4:4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile! 4:5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended 1 the builders! 2
35:4 May those who seek my life be embarrassed and humiliated!
May those who plan to harm me be turned back and ashamed! 3
59:5 You, O Lord God, the invincible warrior, 4 the God of Israel,
rouse yourself and punish 5 all the nations!
Have no mercy on any treacherous evildoers! (Selah)
69:22 May their dining table become a trap before them!
May it be a snare for that group of friends! 6
69:23 May their eyes be blinded! 7
Make them shake violently! 8
69:24 Pour out your judgment 9 on them!
May your raging anger 10 overtake them!
69:25 May their camp become desolate,
their tents uninhabited! 11
69:26 For they harass 12 the one whom you discipline; 13
they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. 14
69:27 Hold them accountable for all their sins! 15
Do not vindicate them! 16
69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! 17
Do not let their names be listed with the godly! 18
109:14 May his ancestors’ 19 sins be remembered by the Lord!
May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! 20
109:15 May the Lord be constantly aware of them, 21
and cut off the memory of his children 22 from the earth!
2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,
they lie flat on the ground in worship. 23
Don’t spare them! 24
1 tn The Hiphil stem of כָּעַס (ka’as) may mean: (1) “to provoke to anger”; (2) “to bitterly offend”; or (3) “to grieve” (BDB 495 s.v. Hiph.; HALOT 491 s.v. כעס hif). The Hebrew lexicons suggest that “bitterly offend” is the most appropriate nuance here.
2 tn Heb “before the builders.” The preposition נֶגֶד (neged, “before”) here connotes “in the sight of” or “in the view of” (BDB 617 s.v. 1.a; HALOT 666 s.v. 1.a).
3 tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies. See also the distinct jussive form in v. 6.
4 tn Heb “
5 tn Heb “wake up to punish” (see Pss 35:23; 44:23).
6 tc Heb “and to the friends for a snare.” The plural of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is used in Ps 55:20 of one’s “friends.” If the reading of the MT is retained here, the term depicts the psalmist’s enemies as a close-knit group of friends who are bound together by their hatred for the psalmist. Some prefer to revocalize the text as וּלְשִׁלּוּמִים (ulÿshillumim, “and for retribution”). In this case the noun stands parallel to פַּח (pakh, “trap”) and מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), and one might translate, “may their dining table become a trap before them, [a means of] retribution and a snare” (cf. NIV).
7 tn Heb “may their eyes be darkened from seeing.”
8 tn Heb “make their hips shake continually.”
9 tn Heb “anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger.
10 tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971), 17-81.
11 tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”
12 tn Or “persecute”; Heb “chase.”
13 tn Heb “for you, the one whom you strike, they chase.”
14 tn Heb “they announce the pain of your wounded ones” (i.e., “the ones whom you wounded,” as the parallel line makes clear).
15 tn Heb “place sin upon their sin.”
16 tn Heb “let them not come into your vindication.”
17 tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”
18 tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”
19 tn Or “fathers’ sins.”
20 tn Heb “not be wiped out.”
21 tn Heb “may they [that is, the sins mentioned in v. 14] be before the
22 tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.
23 tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.
24 tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”