Psalms 120:3-4

120:3 How will he severely punish you,

you deceptive talker? ¹ 

120:4 Here’s how! ²  With the sharp arrows of warriors,

with arrowheads forged over the hot coals. ³ 

Psalms 140:10

140:10 May he rain down ⁴  fiery coals upon them!

May he throw them into the fire!

From bottomless pits they will not escape. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 32:24

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ⁶ 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

Habakkuk 3:5

3:5 Plague goes before him;

pestilence ⁷  marches right behind him. ⁸ 

[120:3]  ¹ tn Heb “What will he give to you, and what will he add to you, O tongue of deception?” The psalmist addresses his deceptive enemies. The Lord is the understood subject of the verbs “give” and “add.” The second part of the question echoes a standard curse formula, “thus the Lord/God will do … and thus he will add” (see Ruth 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17; 14:44; 20:13; 25:22; 2 Sam 3:9, 35; 19:13; 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Kgs 6:31).

[120:4]  ² tn The words “here’s how” are supplied in the translation as a clarification. In v. 4 the psalmist answers the question he raises in v. 3.

[120:4]  ³ tn Heb “with coals of the wood of the broom plant.” The wood of the broom plant was used to make charcoal, which in turn was used to fuel the fire used to forge the arrowheads.

[140:10]  ⁴ tn The verb form in the Kethib (consonantal Hebrew text) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוּט (mut, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in Ps 55:3, where it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). In Ps 140:10 the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read.

[140:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “into bottomless pits, they will not arise.” The translation assumes that the preposition -בְּ (bet) has the nuance “from” here. Another option is to connect the line with what precedes, take the final clause as an asyndetic relative clause, and translate, “into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot arise.” The Hebrew noun מַהֲמֹרָה (mahamorah, “bottomless pit”) occurs only here in the OT.

[32:24]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[3:5]  ⁷ tn Because of parallelism with the previous line, the meaning “pestilence” is favored for רֶשֶׁף (reshef) here, but usage elsewhere suggests a destructive bolt of fire may be in view. See BDB 958 s.v.

[3:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “goes out at his feet.”