21:11 Yes, 1 they intend to do you harm; 2
they dream up a scheme, 3 but they do not succeed. 4
73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. 5
O Lord, when you awake 6 you will despise them. 7
1 tn Or “for.”
2 tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).
3 sn See Ps 10:2.
4 tn Heb “they lack ability.”
5 tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.
6 sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.
7 tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.