Psalms 17:8-9

17:8 Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye! ¹ 

Hide me in the shadow of your wings! ² 

17:9 Protect me from ³  the wicked men who attack ⁴  me,

my enemies who crowd around me for the kill. ⁵ 

Psalms 36:11

36:11 Do not let arrogant men overtake me,

or let evil men make me homeless! ⁶ 

Psalms 37:32-40

37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly

and try to kill them. ⁷ 

37:33 But the Lord does not surrender the godly,

or allow them to be condemned in a court of law. ⁸ 

37:34 Rely ⁹  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ¹⁰ 

Then he will permit you ¹¹  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ¹² 

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ¹³ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ¹⁴ 

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ¹⁵ 

I looked for them, but they could not be found.

37:37 Take note of the one who has integrity! Observe the godly! ¹⁶ 

For the one who promotes peace has a future. ¹⁷ 

37:38 Sinful rebels are totally destroyed; ¹⁸ 

evil men have no future. ¹⁹ 

37:39 But the Lord delivers the godly; ²⁰ 

he protects them in times of trouble. ²¹ 

37:40 The Lord helps them and rescues them;

he rescues them from evil men and delivers them, ²² 

for they seek his protection.

Psalms 55:1-3

Psalm 55 ²³ 

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song ²⁴  by David.

55:1 Listen, O God, to my prayer!

Do not ignore ²⁵  my appeal for mercy!

55:2 Pay attention to me and answer me!

I am so upset ²⁶  and distressed, ²⁷  I am beside myself, ²⁸ 

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ²⁹ 

and because of how the wicked ³⁰  pressure me, ³¹ 

for they hurl trouble ³²  down upon me ³³ 

and angrily attack me.

Psalms 71:4

71:4 My God, rescue me from the power ³⁴  of the wicked,

from the hand of the cruel oppressor!

[17:8]  ¹ tc Heb “Protect me like the pupil, a daughter of an eye.” The noun בַּת (bat, “daughter”) should probably be emended to בָּבַת (bavat, “pupil”). See Zech 2:12 HT (2:8 ET) and HALOT 107 s.v. *בָּבָה.

[17:8]  ² sn Your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.

[17:9]  ³ tn Heb “from before”; or “because.” In the Hebrew text v. 9 is subordinated to v. 8. The words “protect me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “destroy.” The psalmist uses the perfect verbal form to emphasize the degree of danger. He describes the wicked as being already in the process of destroying him.

[17:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “my enemies, at the risk of life they surround me.” The Hebrew phrase בְּנֶפֶשׁ (bÿnefesh) sometimes has the nuance “at the risk of [one’s] life” (see 1 Kgs 2:23; Prov 7:23; Lam 5:9).

[36:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “let not a foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the evil ones cause me to wander as a fugitive.”

[37:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

[37:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord does not abandon him into his hand or condemn him when he is judged.” The imperfects draw attention to the Lord’s characteristic behavior in this regard.

[37:34]  ⁹ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[37:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

[37:34]  ¹² tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[37:35]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[37:36]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he passes by and, look, he is not [there].” The subject of the verb “passes by” is probably indefinite, referring to any passerby. Some prefer to change the form to first person, “and I passed by” (cf. NEB; note the first person verbal forms in preceding verse and in the following line).

[37:37]  ¹⁶ tn Or “upright.”

[37:37]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for [there is] an end for a man of peace.” Some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see the next verse and Ps 109:13; cf. NEB, NRSV).

[37:38]  ¹⁸ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

[37:38]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the end of evil men is cut off.” As in v. 37, some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see Ps 109:13). The perfect verbal forms in v. 38 probably express general truths. Another option is that they are used emphatically to state with certitude that the demise of the wicked is as good as done.

[37:39]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the deliverance of the godly [ones] [is] from the Lord.”

[37:39]  ²¹ tn Heb “[he is] their place of refuge in a time of trouble.”

[37:40]  ²² tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry on the generalizing tone of the preceding verse.

[55:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 55. The suffering and oppressed author laments that one of his friends has betrayed him, but he is confident that God will vindicate him by punishing his deceitful enemies.

[55:1]  ²⁴ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 52.

[55:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “hide yourself from.”

[55:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “restless” (see Gen 27:40). The Hiphil is intransitive-exhibitive, indicating the outward display of an inner attitude.

[55:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in my complaint.”

[55:2]  ²⁸ tn The verb is a Hiphil cohortative from הוּם (hum), which means “to confuse someone” in the Qal and “to go wild” in the Niphal. An Arabic cognate means “to be out of one’s senses, to wander about.” With the vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, the cohortative probably indicates the result or effect of the preceding main verb. Some prefer to emend the form to וְאֵהוֹמָה (vÿ’ehomah), a Niphal of הוּם (hum), or to וְאֶהַמֶה (vÿ’ehameh), a Qal imperfect from הָמָה (hamah, “to moan”). Many also prefer to take this verb with what follows (see v. 3).

[55:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ³⁰ tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ³² tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ³³ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).

[71:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “hand.”