Psalms 17:9

17:9 Protect me from ¹  the wicked men who attack ²  me,

my enemies who crowd around me for the kill. ³ 

Psalms 18:3

18:3 I called ⁴  to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, ⁵ 

and I was delivered from my enemies.

Psalms 69:18

69:18 Come near me and redeem me! ⁶ 

Because of my enemies, rescue me!

Psalms 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated ⁷  and absolutely terrified! ⁸ 

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Psalms 13:4

13:4 Then ⁹  my enemy will say, “I have defeated him!”

Then ¹⁰  my foes will rejoice because I am upended.

Psalms 25:2

25:2 My God, I trust in you.

Please do not let me be humiliated;

do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me!

Psalms 35:19

35:19 Do not let those who are my enemies for no reason ¹¹  gloat ¹²  over me!

Do not let those who hate me without cause carry out their wicked schemes! ¹³ 

Psalms 41:11

41:11 By this ¹⁴  I know that you are pleased with me,

for my enemy does ¹⁵  not triumph ¹⁶  over me.

Psalms 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹⁷  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹⁸ 

and your right hand delivers me.

Psalms 143:12

143:12 As a demonstration of your loyal love, ¹⁹  destroy my enemies!

Annihilate ²⁰  all who threaten my life, ²¹ 

for I am your servant.

Psalms 3:7

3:7 Rise up, ²²  Lord!

Deliver me, my God!

Yes, ²³  you will strike ²⁴  all my enemies on the jaw;

you will break the teeth ²⁵  of the wicked. ²⁶ 

Psalms 13:2

13:2 How long must I worry, ²⁷ 

and suffer in broad daylight? ²⁸ 

How long will my enemy gloat over me? ²⁹ 

Psalms 27:6

27:6 Now I will triumph

over my enemies who surround me! ³⁰ 

I will offer sacrifices in his dwelling place and shout for joy! ³¹ 

I will sing praises to the Lord!

Psalms 30:1

Psalm 30 ³² 

A psalm – a song used at the dedication of the temple; ³³  by David.

30:1 I will praise you, O Lord, for you lifted me up, ³⁴ 

and did not allow my enemies to gloat ³⁵  over me.

Psalms 69:4

69:4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head.

Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, ³⁶  outnumber me. ³⁷ 

They make me repay what I did not steal! ³⁸ 

[17:9]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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).

[18:3]  ⁴ tn In this song of thanksgiving, where the psalmist recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect.

[18:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the Lord.” Some take מְהֻלָּל (mÿhullal, “worthy of praise”) with what precedes and translate, “the praiseworthy one,” or “praiseworthy.” However, the various epithets in vv. 1-2 have the first person pronominal suffix, unlike מְהֻלָּל. If one follows the traditional verse division and takes מְהֻלָּל with what follows, it is best understood as substantival and as appositional to יְהוָה (yÿhvah): “[to the] praiseworthy one I cried out, [to the] Lord.”

[69:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).

[6:10]  ¹⁰ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

[6:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

[13:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “or else.”

[13:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “or else.”

[35:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Ps 38:19).

[35:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “rejoice.”

[35:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[do not let] those who hate me without cause pinch [i.e., wink] an eye.” The negative particle is understood in the second line by ellipsis (see the preceding line). In the Book of Proverbs “winking an eye” is associated with deceit and trickery (see 6:13; 10:10; 16:30).

[41:11]  ¹⁹ sn By this. Having recalled his former lament and petition, the psalmist returns to the confident mood of vv. 1-3. The basis for his confidence may be a divine oracle of deliverance, assuring him that God would intervene and vindicate him. The demonstrative pronoun “this” may refer to such an oracle, which is assumed here, though its contents are not included. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 319, 321.

[41:11]  ²⁰ tn Or “will.” One may translate the imperfect verbal form as descriptive (present, cf. NIV) or as anticipatory (future, cf. NEB).

[41:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “shout.”

[138:7]  ²² tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ²³ tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

[143:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in [or “by”] your faithfulness.”

[143:12]  ²⁶ tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the mood of the preceding imperfect.

[143:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “all the enemies of my life.”

[3:7]  ²⁸ tn In v. 2 the psalmist describes his enemies as those who “confront” him (קָמִים [qamim], literally, “rise up against him”). Now, using the same verbal root (קוּם, qum) he asks the Lord to rise up (קוּמָה, qumah) in his defense.

[3:7]  ²⁹ tn Elsewhere in the psalms the particle כִּי (ki), when collocated with a perfect verbal form and subordinated to a preceding imperative directed to God, almost always has an explanatory or causal force (“for, because”) and introduces a motivating argument for why God should respond positively to the request (see Pss 5:10; 6:2; 12:1; 16:1; 41:4; 55:9; 56:1; 57:1; 60:2; 69:1; 74:20; 119:94; 123:3; 142:6; 143:8). (On three occasions the כִּי is recitative after a verb of perception [“see/know that,” see Pss 4:3; 25:19; 119:159]). If כִּי is taken as explanatory here, then the psalmist is arguing that God should deliver him now because that is what God characteristically does. However, such a motivating argument is not used in the passages cited above. The motivating argument usually focuses on the nature of the psalmist’s dilemma or the fact that he trusts in the Lord. For this reason it is unlikely that כִּי has its normal force here. Most scholars understand the particle כִּי as having an asseverative (emphasizing) function here (“indeed, yes”; NEB leaves the particle untranslated).

[3:7]  ³⁰ tn If the particle כִּי (ki) is taken as explanatory, then the perfect verbal forms in v. 7b would describe God’s characteristic behavior. However, as pointed out in the preceding note on the word “yes,” the particle probably has an asseverative force here. If so, the perfects may be taken as indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s assault on his enemies as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm, as expressed before (vv. 3-6) and after this (v. 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[3:7]  ³¹ sn The expression break the teeth may envision violent hand-to hand combat, though it is possible that the enemies are pictured here as a dangerous animal (see Job 29:17).

[3:7]  ³² tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

[13:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”

[13:2]  ³² tn Heb “[with] grief in my heart by day.”

[13:2]  ³³ tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”

[27:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and now my head will be lifted up over my enemies all around me.”

[27:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I will sacrifice in his tent sacrifices of a shout for joy” (that is, “sacrifices accompanied by a joyful shout”).

[30:1]  ³⁷ sn Psalm 30. The author thanks the Lord for delivering him from death and urges others to join him in praise. The psalmist experienced divine discipline for a brief time, but when he cried out for help the Lord intervened and restored his favor.

[30:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “a song of the dedication of the house.” The referent of “house” is unclear. It is possible that David wrote this psalm for the dedication ceremony of Solomon’s temple. Another possibility is that the psalm was used on the occasion of the dedication of the second temple following the return from exile, or on the occasion of the rededication of the temple in Maccabean times.

[30:1]  ³⁹ tn Elsewhere the verb דָּלָה (dalah) is used of drawing water from a well (Exod 2:16, 19; Prov 20:5). The psalmist was trapped in the pit leading to Sheol (see v. 3), but the Lord hoisted him up. The Piel stem is used here, perhaps suggesting special exertion on the Lord’s part.

[30:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “rejoice.”

[69:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Pss 35:19; 38:19).

[69:4]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew verb עָצַם (’atsam) can sometimes mean “are strong,” but here it probably focuses on numerical superiority; note the parallel verb רָבַב (ravav, “be many”).

[69:4]  ⁴² tn Heb “that which I did not steal, then I restore.” Apparently אָז (’az, “then”) is used here to emphasize the verb that follows.