Mazmur 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated ¹  and absolutely terrified! ² 

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Mazmur 118:12

118:12 They surrounded me like bees.

But they disappeared as quickly ³  as a fire among thorns. ⁴ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

¹ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

² tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

³ tn Heb “were extinguished.”

⁴ 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.