Psalms 119:120

119:120 My body ¹  trembles ²  because I fear you; ³ 

I am afraid of your judgments.

Psalms 53:5

53:5 They are absolutely terrified, ⁴ 

even by things that do not normally cause fear. ⁵ 

For God annihilates ⁶  those who attack you. ⁷ 

You are able to humiliate them because God has rejected them. ⁸ 

Psalms 14:5

14:5 They are absolutely terrified, ⁹ 

for God defends the godly. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 91:5

91:5 You need not fear the terrors of the night, ¹¹ 

the arrow that flies by day,

Psalms 105:38

105:38 Egypt was happy when they left,

for they were afraid of them. ¹² 

Psalms 64:1

Psalm 64 ¹³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

64:1 Listen to me, ¹⁴  O God, as I offer my lament!

Protect ¹⁵  my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 31:11

31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; ¹⁷ 

my neighbors are appalled by my suffering ¹⁸  –

those who know me are horrified by my condition; ¹⁹ 

those who see me in the street run away from me.

Psalms 36:1

Psalm 36 ²⁰ 

For the music director; written by the Lord’s servant, David; an oracle. ²¹ 

36:1 An evil man is rebellious to the core. ²² 

He does not fear God, ²³ 

[119:120]  ¹ tn Heb “my flesh.”

[119:120]  ² tn The Hebrew verb סָמַר (samar, “to tremble”) occurs only here and in Job 4:15.

[119:120]  ³ tn Heb “from fear of you.” The pronominal suffix on the noun is an objective genitive.

[53:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “there they are afraid [with] fear.” The perfect verbal form is probably used in a rhetorical manner; the psalmist describes the future demise of the oppressors as if it were already occurring. The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is also used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the wicked standing in fear at a spot that is this vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.). The cognate accusative following the verb emphasizes the degree of their terror (“absolutely”).

[53:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “there is no fear.” Apparently this means the evildoers are so traumatized with panic (see v. 5b) that they now jump with fear at everything, even those things that would not normally cause fear. Ps 14:5 omits this line.

[53:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “scatters the bones.” The perfect is used in a rhetorical manner, describing this future judgment as if it were already accomplished. Scattering the bones alludes to the aftermath of a battle. God annihilates his enemies, leaving their carcasses spread all over the battlefield. As the bodies are devoured by wild animals and decay, the bones of God’s dead enemies are exposed. See Ps 141:7.

[53:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “[those who] encamp [against] you.” The second person masculine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to God’s people viewed as a collective whole. Instead of “for God scatters the bones of those who encamp against you,” Ps 14:5 reads, “for God is with a godly generation.”

[53:5]  ⁸ tn Once again the perfect is used in a rhetorical manner, describing this future judgment as if it were already accomplished. As in the previous line, God’s people are probably addressed. The second person singular verb form is apparently collective, suggesting that the people are viewed here as a unified whole. Ps 14:6 reads here “the counsel of the oppressed you put to shame, even though God is his shelter,” the words being addressed to the wicked.

[14:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “there they are afraid [with] fear.” The perfect verbal form is probably used in a rhetorical manner; the psalmist describes the future demise of the oppressors as if it were already occurring. The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is also used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the wicked standing in fear at a spot that is this vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.). The cognate accusative following the verb emphasizes the degree of their terror.

[14:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “for God is with a godly generation.” The Hebrew noun דּוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the general class of people who are characterized by godliness. See BDB 190 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[91:5]  ¹⁰ tn This probably alludes to a sneak attack by enemies in the darkness of night (see Song 3:8).

[105:38]  ¹³ tn Heb “for fear of them had fallen upon them.”

[64:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 64. The psalmist asks God to protect him from his dangerous enemies and then confidently affirms that God will destroy his enemies and demonstrate his justice in the sight of all observers.

[64:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my voice.”

[64:1]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s request.

[64:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the terror of [the] enemy.” “Terror” is used here metonymically for the enemy’s attacks that produce fear because they threaten the psalmist’s life.

[31:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”

[31:11]  ²⁰ tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).

[31:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”

[36:1]  ²² sn Psalm 36. Though evil men plan to harm others, the psalmist is confident that the Lord is the just ruler of the earth who gives and sustains all life. He prays for divine blessing and protection and anticipates God’s judgment of the wicked.

[36:1]  ²³ tn In the Hebrew text the word נאם (“oracle”) appears at the beginning of the next verse (v. 2 in the Hebrew text because the superscription is considered v. 1). The resulting reading, “an oracle of rebellion for the wicked [is] in the midst of my heart” (cf. NIV) apparently means that the psalm, which foresees the downfall of the wicked, is a prophetic oracle about the rebellion of the wicked which emerges from the soul of the psalmist. One could translate, “Here is a poem written as I reflected on the rebellious character of evil men.” Another option, followed in the translation above, is to attach נאם (nÿ’um, “oracle”) with the superscription. For another example of a Davidic poem being labeled an “oracle,” see 2 Sam 23:1.

[36:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[the] rebellion of an evil man [is] in the midst of my heart.” The translation assumes a reading “in the midst of his heart” (i.e., “to the core”) instead of “in the midst of my heart,” a change which finds support in a a few medieval Hebrew mss, the Hebrew text of Origen’s Hexapla, and the Syriac.

[36:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “there is no dread of God before his eyes.” The phrase “dread of God” refers here to a healthy respect for God which recognizes that he will punish evil behavior.