¹ tn Or “innocent.” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and the typical godly individual are in view.

² tn Heb “and gnashes at him with his teeth” (see Ps 35:16). The language may picture the evil men as wild animals. The active participles in v. 12 are used for purposes of dramatic description.

³ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

⁴ tn Heb “the end of evil men is cut off.” As in v. 37, some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see Ps 109:13). The perfect verbal forms in v. 38 probably express general truths. Another option is that they are used emphatically to state with certitude that the demise of the wicked is as good as done.

⁵ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

⁶ tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

⁷ tn Heb “oppression from an elevated place they speak.” The traditional accentuation of the MT places “oppression” with the preceding line. In this case, one might translate, “they mock and speak with evil [of] oppression, from an elevated place [i.e., “proudly”] they speak.” By placing “oppression” with what follows, one achieves better poetic balance in the parallelism.

⁸ tn Heb “and they set upon me evil in place of good.”