Discovery BoxPsalms 19:4 
Context19:4 Yet its voice 1 echoes 2 throughout the earth;
its 3 words carry 4 to the distant horizon. 5
In the sky 6 he has pitched a tent for the sun. 7
Psalms 35:8
Context35:8 Let destruction take them by surprise! 8
Let the net they hid catch them!
Let them fall into destruction! 9
Psalms 39:6
Context39:6 Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. 10
Surely they accumulate worthless wealth
without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” 11
Psalms 41:6
Context41:6 When someone comes to visit, 12 he pretends to be friendly; 13
he thinks of ways to defame me, 14
and when he leaves he slanders me. 15
Psalms 57:6
Context57:6 They have prepared a net to trap me; 16
I am discouraged. 17
They have dug a pit for me. 18
They will fall 19 into it! (Selah)
Psalms 62:10
Context62:10 Do not trust in what you can gain by oppression! 20
Do not put false confidence in what you can gain by robbery! 21
If wealth increases, do not become attached to it! 22
Psalms 86:17
Context86:17 Show me evidence of your favor! 23
Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed, 24
for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me. 25
Psalms 101:3
Context101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. 26
I hate doing evil; 27
I will have no part of it. 28
Psalms 132:11
Context132:11 The Lord made a reliable promise to David; 29
he will not go back on his word. 30
He said, 31 “I will place one of your descendants 32 on your throne.
1 tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.
2 tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”
3 tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).
4 tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.
5 tn Heb “to the end of the world.”
6 tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).
7 sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.
8 tn Heb “let destruction [which] he does not know come to him.” The singular is used of the enemy in v. 8, probably in a representative or collective sense. The psalmist has more than one enemy, as vv. 1-7 make clear.
9 tn The psalmist’s prayer for his enemies’ demise continues. See vv. 4-6.
10 tn Heb “surely, as an image man walks about.” The preposition prefixed to “image” indicates identity here.
sn People go through life (Heb “man walks about”). “Walking” is here used as a metaphor for living. The point is that human beings are here today, gone tomorrow. They have no lasting substance and are comparable to mere images or ghosts.
11 tc Heb “Surely [in] vain they strive, he accumulates and does not know who gathers them.” The MT as it stands is syntactically awkward. The verb forms switch from singular (“walks about”) to plural (“they strive”) and then back to singular (“accumulates and does not know”), even though the subject (generic “man”) remains the same. Furthermore there is no object for the verb “accumulates” and no plural antecedent for the plural pronoun (“them”) attached to “gathers.” These problems can be removed if one emends the text from הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן (hevel yehemaun, “[in] vain they strive”) to הֶבְלֵי הָמוֹן (hevley hamon, “vain things of wealth”). This assumes a misdivision in the MT and a virtual dittography of vav (ו) between the mem and nun of המון. The present translation follows this emendation.
12 tn Heb “to see.”
13 tn Heb “he speaks deceitfully.”
14 tn Heb “his heart gathers sin to itself.”
15 tn Heb “he goes outside and speaks.”
16 tn Heb “for my feet.”
17 tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
18 tn Heb “before me.”
19 tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.
20 tn Heb “do not trust in oppression.” Here “oppression” stands by metonymy for the riches that can be gained by oppressive measures, as the final line of the verse indicates.
21 tn Heb “and in robbery do not place vain hope.” Here “robbery” stands by metonymy for the riches that can be gained by theft, as the next line of the verse indicates.
22 tn Heb “[as for] wealth, when it bears fruit, do not set [your] heart [on it].”
23 tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.
24 tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.
25 tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the
26 tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”
27 tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew
28 tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”
29 tn Heb “the
30 tn Heb “he will not turn back from it.”
31 tn The words “he said” are supplied in the translation to clarify that what follows are the
32 tn Heb “the fruit of your body.”
