37:12 Evil men plot against the godly 1
and viciously attack them. 2
50:20 You plot against your brother; 3
you slander your own brother. 4
83:3 They carefully plot 5 against your people,
and make plans to harm 6 the ones you cherish. 7
119:23 Though rulers plot and slander me, 8
your servant meditates on your statutes.
1 tn Or “innocent.” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and the typical godly individual are in view.
2 tn Heb “and gnashes at him with his teeth” (see Ps 35:16). The language may picture the evil men as wild animals. The active participles in v. 12 are used for purposes of dramatic description.
3 tn Heb “you sit, against your brother you speak.” To “sit” and “speak” against someone implies plotting against that person (see Ps 119:23).
4 tn Heb “against the son of your mother you give a fault.”
5 tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”
6 tn Heb “and consult together against.”
7 tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”
8 tn Heb “though rulers sit, about me they talk together.” (For another example of the Niphal of דָּבַר (davar) used with a suffixed form of the preposition ב, see Ezek 33:30.)