Psalms 38:12

38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ¹ 

those who want to harm me speak destructive words;

all day long they say deceitful things.

Psalms 38:1

Psalm 38 ² 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ³ 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ⁴ 

Psalms 19:11

19:11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; ⁵ 

those who obey them receive a rich reward. ⁶ 

Esther 5:14

5:14 Haman’s ⁷  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ⁸  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ⁹ 

It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Esther 6:4

6:4 Then the king said, “Who is that in the courtyard?” Now Haman had come to the outer courtyard of the palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had constructed for him.

Proverbs 4:16

4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; ¹⁰ 

they are robbed of sleep ¹¹  until they make someone stumble. ¹² 

Hosea 7:6-7

7:6 They approach him, all the while plotting against him.

Their hearts are like an oven;

their anger smolders all night long,

but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.

7:7 All of them are blazing like an oven;

they devour their rulers.

All of their kings fall –

and none of them call on me!

Micah 2:1

Land Robbers Will Lose their Land

2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, ¹³ 

those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. ¹⁴ 

As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, ¹⁵ 

because they have the power to do so.

Matthew 27:1

Jesus Brought Before Pilate

27:1 When ¹⁶  it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him.

Acts 23:12

The Plot to Kill Paul

23:12 When morning came, ¹⁷  the Jews formed ¹⁸  a conspiracy ¹⁹  and bound themselves with an oath ²⁰  not to eat or drink anything ²¹  until they had killed Paul.

[38:12]  ¹ tn Heb “lay snares.”

[38:1]  ² sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ⁴ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “moreover your servant is warned by them.”

[19:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the keeping of them [there is] a great reward.”

[5:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”

[5:14]  ⁹ tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”

[4:16]  ¹⁰ sn The verb is רָעַע (ra’a’), which means “to do evil; to harm.” The verse is using the figure of hyperbole to stress the preoccupation of some people with causing trouble. R. L. Alden says, “How sick to find peace only at the price of another man’s misfortune” (Proverbs, 47).

[4:16]  ¹¹ sn Heb “their sleep is robbed/seized”; these expressions are metonymical for their restlessness in plotting evil.

[4:16]  ¹² sn The Hiphil imperfect (Kethib) means “cause to stumble.” This idiom (from hypocatastasis) means “bring injury/ruin to someone” (BDB 505-6 s.v. כָּשַׁל Hiph.1).

[2:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”

[27:1]  ¹⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[23:12]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “when it was day.”

[23:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “forming a conspiracy, bound.” The participle ποιήσαντες (poihsantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:12]  ¹⁹ tn L&N 30.72 has ‘some Jews formed a conspiracy’ Ac 23:12”; BDAG 979 s.v. συστροφή 1 has “Judeans came together in a mob 23:12. But in the last pass. the word may also mean – 2. the product of a clandestine gathering, plot, conspiracy” (see also Amos 7:10; Ps 63:3).

[23:12]  ²⁰ tn Or “bound themselves under a curse.” BDAG 63 s.v. ἀναθεματίζω 1 has “trans. put under a curse τινά someone…pleonastically ἀναθέματι ἀ. ἑαυτόν Ac 23:14…ἀ. ἑαυτόν vss. 12, 21, 13 v.l.” On such oaths see m. Shevi’it 3:1-5. The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[23:12]  ²¹ tn The word “anything” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.