Mazmur 55:9-15
KonteksFrustrate their plans! 2
For I see violence and conflict in the city.
55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, 3
while wickedness and destruction 4 are within it.
55:11 Disaster is within it;
violence 5 and deceit do not depart from its public square.
55:12 Indeed, 6 it is not an enemy who insults me,
or else I could bear it;
it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, 7
or else I could hide from him.
55:13 But it is you, 8 a man like me, 9
my close friend in whom I confided. 10
55:14 We would share personal thoughts with each other; 11
in God’s temple we would walk together among the crowd.
55:15 May death destroy them! 12
May they go down alive into Sheol! 13
For evil is in their dwelling place and in their midst.
[55:9] 1 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).
[55:9] 2 tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”
[55:10] 3 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.
[55:10] 4 sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.
[55:11] 5 tn Or “injury, harm.”
[55:12] 7 tn Heb “[who] magnifies against me.” See Pss 35:26; 38:16.
[55:13] 8 sn It is you. The psalmist addresses the apparent ringleader of the opposition, an individual who was once his friend.
[55:13] 9 tn Heb “a man according to my value,” i.e., “a person such as I.”
[55:13] 10 tn Heb “my close friend, one known by me.”
[55:14] 11 tn Heb “who together we would make counsel sweet.” The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line draw attention to the ongoing nature of the actions (the so-called customary use of the imperfect). Their relationship was characterized by such intimacy and friendship. See IBHS 502-3 §31.2b.
[55:15] 12 tc The meaning of the MT is unclear. The Kethib (consonantal text) reads יַשִּׁימָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashimavet ’alemo, “May devastation [be] upon them!”). The proposed noun יַשִּׁימָוֶת occurs only here and perhaps in the place name Beth-Jeshimoth in Num 33:49. The Qere (marginal text) has יַשִּׁי מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashi mavet ’alemo). The verbal form יַשִּׁי is apparently an alternate form of יַשִּׁיא (yashi’), a Hiphil imperfect from נָשַׁא (nasha’, “deceive”). In this case one might read “death will come deceptively upon them.” This reading has the advantage of reading מָוֶת (mavet, “death”) which forms a natural parallel with “Sheol” in the next line. The present translation is based on the following reconstruction of the text: יְשִׁמֵּם מָוֶת (yeshimmem mavet). The verb assumed in the reconstruction is a Hiphil jussive third masculine singular from שָׁמַם (shamam, “be desolate”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix attached. This reconstruction assumes that (1) haplography has occurred in the traditional text (the original sequence of three mems [מ] was lost with only one mem remaining), resulting in the fusion of originally distinct forms in the Kethib, and (2) that עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon them”) is a later scribal addition attempting to make sense of a garbled and corrupt text. The preposition עַל (’al) does occur with the verb שָׁמַם (shamam), but in such cases the expression means “be appalled at/because of” (see Jer 49:20; 50:45). If one were to retain the prepositional phrase here, one would have to read the text as follows: יַשִּׁים מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashim mavet ’alemo, “Death will be appalled at them”). The idea seems odd, to say the least. Death is not collocated with this verb elsewhere.
[55:15] 13 sn Go down alive. This curse imagines a swift and sudden death for the psalmist’s enemies.
