Psalms 39:2

39:2 I was stone silent; ¹ 

I held back the urge to speak. ² 

My frustration grew; ³ 

Psalms 55:18

55:18 He will rescue ⁴  me and protect me from those who attack me, ⁵ 

even though ⁶  they greatly outnumber me. ⁷ 

Psalms 55:20

55:20 He ⁸  attacks ⁹  his friends; ¹⁰ 

he breaks his solemn promises to them. ¹¹ 

Psalms 83:1

Psalm 83 ¹² 

A song, a psalm of Asaph.

83:1 O God, do not be silent!

Do not ignore us! ¹³  Do not be inactive, O God!

[39:2]  ¹ tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”

[39:2]  ² tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.

[39:2]  ³ tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.

[55:18]  ⁴ tn The perfect verbal form is here used rhetorically to indicate that the action is certain to take place (the so-called perfect of certitude).

[55:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “he will redeem in peace my life from [those who] draw near to me.”

[55:18]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[55:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “among many they are against me.” For other examples of the preposition עִמָּד (’immad) used in the sense of “at, against,” see HALOT 842 s.v.; BDB 767 s.v.; IBHS 219 §11.2.14b.

[55:20]  ⁷ sn He. This must refer to the psalmist’s former friend, who was addressed previously in vv. 12-14.

[55:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “stretches out his hand against.”

[55:20]  ⁹ tc The form should probably be emended to an active participle (שֹׁלְמָיו, sholÿmayv) from the verbal root שָׁלַם (shalam, “be in a covenant of peace with”). Perhaps the translation “his friends” suggests too intimate a relationship. Another option is to translate, “he attacks those who made agreements with him.”

[55:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he violates his covenant.”

[83:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 83. The psalmist asks God to deliver Israel from the attacks of foreign nations. Recalling how God defeated Israel’s enemies in the days of Deborah and Gideon, he prays that the hostile nations would be humiliated.

[83:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not be deaf.”