Psalms 3:2

3:2 Many say about me,

“God will not deliver him.” ¹  (Selah) ² 

Psalms 11:1

Psalm 11 ³ 

For the music director; by David.

11:1 In the Lord I have taken shelter. ⁴ 

How can you say to me, ⁵ 

“Flee to a mountain like a bird! ⁶ 

Psalms 35:3

35:3 Use your spear and lance ⁷  against ⁸  those who chase me!

Assure me with these words: ⁹  “I am your deliverer!”

Psalms 35:7

35:7 I did not harm them, but they hid a net to catch me

and dug a pit to trap me. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 66:16

66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! ¹¹ 

I will declare what he has done for me.

Psalms 59:3

59:3 For look, they wait to ambush me; ¹² 

powerful men stalk ¹³  me,

but not because I have rebelled or sinned, O Lord. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 142:4

142:4 Look to the right and see!

No one cares about me. ¹⁵ 

I have nowhere to run; ¹⁶ 

no one is concerned about my life. ¹⁷ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”

[3:2]  ² sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.

[11:1]  ³ sn Psalm 11. The psalmist rejects the advice to flee from his dangerous enemies. Instead he affirms his confidence in God’s just character and calls down judgment on evildoers.

[11:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.

[11:1]  ⁵ tn The pronominal suffix attached to נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is equivalent to a personal pronoun. See Ps 6:3.

[11:1]  ⁶ tc The MT is corrupt here. The Kethib (consonantal text) reads: “flee [masculine plural!] to your [masculine plural!] mountain, bird.” The Qere (marginal reading) has “flee” in a feminine singular form, agreeing grammatically with the addressee, the feminine noun “bird.” Rather than being a second masculine plural pronominal suffix, the ending כֶם- (-khem) attached to “mountain” is better interpreted as a second feminine singular pronominal suffix followed by an enclitic mem (ם). “Bird” may be taken as vocative (“O bird”) or as an adverbial accusative of manner (“like a bird”). Either way, the psalmist’s advisers compare him to a helpless bird whose only option in the face of danger is to fly away to an inaccessible place.

[35:3]  ⁵ tn Or “javelin.” On the meaning of this word, which occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, see M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:210-11.

[35:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “draw out spear and lance to meet.”

[35:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “say to me,” or “say to my soul.”

[35:7]  ⁷ tc Heb “for without cause they hid for me a pit of their net, without cause they dug for my life.” It appears that the words “pit” and “net” have been transposed. “Net” goes with the verb “hid” in the first line (see v. 8, as well as Pss 9:15; 31:4), while “pit” goes with the verb “dug” in the second line (see Ps 7:15).

[66:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”

[59:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my life.”

[59:3]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 56:8.

[59:3]  ¹³ sn The point is that the psalmist’s enemies have no justifiable reason for attacking him. He has neither rebelled or sinned against the Lord.

[142:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “there is no one who recognizes me.”

[142:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “ a place of refuge perishes from me.”

[142:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there is no one who seeks for the sake of my life.”