Psalms 7:13

7:13 He prepares to use deadly weapons against him; ¹ 

he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. ² 

Psalms 18:21

18:21 For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands; ³ 

I have not rebelled against my God. ⁴ 

Psalms 31:18

31:18 May lying lips be silenced –

lips ⁵  that speak defiantly against the innocent ⁶ 

with arrogance and contempt!

Psalms 60:11

60:11 Give us help against the enemy,

for any help men might offer is futile. ⁷ 

Psalms 78:40

78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,

and insulted him ⁸  in the desert!

Psalms 78:45

78:45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them, ⁹ 

as well as frogs that overran their land. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 83:3

83:3 They carefully plot ¹¹  against your people,

and make plans to harm ¹²  the ones you cherish. ¹³ 

Psalms 83:5

83:5 Yes, ¹⁴  they devise a unified strategy; ¹⁵ 

they form an alliance ¹⁶  against you.

Psalms 94:21

94:21 They conspire against ¹⁷  the blameless, ¹⁸ 

and condemn to death the innocent. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 108:12

108:12 Give us help against the enemy,

for any help men might offer is futile. ²⁰ 

Psalms 109:6

109:6 ²¹ Appoint an evil man to testify against him! ²² 

May an accuser stand ²³  at his right side!

Psalms 119:11

119:11 In my heart I store up ²⁴  your words, ²⁵ 

so I might not sin against you.

Psalms 124:3

124:3 they would have swallowed us alive,

when their anger raged against us.

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¹ tn Heb “and for him he prepares the weapons of death.”

² tn Heb “his arrows into flaming [things] he makes.”

³ tn Heb “for I have kept the ways of the Lord.” The phrase “ways of the Lord” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

⁴ tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical; the idea is, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

⁵ tn Heb “the [ones which].”

⁶ tn Or “godly.”

⁷ tn Heb “and futile [is] the deliverance of man.”

⁸ tn Or “caused him pain.”

⁹ tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”

¹¹ tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”

¹² tn Heb “and consult together against.”

¹³ tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”

¹⁴ tn Or “for.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

¹⁷ tn Or “attack.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “the life of the blameless.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “and the blood of the innocent they declare guilty.”

²⁰ tn Heb “and futile [is] the deliverance of man.”

²¹ sn In vv. 6-19 the psalmist calls on God to judge his enemies severely. Some attribute this curse-list to the psalmist’s enemies rather than the psalmist. In this case one should paraphrase v. 6: “They say about me, ‘Appoint an evil man, etc.’” Those supporting this line of interpretation point out that vv. 2-5 and 20 refer to the enemies’ attack on the psalmist being a verbal one. Furthermore in vv. 1-5, 20 the psalmist speaks of his enemies in the plural, while vv. 6-19 refer to an individual. This use of the singular in vv. 6-19 could be readily explained if this is the psalmist’s enemies’ curse on him. However, it is much more natural to understand vv. 6-19 as the psalmist’s prayer against his enemies. There is no introductory quotation formula in v. 6 to indicate that the psalmist is quoting anyone, and the statement “may the Lord repay my accusers in this way” in v. 20 most naturally appears to be a fitting conclusion to the prayer in vv. 6-19. But what about the use of the singular in vv. 6-19? Often in the psalms the psalmist will describe his enemies as a group, but then speak of them as an individual as well, as if viewing his adversaries collectively as one powerful foe. See, for example, Ps 7, where the psalmist uses both the plural (vv. 1, 6) and the singular (vv. 2, 4-5) in referring to enemies. Perhaps by using the singular in such cases, the psalmist wants to single out each enemy for individual attention, or perhaps he has one especially hostile enemy in mind who epitomizes the opposition of the whole group. This may well be the case in Ps 109. Perhaps we should understand the singular throughout vv. 6-19 in the sense of “each and every one.” For a lengthy and well-reasoned defense of the opposite view – that vv. 6-19 are a quotation of what the enemies said about the psalmist – see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 72-73.

²² tn Heb “appoint against him an evil [man].”

²³ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive here (note the imperative in the preceding line).

²⁴ tn Or “hide.”

²⁵ tn Heb “your word.” Some medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural, “your words.”