Mazmur 35:3-4

35:3 Use your spear and lance ¹  against ²  those who chase me!

Assure me with these words: ³  “I am your deliverer!”

35:4 May those who seek my life be embarrassed and humiliated!

May those who plan to harm me be turned back and ashamed! ⁴ 

Mazmur 35:7

35:7 I did not harm them, but they hid a net to catch me

and dug a pit to trap me. ⁵ 

[35:3]  ¹ tn Or “javelin.” On the meaning of this word, which occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, see M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:210-11.

[35:3]  ² tn Heb “draw out spear and lance to meet.”

[35:3]  ³ tn Heb “say to me,” or “say to my soul.”

[35:4]  ⁴ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies. See also the distinct jussive form in v. 6.

[35:7]  ⁵ tc Heb “for without cause they hid for me a pit of their net, without cause they dug for my life.” It appears that the words “pit” and “net” have been transposed. “Net” goes with the verb “hid” in the first line (see v. 8, as well as Pss 9:15; 31:4), while “pit” goes with the verb “dug” in the second line (see Ps 7:15).