Mazmur 40:14

40:14 May those who are trying to snatch away my life

be totally embarrassed and ashamed! ¹ 

May those who want to harm me

be turned back and ashamed! ² 

Mazmur 68:2

68:2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. ³ 

As wax melts before fire,

so the wicked are destroyed before God.

Yesaya 37:29

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ⁴ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ⁵ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

[40:14]  ¹ tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed together, the ones seeking my life to snatch it away.”

[40:14]  ² tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse (“may those…be…embarrassed and ashamed…may those…be turned back and ashamed”) are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies.

[40:14]  sn See Ps 35:4 for a similar prayer.

[68:2]  ³ tn Heb “as smoke is scattered, you scatter [them].”

[37:29]  ⁴ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

[37:29]  ⁵ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.