Discovery BoxPsalms 57:4 
Context57:4 I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down 1 among those who want to devour me; 2
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are a sharp sword. 3
Psalms 79:10
Context79:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants
be avenged among the nations! 4
Psalms 88:5
Contextlike corpses lying in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
and who are cut off from your power. 6
Psalms 99:6
Context99:6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests;
Samuel was one of those who prayed to him. 7
They 8 prayed to the Lord and he answered them.
Psalms 106:47
Context106:47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God!
Gather us from among the nations!
Then we will give thanks 9 to your holy name,
and boast about your praiseworthy deeds. 10
Psalms 118:12
Context118:12 They surrounded me like bees.
But they disappeared as quickly 11 as a fire among thorns. 12
Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.
1 tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).
2 tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).
3 tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”
4 tn Heb “may it be known among the nations, to our eyes, the vengeance of the shed blood of your servants.”
5 tn Heb “set free.”
6 tn Heb “from your hand.”
7 tn Heb “among those who called on his name.”
8 tn Heb “those who.” The participle is in apposition to the phrase “those who called on his name” in the preceding line.
9 tn Heb “to give thanks.” The infinitive construct indicates result after the imperative.
10 tn Heb “to boast in your praise.”
11 tn Heb “were extinguished.”
12 tn The point seems to be that the hostility of the nations (v. 10) is short-lived, like a fire that quickly devours thorns and then burns out. Some, attempting to create a better parallel with the preceding line, emend דֹּעֲכוּ (do’akhu, “they were extinguished”) to בָּעֲרוּ (ba’aru, “they burned”). In this case the statement emphasizes their hostility.
