Discovery BoxPsalms 31:11 
Context31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; 1
my neighbors are appalled by my suffering 2 –
those who know me are horrified by my condition; 3
those who see me in the street run away from me.
Psalms 69:28
Context69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! 4
Do not let their names be listed with the godly! 5
Psalms 106:43
Context106:43 Many times he delivered 6 them,
but they had a rebellious attitude, 7
and degraded themselves 8 by their sin.
1 tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”
2 tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).
3 tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”
4 tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”
sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.
5 tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”
sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.
6 tn The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“he would deliver”).
7 tn Heb “but they rebelled in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“they would have a rebellious attitude”).
8 tn Heb “they sank down.” The Hebrew verb מָכַךְ (makhakh, “to lower; to sink”) occurs only here in the Qal.
