Discovery BoxPsalms 55:3-11 
Context55:3 because of what the enemy says, 1
and because of how the wicked 2 pressure me, 3
for they hurl trouble 4 down upon me 5
and angrily attack me.
55:4 My heart beats violently 6 within me;
the horrors of death overcome me. 7
55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; 8
terror overwhelms 9 me.
55:6 I say, 10 “I wish I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and settle in a safe place!
55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;
I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)
55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe
from the strong wind 11 and the gale.”
Frustrate their plans! 13
For I see violence and conflict in the city.
55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, 14
while wickedness and destruction 15 are within it.
55:11 Disaster is within it;
violence 16 and deceit do not depart from its public square.
1 tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”
2 tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.
3 tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).
4 tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.
5 tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).
6 tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”
7 tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”
8 tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”
9 tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.
10 tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the verbs in v. 5.
11 tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).
12 tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).
13 tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”
14 tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.
15 sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.
16 tn Or “injury, harm.”
