Psalms 27:2

When evil men attack me ¹  to devour my flesh, ²  when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ³  they stumble and fall. ⁴ 

When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

When evil people come to destroy me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

When vandal hordes ride down ready to eat me alive, Those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces.

When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an end to me, they were broken and put to shame.

When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—my adversaries and foes—they shall stumble and fall.

When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.

When evil men attack me ¹  to devour my flesh, ²  when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ³  they stumble and fall. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

² sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

³ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

⁴ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”