Psalms 64:2-6

64:2 Hide me from the plots of evil men,

from the crowd of evildoers. ¹ 

64:3 They ²  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ³ 

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ⁴  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ⁵ 

64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. ⁶ 

They plan how to hide ⁷  snares,

and boast, ⁸  “Who will see them?” ⁹ 

64:6 They devise ¹⁰  unjust schemes;

they disguise ¹¹  a well-conceived plot. ¹² 

Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. ¹³ 

Acts 12:2-3

12:2 He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword. ¹⁴  12:3 When he saw that this pleased the Jews, ¹⁵  he proceeded to arrest Peter too. (This took place during the feast of Unleavened Bread.) ¹⁶ 

Acts 12:11

12:11 When ¹⁷  Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued ¹⁸  me from the hand ¹⁹  of Herod ²⁰  and from everything the Jewish people ²¹  were expecting to happen.”

Acts 12:23

12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²²  struck ²³  Herod ²⁴  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ²⁵ 

[64:2]  ¹ tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”

[64:3]  ² tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ³ tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[64:4]  ⁴ tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[64:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”

[64:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “they report about hiding.”

[64:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “they say.”

[64:5]  ⁹ tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).

[64:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

[64:6]  ¹¹ tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tomnu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).

[64:6]  ¹² tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

[64:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.

[12:2]  ¹⁴ sn The expression executed with a sword probably refers to a beheading. James was the first known apostolic martyr (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1-3). On James, not the Lord’s brother, see Luke 5:10; 6:14. This death ended a short period of peace noted in Acts 9:31 after the persecution mentioned in 8:1-3.

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn This could be a reference to the Jewish people (so CEV) or to the Jewish leaders (so NLT). The statement in v. 4 that Herod intended to bring Peter “out to the people” (i.e., for a public trial) may suggest the former is somewhat more likely.

[12:3]  ¹⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[12:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “delivered.”

[12:11]  ¹⁹ sn Here the hand of Herod is a metaphor for Herod’s power or control.

[12:11]  ²⁰ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).

[12:11]  ²¹ sn Luke characterizes the opposition here as the Jewish people, including their leadership (see 12:3).

[12:23]  ²² tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²³ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ²⁵ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).