Mazmur 3:1-2

Psalm 3 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ² 

3:1 Lord, how ³  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ⁴ 

3:2 Many say about me,

“God will not deliver him.” ⁵  (Selah) ⁶ 

Mazmur 27:2

27:2 When evil men attack me ⁷ 

to devour my flesh, ⁸ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ⁹ 

they stumble and fall. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 27:12

27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, ¹¹ 

for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. ¹² 

Mazmur 38:19

38:19 But those who are my enemies for no reason are numerous; ¹³ 

those who hate me without cause outnumber me. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 56:2

56:2 Those who anticipate my defeat ¹⁵  attack me all day long.

Indeed, ¹⁶  many are fighting against me, O Exalted One. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ¹⁸  among those who want to devour me; ¹⁹ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ²¹  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ²² 

and your right hand delivers me.

Mazmur 143:3

143:3 Certainly ²³  my enemies ²⁴  chase me.

They smash me into the ground. ²⁵ 

They force me to live ²⁶  in dark regions, ²⁷ 

like those who have been dead for ages.

[3:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

[3:1]  ² sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

[3:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”

[3:2]  ⁶ sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.

[27:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ⁸ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[27:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

[27:12]  ¹² tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

[38:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “and my enemies, life, are many.” The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “life”) fits very awkwardly here. The translation assumes an emendation to חִנָּם (khinam, “without reason”; note the parallelism with שֶׁקֶר [sheqer, “falsely”] and see Pss 35:19; 69:4; Lam 3:52). The verb עָצַם (’atsam) can sometimes mean “are strong,” but here it probably focuses on numerical superiority (note the parallel verb רָבַב, ravav, “be many”).

[38:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “are many.”

[56:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

[56:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “for.”

[56:2]  ¹⁷ tn Some take the Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “on high; above”) as an adverb modifying the preceding participle and translate, “proudly” (cf. NASB; NIV “in their pride”). The present translation assumes the term is a divine title here. The Lord is pictured as enthroned “on high” in Ps 92:8. (Note the substantival use of the term in Isa 24:4 and see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:34), who prefer to place the term at the beginning of the next verse.)

[57:4]  ¹⁸ 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).

[57:4]  ¹⁹ 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”).

[57:4]  ²⁰ 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….”

[138:7]  ²¹ tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ²² tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

[143:3]  ²³ tn Or “for.”

[143:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).

[143:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”

[143:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “sit.”

[143:3]  ²⁷ sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).