14:4 All those who behave wickedly 1 do not understand – 2
those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,
and do not call out to the Lord.
39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; 3
like a moth you slowly devour their strength. 4
Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)
53:4 All those who behave wickedly 5 do not understand 6 –
those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,
and do not call out to God.
57:4 I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down 7 among those who want to devour me; 8
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are a sharp sword. 9
69:15 Don’t let the current overpower me!
Don’t let the deep swallow me up!
Don’t let the pit 10 devour me! 11
1 tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.
2 tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).
3 tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”
4 tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew
5 tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8. Ps 14:4 adds כֹּל (kol, “all of”) before “workers of wickedness.”
6 tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-6).
7 tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).
8 tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).
9 tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”
10 tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).
11 tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”