “Build.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
6 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
7 tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”
8 tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.
9 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”).
10 tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.
11 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).
12 tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”
13 tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”
14 tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”
15 tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.
16 tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the verbs in v. 5.
17 tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).
18 tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).
19 tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”
20 tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.
21 sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.
22 tn Or “injury, harm.”
23 tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.
24 tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”