Psalms 17:11

17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; ¹ 

they intend to throw me to the ground. ² 

Psalms 22:12

22:12 Many bulls ³  surround me;

powerful bulls of Bashan ⁴  hem me in.

Psalms 88:17

88:17 They surround me like water all day long;

they join forces and encircle me. ⁵ 

Psalms 88:2

88:2 Listen to my prayer! ⁶ 

Pay attention ⁷  to my cry for help!

Psalms 16:7-8

16:7 I will praise ⁸  the Lord who ⁹  guides ¹⁰  me;

yes, during the night I reflect and learn. ¹¹ 

16:8 I constantly trust in the Lord; ¹² 

because he is at my right hand, I will not be upended.

Hosea 11:12

God’s Lawsuit against Israel: Breach of Covenant

11:12 (12:1) ¹³  Ephraim has surrounded me with lies;

the house of Israel has surrounded me ¹⁴  with deceit.

But Judah still roams about with ¹⁵  God;

he remains faithful to the Holy One.

[17:11]  ¹ tc Heb “our steps, now they surround me.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “surround me,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has “surround us,” harmonizing the pronoun to the preceding “our steps.” The first person plural pronoun does not fit the context, where the psalmist speaks as an individual. In the preceding verses the psalmist uses a first person singular verbal or pronominal form twenty times. For this reason it is preferable to emend “our steps” to אִשְּׁרוּנִי (’ishÿruni, “they attack me”) from the verbal root אָשֻׁר (’ashur, “march, stride, track”).

[17:11]  ² tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”

[22:12]  ³ sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.

[22:12]  ⁴ sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.

[88:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “they encircle me together.”

[88:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “may my prayer come before you.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating the psalmist’s desire or prayer.

[88:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

[16:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “bless,” that is, “proclaim as worthy of praise.”

[16:7]  ⁹ tn Or “because.”

[16:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “counsels, advises.”

[16:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “yes, [during] nights my kidneys instruct [or “correct”] me.” The “kidneys” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s moral character (see Ps 26:2). In the quiet darkness the Lord speaks to his inner being, as it were, and enables him to grow in moral understanding.

[16:8]  ¹² tn Heb “I set the Lord before me continually.” This may mean that the psalmist is aware of the Lord’s presence and sensitive to his moral guidance (see v. 7), or that he trusts in the Lord’s protection (see the following line).

[11:12]  ¹³ sn Beginning with 11:12, the verse numbers through 12:14 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 11:12 ET = 12:1 HT, 12:1 ET = 12:2 HT, etc., through 12:14 ET = 12:15 HT. From 13:1 to 13:16 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[11:12]  ¹⁴ tn The phrase “has surrounded me” is not repeated in the Hebrew text here, but is implied by the parallelism in the preceding line. It is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons, smoothness, and readability.

[11:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb רוּד (rud, “to roam about freely”) is used in a concrete sense to refer to someone wandering restlessly and roaming back and forth (BDB 923 s.v. רוּד; Judg 11:37). Here, it is used figuratively, possibly with positive connotations, as indicated by the preposition עִם (’im, “with”), to indicate accompaniment: “but Judah still goes about with God” (HALOT 1194 s.v. רוד). Some English versions render it positively: “Judah still walks with God” (RSV, NRSV); “Judah is restive under God” (REB); “but Judah stands firm with God” (NJPS); “but Judah yet ruleth with God” (KJV, ASV). Other English versions adopt the negative connotation “to wander restlessly” and nuance עִם in an adversative sense (“against”): “Judah is still rebellious against God” (NAB), “Judah is unruly against God” (NIV), and “the people of Judah are still rebelling against me” (TEV).