Psalms 41:6

41:6 When someone comes to visit, ¹  he pretends to be friendly; ² 

he thinks of ways to defame me, ³ 

and when he leaves he slanders me. ⁴ 

Psalms 56:5-7

56:5 All day long they cause me trouble; ⁵ 

they make a habit of plotting my demise. ⁶ 

56:6 They stalk ⁷  and lurk; ⁸ 

they watch my every step, ⁹ 

as ¹⁰  they prepare to take my life. ¹¹ 

56:7 Because they are bent on violence, do not let them escape! ¹² 

In your anger ¹³  bring down the nations, ¹⁴  O God!

Psalms 57:6

57:6 They have prepared a net to trap me; ¹⁵ 

I am discouraged. ¹⁶ 

They have dug a pit for me. ¹⁷ 

They will fall ¹⁸  into it! (Selah)

Psalms 59:3

59:3 For look, they wait to ambush me; ¹⁹ 

powerful men stalk ²⁰  me,

but not because I have rebelled or sinned, O Lord. ²¹ 

Isaiah 29:21

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, ²² 

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ²³ 

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ²⁵  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²⁶  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ²⁷  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ²⁸  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Jeremiah 20:10

20:10 I ²⁹  hear many whispering words of intrigue against me.

Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! ³⁰ 

They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” ³¹ 

All my so-called friends ³²  are just watching for

something that would lead to my downfall. ³³ 

They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up,

so we can prevail over ³⁴  him and get our revenge on him.

Luke 11:53-54

11:53 When he went out from there, the experts in the law ³⁵  and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, ³⁶  and to ask him hostile questions ³⁷  about many things, 11:54 plotting against ³⁸  him, to catch ³⁹  him in something he might say.

Hebrews 12:3

12:3 Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up.

[41:6]  ¹ tn Heb “to see.”

[41:6]  ² tn Heb “he speaks deceitfully.”

[41:6]  ³ tn Heb “his heart gathers sin to itself.”

[41:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “he goes outside and speaks.”

[56:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “my affairs they disturb.” For other instances of דָּבָר (davar) meaning “affairs, business,” see BDB 183 s.v.. The Piel of עָצַב (’atsav, “to hurt”) occurs only here and in Isa 63:10, where it is used of “grieving” (or “offending”) the Lord’s holy Spirit. Here in Ps 56:5, the verb seems to carry the nuance “disturb, upset,” in the sense of “cause trouble.”

[56:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “against me [are] all their thoughts for harm.”

[56:6]  ⁷ tn The verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 59:3.

[56:6]  ⁸ tn Or “hide.”

[56:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “my heels.”

[56:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”

[56:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”

[56:7]  ¹² tc Heb “because of wickedness, deliverance to them.” As it stands, the MT makes no sense. The negative particle אַיִן (’ayin, “there is not,” which is due to dittography of the immediately preceding אָוֶן, ’aven, “wickedness”), should probably be added before “deliverance” (see BHS, note a). The presence of an imperative in the next line (note “bring down”) suggests that this line should be translated as a prayer as well, “may there not be deliverance to them.”

[56:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “in anger.” The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[56:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “people” in a general sense.

[57:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for my feet.”

[57:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[57:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “before me.”

[57:6]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.

[59:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my life.”

[59:3]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 56:8.

[59:3]  ²¹ sn The point is that the psalmist’s enemies have no justifiable reason for attacking him. He has neither rebelled or sinned against the Lord.

[29:21]  ²² tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”

[29:21]  ²³ sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.

[29:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”

[18:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[20:10]  ²⁹ tn It would be difficult to render accurately the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this verse without lengthening the English line unduly. It probably means something like “This is true even though I…,” i.e., the particle is concessive (cf. BDB s.v. כִּי 2.c). No other nuance seems appropriate. The particle is left out of the translation, but its presence is acknowledged here.

[20:10]  ³⁰ tn The phrase translated “Those who would cause me terror are everywhere” has already occurred in 6:25 in the context of the terror caused by the enemy from the north and in 20:3 in reference to the curse pronounced on Pashhur who would experience it first hand. Some have seen the phrase here not as Jeremiah’s ejaculation of terror but of his assailant’s taunts of his message or even their taunting nickname for him. But comparison of this passage with the first two lines of Ps 31:13 (31:14 HT) which are word for word the same as these two will show that it refers to the terror inspired by the plots of his enemies to do away with him. It is also clear from the context of that passage and the following context here that the “whispering of many” (the literal translation of “many whispering words of intrigue against me) refers to intrigues to take vengeance on him and do away with him.

[20:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “Denounce and let us denounce him.” The verb which is translated “denounce” (נָגַד, nagad) does not take an accusative object of person as it does here very often. When it does it usually means to inform someone. The only relevant passage appears to be Job 17:5 where it means something like “denounce.” What is probably involved here are the attempts to portray Jeremiah as a traitor (Jer 26:10) and a false prophet (see his conflict with Hananiah in Jer 28).

[20:10]  ³² tn Heb “the men of my peace [who are concerned about my welfare].” For this phrase compare Ps 41:9 (41:10 HT); Jer 38:22. It is generally agreed that irony is being invoked here, hence “so-called” is supplied in the translation to bring out the irony.

[20:10]  ³³ tn Heb “watching my stumbling [for me to stumble].” Metaphorically they were watching for some slip-up that would lead to his downfall. Compare the use in Pss 35:15 and 38:17 (38:18 HT).

[20:10]  ³⁴ tn All the text says literally is “Perhaps he can be enticed so that we can prevail over him.” However the word “enticed” needs some qualification. As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:479) notes it should probably be read in the context of the “stumbling” (= “something that would lead to my downfall”). Hence “slipping up” has been supplied as an object. It is vague enough to avoid specifics as the original text does but suggests some reference to “something that would lead to my downfall.”

[11:53]  ³⁵ tn Or “the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[11:53]  ³⁶ tn Or “terribly.”

[11:53]  ³⁷ tn For this term see L&N 33.183.

[11:54]  ³⁸ tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.

[11:54]  ³⁹ tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.