56:5 All day long they cause me trouble; 1
they make a habit of plotting my demise. 2
56:6 They stalk 3 and lurk; 4
they watch my every step, 5
as 6 they prepare to take my life. 7
56:7 Because they are bent on violence, do not let them escape! 8
In your anger 9 bring down the nations, 10 O God!
1 tn Heb “my affairs they disturb.” For other instances of דָּבָר (davar) meaning “affairs, business,” see BDB 183 s.v.. The Piel of עָצַב (’atsav, “to hurt”) occurs only here and in Isa 63:10, where it is used of “grieving” (or “offending”) the Lord’s holy Spirit. Here in Ps 56:5, the verb seems to carry the nuance “disturb, upset,” in the sense of “cause trouble.”
2 tn Heb “against me [are] all their thoughts for harm.”
3 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.
4 tn Or “hide.”
5 tn Heb “my heels.”
6 tn Heb “according to,” in the sense of “inasmuch as; since,” or “when; while.”
7 tn Heb “they wait [for] my life.”
8 tc Heb “because of wickedness, deliverance to them.” As it stands, the MT makes no sense. The negative particle אַיִן (’ayin, “there is not,” which is due to dittography of the immediately preceding אָוֶן, ’aven, “wickedness”), should probably be added before “deliverance” (see BHS, note a). The presence of an imperative in the next line (note “bring down”) suggests that this line should be translated as a prayer as well, “may there not be deliverance to them.”
9 tn Heb “in anger.” The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 tn Or perhaps “people” in a general sense.