Psalms 63:9-11

63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, ¹ 

but they will descend into the depths of the earth. ² 

63:10 Each one will be handed over to the sword; ³ 

their corpses will be eaten by jackals. ⁴ 

63:11 But the king ⁵  will rejoice in God;

everyone who takes oaths in his name ⁶  will boast,

for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. ⁷ 

[63:9]  ¹ tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.

[63:9]  ² sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.

[63:10]  ³ tn Heb “they will deliver him over to the sword.” The third masculine plural subject must be indefinite (see GKC 460 §144.f) and the singular pronominal suffix either representative or distributive (emphasizing that each one will be so treated). Active verbs with indefinite subjects may be translated as passives with the object (in the Hebrew text) as subject (in the translation).

[63:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will be [the] portion of jackals”; traditionally, “of foxes.”

[63:11]  ⁵ sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.

[63:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”

[63:11]  ⁷ tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.