Discovery BoxPsalms 5:10 
ContextMay their own schemes be their downfall! 2
Drive them away 3 because of their many acts of insurrection, 4
for they have rebelled against you.
Psalms 8:4
Context8:4 Of what importance is the human race, 5 that you should notice 6 them?
Of what importance is mankind, 7 that you should pay attention to them, 8
Psalms 18:41
Context18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; 9
they cry out to the Lord, 10 but he does not answer them.
Psalms 28:9
Context28:9 Deliver your people!
Empower 11 the nation that belongs to you! 12
Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms 13 at all times! 14
Psalms 31:20
Context31:20 You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks 15 of men; 16
you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks. 17
Psalms 35:25
Context35:25 Do not let them say to themselves, 18 “Aha! We have what we wanted!” 19
Do not let them say, “We have devoured him!”
Psalms 58:8
Context58:8 Let them be 20 like a snail that melts away as it moves along! 21
Let them be like 22 stillborn babies 23 that never see the sun!
Psalms 78:6
Context78:6 so that the next generation, children yet to be born,
might know about them.
They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. 24
Psalms 78:31
Context78:31 when the anger of God flared up against them.
He killed some of the strongest of them;
he brought the young men of Israel to their knees.
Psalms 78:55
Context78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;
he assigned them their tribal allotments 25
and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. 26
Psalms 107:32
Context107:32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people!
Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside! 27
Psalms 139:18
Context139:18 If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you. 28
Psalms 140:10
Context140:10 May he rain down 29 fiery coals upon them!
May he throw them into the fire!
From bottomless pits they will not escape. 30
Psalms 144:3
Context144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, 31 that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, 32 that you should be concerned about them? 33
Psalms 149:3
Context149:3 Let them praise his name with dancing!
Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp!
1 tn Heb “declare/regard them as guilty.” Declaring the psalmist’s adversaries guilty is here metonymic for judging them or paying them back for their wrongdoing.
2 tn Heb “may they fall from their plans.” The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation. The psalmist calls judgment down on the evildoers. Their plans will be their downfall in that God will judge them for their evil schemes.
3 tn Or “banish them.”
4 tn The Hebrew noun used here, פֶּשַׁע (pesha’), refers to rebellious actions. The psalmist pictures his enemies as rebels against God (see the next line).
5 tn Heb “What is man[kind]?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh, “man”) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race.
6 tn Heb “remember him.”
7 tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.
8 tn The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.
9 tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”
10 tn Heb “to the
sn They cry out. This reference to the psalmist’s enemies crying out for help to the
11 tn Or “bless.”
12 tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.
13 tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”
sn The shepherd metaphor is sometimes associated with royal responsibility. See 2 Sam 5:2; 7:7; Mic 5:2-4).
14 tn Or “forever.”
15 tn The noun רֹכֶס (rokhes) occurs only here. Its meaning is debated; some suggest “snare,” while others propose “slander” or “conspiracy.”
16 tn Heb “you hide them in the hiding place of your face from the attacks of man.” The imperfect verbal forms in this verse draw attention to God’s typical treatment of the faithful.
17 tn Heb “you conceal them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”
18 tn Heb “in their heart[s].”
19 tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.
20 tn There is no “to be” verb in the Hebrew text at this point, but a jussive tone can be assumed based on vv. 6-7.
21 tn Heb “like a melting snail [that] moves along.” A. Cohen (Psalms [SoBB], 184) explains that the text here alludes “to the popular belief that the slimy trail which the snail leaves in its track is the dissolution of its substance.”
22 tn The words “let them be like” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The jussive mood is implied from the preceding context, and “like” is understood by ellipsis (see the previous line).
23 tn This rare word also appears in Job 3:16 and Eccles 6:3.
24 tn Heb “in order that they might know, a following generation, sons [who] will be born, they will arise and will tell to their sons.”
25 tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”
26 tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”
27 tn Heb “in the seat of the elders.”
28 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.
29 tn The verb form in the Kethib (consonantal Hebrew text) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוּט (mut, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in Ps 55:3, where it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). In Ps 140:10 the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read.
30 tn Heb “into bottomless pits, they will not arise.” The translation assumes that the preposition -בְּ (bet) has the nuance “from” here. Another option is to connect the line with what precedes, take the final clause as an asyndetic relative clause, and translate, “into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot arise.” The Hebrew noun מַהֲמֹרָה (mahamorah, “bottomless pit”) occurs only here in the OT.
31 tn Heb “What is mankind?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race. See Ps 8:5.
32 tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.
33 tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.
