Psalms 55:3-11

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ¹ 

and because of how the wicked ²  pressure me, ³ 

for they hurl trouble ⁴  down upon me ⁵ 

and angrily attack me.

55:4 My heart beats violently ⁶  within me;

the horrors of death overcome me. ⁷ 

55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; ⁸ 

terror overwhelms ⁹  me.

55:6 I say, ¹⁰  “I wish I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and settle in a safe place!

55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;

I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)

55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe

from the strong wind ¹¹  and the gale.”

55:9 Confuse them, ¹²  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ¹³ 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ¹⁴ 

while wickedness and destruction ¹⁵  are within it.

55:11 Disaster is within it;

violence ¹⁶  and deceit do not depart from its public square.

[55:3]  ¹ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ² tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ³ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ⁵ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).

[55:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”

[55:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”

[55:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”

[55:5]  ¹² tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.

[55:6]  ¹⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the verbs in v. 5.

[55:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).

[55:9]  ²⁶ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”

[55:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ³² sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[55:11]  ³⁶ tn Or “injury, harm.”