Psalms 6:8

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly,

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping!

Psalms 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated and absolutely terrified!

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Psalms 18:37

18:37 I chase my enemies and catch them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

Psalms 22:27

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him!

Let all the nations worship you!

Psalms 27:12

27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies,

for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. 10 

Psalms 69:16

69:16 Answer me, O Lord, for your loyal love is good! 11 

Because of your great compassion, turn toward me!

Psalms 90:13

90:13 Turn back toward us, O Lord!

How long must this suffering last? 12 

Have pity on your servants! 13 

Psalms 119:51

119:51 Arrogant people do nothing but scoff at me. 14 

Yet I do not turn aside from your law.

Psalms 119:115

119:115 Turn away from me, you evil men,

so that I can observe 15  the commands of my God. 16 


tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”

tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

tn Heb “families of the nations.”

tn Heb “before you.”

tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

10 tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

11 tn Or “pleasant”; or “desirable.”

12 tn Heb “Return, O Lord! How long?”

13 tn Elsewhere the Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) + the preposition עַל (’al) + a personal object has the nuance “be comforted concerning [the personal object’s death]” (see 2 Sam 13:39; Jer 31:15). However, here the context seems to demand “feel sorrow for,” “have pity on.” In Deut 32:36 and Ps 135:14, where “servants” is also the object of the preposition, this idea is expressed with the Hitpael form of the verb.

14 tn Heb “scoff at me to excess.”

15 tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

16 tn The psalmist has already declared that he observes God’s commands despite persecution, so here the idea must be “so that I might observe the commands of my God unhindered by threats.”