Discovery BoxPsalms 74:10 
Context74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary hurl insults?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
Psalms 89:51
Context89:51 Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults;
they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps. 1
Psalms 144:6
Context144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 2
Psalms 59:7
Context59:7 Look, they hurl insults at me
and openly threaten to kill me, 3
for they say, 4
“Who hears?”
Psalms 38:20
Context38:20 They repay me evil for the good I have done;
though I have tried to do good to them, they hurl accusations at me. 5
Psalms 55:3
Context55:3 because of what the enemy says, 6
and because of how the wicked 7 pressure me, 8
for they hurl trouble 9 down upon me 10
and angrily attack me.
Psalms 57:3
Context57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me 11
from my enemies who hurl insults! 12 (Selah)
May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!
1 tn Heb “[by] which your enemies, O
2 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
3 tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”
4 tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.
5 tn Heb “the ones who repay evil instead of good accuse me, instead of my pursuing good.”
6 tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”
7 tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.
8 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”).
9 tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.
10 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).
11 tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).
12 tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”
