Psalms 9:6

9:6 The enemy’s cities have been reduced to permanent ruins; ¹ 

you destroyed their cities; ² 

all memory of the enemies has perished. ³ 

Psalms 27:2

27:2 When evil men attack me ⁴ 

to devour my flesh, ⁵ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ⁶ 

they stumble and fall. ⁷ 

Psalms 38:10

38:10 My heart beats quickly;

my strength leaves me;

I can hardly see. ⁸ 

Psalms 43:3

43:3 Reveal ⁹  your light ¹⁰  and your faithfulness!

They will lead me, ¹¹ 

they will escort ¹²  me back to your holy hill, ¹³ 

and to the place where you live. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 55:21

55:21 His words are as smooth as butter, ¹⁵ 

but he harbors animosity in his heart. ¹⁶ 

His words seem softer than oil,

but they are really like sharp swords. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 56:6

56:6 They stalk ¹⁸  and lurk; ¹⁹ 

they watch my every step, ²⁰ 

as ²¹  they prepare to take my life. ²² 

Psalms 59:15

59:15 They wander around looking for something to eat;

they refuse to sleep until they are full. ²³ 

Psalms 99:8

99:8 O Lord our God, you answered them.

They found you to be a forgiving God,

but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ²⁴ 

Psalms 102:26

102:26 They will perish,

but you will endure. ²⁵ 

They will wear out like a garment;

like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ²⁶ 

Psalms 104:8

104:8 as the mountains rose up,

and the valleys went down –

to the place you appointed for them. ²⁷ 

Psalms 135:17

135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.

Indeed, they cannot breathe. ²⁸ 

Psalms 145:15

145:15 Everything looks to you in anticipation, ²⁹ 

and you provide them with food on a regular basis. ³⁰ 

[9:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the enemy – they have come to an end [in] ruins permanently.” The singular form אוֹיֵב (’oyev, “enemy”) is collective. It is placed at the beginning of the verse to heighten the contrast with יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) in v. 7.

[9:6]  ² tn Heb “you uprooted cities.”

[9:6]  ³ tn Heb “it has perished, their remembrance, they.” The independent pronoun at the end of the line is in apposition to the preceding pronominal suffix and lends emphasis (see IBHS 299 §16.3.4). The referent of the masculine pronoun is the nations/enemies (cf. v. 5), not the cities (the Hebrew noun עָרִים [’arim, “cities”] is grammatically feminine). This has been specified in the present translation for clarity; many modern translations retain the pronoun “them,” resulting in ambiguity (cf. NRSV “their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished”).

[27:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ⁵ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

[38:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the light of my eyes, even they, there is not with me.” The “light of the eyes” may refer to physical energy (see 1 Sam 14:27, 29), life itself (Ps 13:3), or the ability to see (Prov 29:23).

[43:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “send.”

[43:3]  ¹¹ sn God’s deliverance is compared here to a light which will lead the psalmist back home to the Lord’s temple. Divine deliverance will in turn demonstrate the Lord’s faithfulness to his people.

[43:3]  ¹² tn Or “may they lead me.” The prefixed verbal forms here and in the next line may be taken as jussives.

[43:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “bring.”

[43:3]  ¹⁴ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill is Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[43:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the Lord’s special dwelling place (see Pss 46:4; 84:1; 132:5, 7).

[55:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “the butter-like [words] of his mouth are smooth.” The noun מַחְמָאֹת (makhma’ot, “butter-like [words]”) occurs only here. Many prefer to emend the form to מֵחֶמְאָה (mekhem’ah, from [i.e., “than”] butter”), cf. NEB, NRSV “smoother than butter.” However, in this case “his mouth” does not agree in number with the plural verb חָלְקוּ (kholqu, “they are smooth”). Therefore some further propose an emendation of פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”) to פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”). In any case, the point seems to that the psalmist’s former friend spoke kindly to him and gave the outward indications of friendship.

[55:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and war [is in] his heart.”

[55:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.”

[56:6]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 59:3.

[56:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “hide.”

[56:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my heels.”

[56:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”

[56:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”

[59:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “if they are not full, they stay through the night.”

[99:8]  ²² tn Heb “a God of lifting up [i.e., forgiveness] you were to them, and an avenger concerning their deeds.” The present translation reflects the traditional interpretation, which understands the last line as qualifying the preceding one. God forgave Moses and Aaron, but he also disciplined them when they sinned (cf. NIV, NRSV). Another option is to take “their deeds” as referring to harmful deeds directed against Moses and Aaron. In this case the verse may be translated, “and one who avenged attacks against them.” Still another option is to emend the participial form נֹקֵם (noqem, “an avenger”) to נֹקָם (noqam), a rare Qal participial form of נָקַה (naqah, “purify”) with a suffixed pronoun. In this case one could translate, “and one who purified them from their [sinful] deeds” (cf. NEB “and held them innocent”).

[102:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “stand.”

[102:26]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.

[104:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”

[135:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “indeed, there is not breath in their mouth.” For the collocation אַף אֵין (’af ’en, “indeed, there is not”) see Isa 41:26. Another option is to take אַף as “nose” (see Ps 115:6), in which case one might translate, “a nose, [but] they have no breath in their mouths.”

[145:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the eyes of all wait for you.”

[145:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and you give to them their food in its season” (see Ps 104:27).