Psalms 35:25

35:25 Do not let them say to themselves, ¹  “Aha! We have what we wanted!” ² 

Do not let them say, “We have devoured him!”

Psalms 37:19

37:19 They will not be ashamed when hard times come; ³ 

when famine comes they will have enough to eat. ⁴ 

Psalms 41:9

41:9 Even my close friend ⁵  whom I trusted,

he who shared meals with me, has turned against me. ⁶ 

Psalms 42:3

42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ⁷ 

all day long they say to me, ⁸  “Where is your God?”

Psalms 68:23

68:23 so that your feet may stomp ⁹  in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ¹⁰ 

Psalms 73:10

73:10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat,

and even suck up the water of the sea. ¹¹ 

Psalms 74:14

74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; ¹² 

you fed ¹³  him to the people who live along the coast. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 78:30

78:30 They were not yet filled up, ¹⁵ 

their food was still in their mouths,

Psalms 80:13

80:13 The wild boars of the forest ruin it; ¹⁶ 

the insects ¹⁷  of the field feed on it.

Psalms 105:35

105:35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,

and devoured the crops of their fields. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 109:18

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ¹⁹ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ²⁰ 

[35:25]  ¹ tn Heb “in their heart[s].”

[35:25]  ² tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.

[37:19]  ³ tn Heb “in a time of trouble.”

[37:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “in days of famine they will be satisfied.”

[41:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “man of my peace.” The phrase here refers to one’s trusted friend (see Jer 38:22; Obad 7).

[41:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “has made a heel great against me.” The precise meaning of this phrase, which appears only here, is uncertain.

[42:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”

[42:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.

[68:23]  ⁹ tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”

[73:10]  ¹¹ tc Heb “therefore his people return [so Qere (marginal reading); Kethib (consonantal text) has “he brings back”] to here, and waters of abundance are sucked up by them.” The traditional Hebrew text (MT) defies explanation. The present translation reflects M. Dahood’s proposed emendations (Psalms [AB], 2:190) and reads the Hebrew text as follows: לָכֵן יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם וּמֵי מָלֵא יָמֹצּוּ לָמוֹ (“therefore they are filled with food, and waters of abundance they suck up for themselves”). The reading יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם (yisvÿ’um lekhem, “they are filled with food”) assumes (1) an emendation of יָשׁיּב עַמּוֹ (yashyyv, “he will bring back his people”) to יִשְׂבְעוּם (yisvÿ’um, “they will be filled”; a Qal imperfect third masculine plural form from שָׂבַע [sava’] with enclitic mem [ם]), and (2) an emendation of הֲלֹם (halom, “to here”) to לֶחֶם (“food”). The expression “be filled/fill with food” appears elsewhere at least ten times (see Ps 132:15, for example). In the second line the Niphal form יִמָּצוּ (yimmatsu, derived from מָצָה, matsah, “drain”) is emended to a Qal form יָמֹצּוּ (yamotsu), derived from מָצַץ (matsats, “to suck”). In Isa 66:11 the verbs שָׂבַע (sava’; proposed in Ps 73:10a) and מָצַץ (proposed in Ps 73:10b) are parallel. The point of the emended text is this: Because they are seemingly sovereign (v. 9), they become greedy and grab up everything they need and more.

[74:14]  ¹³ sn You crushed the heads of Leviathan. The imagery of vv. 13-14 originates in West Semitic mythology. The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon [Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַּנִין (tanin), translated “sea monster” in v. 13] vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling [Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן (’aqallaton), translated “squirming” in Isa 27:1] serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (note the use of the plural “heads” here and in v. 13). (See CTA 3.iii.38-39 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 50.) (2) “For all that you smote Leviathan the slippery [Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ (bariakh), translated “fast moving” in Isa 27:1] serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5.i.1-3 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 68.) In the myths Leviathan is a sea creature that symbolizes the destructive water of the sea and, in turn, the forces of chaos that threaten the established order. In the OT, the battle with the sea motif is applied to Yahweh’s victories over the forces of chaos at creation and in history (see Pss 74:13-14; 77:16-20; 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). Yahweh’s subjugation of the waters of chaos is related to his kingship (see Pss 29:3, 10; 93:3-4). Isa 27:1 applies imagery from Canaanite mythology to Yahweh’s eschatological victory over his enemies. Apocalyptic literature employs the imagery as well. The beasts of Dan 7 emerge from the sea, while Rev 13 speaks of a seven-headed beast coming from the sea. Here in Ps 74:13-14 the primary referent is unclear. The psalmist may be describing God’s creation of the world (note vv. 16-17 and see Ps 89:9-12), when he brought order out of a watery mass, or the exodus (see Isa 51:9-10), when he created Israel by destroying the Egyptians in the waters of the sea.

[74:14]  ¹⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite in this narrational context.

[74:14]  ¹⁵ sn You fed him to the people. This pictures the fragments of Leviathan’s dead corpse washing up on shore and being devoured by those who find them. If the exodus is in view, then it may allude to the bodies of the dead Egyptians which washed up on the shore of the Red Sea (see Exod 14:30).

[78:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they were not separated from their desire.”

[80:13]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew verb כִּרְסֵם (kirsem, “to eat away; to ruin”) occurs only here in the OT.

[80:13]  ¹⁸ tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word translated “insects,” which occurs only here and in Ps 50:11, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.

[105:35]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”

[109:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ²² tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”