¹ tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”

² tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.

³ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

⁴ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

⁵ tn Heb “my heart was hot within me.”

⁶ tn Heb “In my reflection fire burned.” The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite (past tense) or an imperfect being used in a past progressive or customary sense (“fire was burning”).

⁷ tn Heb “I spoke with my tongue.” The phrase “these words” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Heb “your mouth you send with evil.”

⁹ tn Heb “and your tongue binds together [i.e., “frames”] deceit.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “open my lips.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

¹¹ tn Heb “and my mouth will declare your praise.”

¹² tn Heb “you love all the words of swallowing.” Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallowing” in the sense of “devouring” or “destructive” (see BDB 118 s.v. בָּלַע). HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע proposes a homonym here, meaning “confusion.” This would fit the immediate context nicely and provide a close parallel to the following line, which refers to deceptive words.

¹³ tn Heb “with their mouth.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and with their tongue they lied to him.”

¹⁵ tn Or “hide.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “your word.” Some medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural, “your words.”