Psalm 55:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 55:3 tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”
2. Psalm 55:3 tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.
3. Psalm 55:3 tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (ʿaqah, “pressure”).
4. Psalm 55:3 tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.
5. Psalm 55:3 tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).
6. Psalm 55:4 tn Heb “shakes, trembles.”
7. Psalm 55:4 tn Heb “the terrors of death have fallen on me.”
8. Psalm 55:5 tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”
9. Psalm 55:5 tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.