Psalms 52:3

52:3 You love evil more than good,

lies more than speaking the truth. ¹  (Selah)

Psalms 62:4

62:4 They ²  spend all their time planning how to bring him ³  down. ⁴ 

They love to use deceit; ⁵ 

they pronounce blessings with their mouths,

but inwardly they utter curses. ⁶  (Selah)

Psalms 62:9

62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;

human beings are unreliable. ⁷ 

When they are weighed in the scales,

all of them together are lighter than air. ⁸ 

Psalms 64:2-6

64:2 Hide me from the plots of evil men,

from the crowd of evildoers. ⁹ 

64:3 They ¹⁰  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ¹¹ 

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ¹²  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ¹³ 

64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. ¹⁴ 

They plan how to hide ¹⁵  snares,

and boast, ¹⁶  “Who will see them?” ¹⁷ 

64:6 They devise ¹⁸  unjust schemes;

they disguise ¹⁹  a well-conceived plot. ²⁰ 

Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. ²¹ 

Matthew 26:4

26:4 They ²²  planned to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

[52:3]  ¹ tn Or “deceit more than speaking what is right.”

[62:4]  ² tn That is, the psalmist’s enemies addressed in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ³ tn That is, the generic “man” referred to in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “only from his lofty place [or perhaps, “dignity”] they plan to drive [him] away.”

[62:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they delight [in] a lie.”

[62:4]  ⁶ sn The enemies use deceit to bring down their victim. They make him think they are his friends by pronouncing blessings upon him, but inwardly they desire his demise.

[62:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.

[62:9]  ⁸ tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.

[64:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”

[64:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[64:4]  ¹² tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[64:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”

[64:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they report about hiding.”

[64:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they say.”

[64:5]  ¹⁷ tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).

[64:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

[64:6]  ¹⁹ 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).

[64:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

[64:6]  ²¹ 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.

[26:4]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.