55:9 Confuse them, 9 O Lord!
Frustrate their plans! 10
For I see violence and conflict in the city.
For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song 12 by David.
55:1 Listen, O God, to my prayer!
Do not ignore 13 my appeal for mercy!
14:6 Then 16 I saw another 17 angel flying directly overhead, 18 and he had 19 an eternal gospel to proclaim 20 to those who live 21 on the earth – to every nation, tribe, 22 language, and people.
1 tn Grk “And all.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
2 tn The Greek term is γλώσσαις (glwssai"), the same word used for the tongues of fire.
3 tn Grk “just as the spirit gave them to utter.” The verb ἀποφθέγγομαι (apofqengomai) was used of special utterances in Classical Greek (BDAG 125 s.v.).
4 sn Proselytes refers to Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) converts to Judaism.
5 tn Or “God’s mighty works.” Here the genitive τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) has been translated as a subjective genitive.
6 tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”
7 tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”
8 tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”
9 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).
10 tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”
11 sn Psalm 55. The suffering and oppressed author laments that one of his friends has betrayed him, but he is confident that God will vindicate him by punishing his deceitful enemies.
12 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 52.
13 tn Heb “hide yourself from.”
14 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”
15 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”
16 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
17 tc Most
18 tn L&N 1.10 states, “a point or region of the sky directly above the earth – ‘high in the sky, midpoint in the sky, directly overhead, straight above in the sky.’”
19 tn Grk “having.”
20 tn Or “an eternal gospel to announce as good news.”
21 tn Grk “to those seated on the earth.”
22 tn Grk “and tribe,” but καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following term since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.