Psalms 59:7

59:7 Look, they hurl insults at me

and openly threaten to kill me, ¹ 

for they say, ² 

“Who hears?”

Jeremiah 9:8

9:8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ³ 

They are always telling lies. ⁴ 

Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths.

But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ⁵ 

Exodus 22:9

22:9 In all cases of illegal possessions, ⁶  whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ ⁷  the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, ⁸  and the one whom ⁹  the judges declare guilty ¹⁰  must repay double to his neighbor.

[59:7]  ¹ tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”

[59:7]  ² tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.

[9:8]  ³ tc This reading follows the Masoretic consonants (the Kethib, a Qal active participle from שָׁחַט, shakhat). The Masoretes preferred to read “a sharpened arrow” (the Qere, a Qal passive participle from the same root or a homonym, meaning “hammered, beaten”). See HALOT 1354 s.v. II שָׁחַט for discussion. The exact meaning of the word makes little difference to the meaning of the metaphor itself.

[9:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “They speak deceit.”

[9:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”

[22:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “concerning every kind [thing] of trespass.”

[22:9]  ⁷ tn The text simply has “this is it” (הוּא זֶה, hu’ zeh).

[22:9]  ⁸ tn Again, or “God.”

[22:9]  ⁹ tn This kind of clause Gesenius calls an independent relative clause – it does not depend on a governing substantive but itself expresses a substantival idea (GKC 445-46 §138.e).

[22:9]  ¹⁰ tn The verb means “to be guilty” in Qal; in Hiphil it would have a declarative sense, because a causative sense would not possibly fit.