Psalms 35:1-14

Psalm 35 ¹ 

By David.

35:1 O Lord, fight ²  those who fight with me!

Attack those who attack me!

35:2 Grab your small shield and large shield, ³ 

and rise up to help me!

35:3 Use your spear and lance ⁴  against ⁵  those who chase me!

Assure me with these words: ⁶  “I am your deliverer!”

35:4 May those who seek my life be embarrassed and humiliated!

May those who plan to harm me be turned back and ashamed! ⁷ 

35:5 May they be ⁸  like wind-driven chaff,

as the Lord’s angel ⁹  attacks them! ¹⁰ 

35:6 May their path be ¹¹  dark and slippery,

as the Lord’s angel chases them!

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

and dug a pit to trap me. ¹² 

35:8 Let destruction take them by surprise! ¹³ 

Let the net they hid catch them!

Let them fall into destruction! ¹⁴ 

35:9 Then I will rejoice in the Lord

and be happy because of his deliverance. ¹⁵ 

35:10 With all my strength I will say, ¹⁶ 

“O Lord, who can compare to you?

You rescue ¹⁷  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ¹⁸ 

the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ¹⁹ 

35:11 Violent men perjure themselves, ²⁰ 

and falsely accuse me. ²¹ 

35:12 They repay me evil for the good I have done; ²² 

I am overwhelmed with sorrow. ²³ 

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ²⁴ 

and refrained from eating food. ²⁵ 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ²⁶ 

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ²⁷ 

I bowed down ²⁸  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ²⁹ 

[35:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 35. The author, who faces ruthless enemies who seek his life for no reason, begs the Lord to fight his battles for him and to vindicate him by annihilating his adversaries.

[35:1]  ² tn Or “contend.”

[35:2]  ³ tn Two different types of shields are mentioned here. See also Ezek 38:4. Many modern translations render the first term (translated here “small shield”) as “buckler” (cf. NASB “buckler and shield”; the order is often reversed in the translation, apparently for stylistic reasons: cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV “shield and buckler”). The English term “buckler,” referring to a small round shield held on the arm to protect the upper body, is unfamiliar to many modern readers, so the term “small shield” was used in the present translation for clarity.

[35:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “draw out spear and lance to meet.”

[35:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “say to me,” or “say to my soul.”

[35:4]  ⁷ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies. See also the distinct jussive form in v. 6.

[35:5]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. See v. 4.

[35:5]  ⁹ sn See the mention of the Lord’s angel in Ps 34:7.

[35:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “as the Lord’s angel pushes [them].”

[35:6]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is distinctly jussive, indicating this is a prayer.

[35:7]  ¹² 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).

[35:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “let destruction [which] he does not know come to him.” The singular is used of the enemy in v. 8, probably in a representative or collective sense. The psalmist has more than one enemy, as vv. 1-7 make clear.

[35:8]  ¹⁴ tn The psalmist’s prayer for his enemies’ demise continues. See vv. 4-6.

[35:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and be happy in his deliverance.”

[35:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all my bones will say.”

[35:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[the one who] rescues.” The substantival participle in the Hebrew text characterizes God as one who typically rescues the oppressed.

[35:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from [the one who is] too strong for him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense. The typical oppressed individual and typical oppressor are in view.

[35:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the oppressed [one] and needy [one] from [the one who] robs him.” As in the previous line, the singular forms are used in a representative sense.

[35:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “witnesses of violence rise up.”

[35:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “[that] which I do not know they ask me.”

[35:12]  ²² tn Heb “they repay me evil instead of good.”

[35:12]  ²³ tn Heb “[there is] bereavement to my soul.”

[35:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ²⁵ sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[35:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ²⁸ sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”