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Psalm 64

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

A prayer against secret plotters

1 Hear my voice, O Elohim, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, from the throng of the workers of iniquity, 3 who sharpen their tongue like a sword and aim bitter words as their arrows, 4 to shoot from hiding places at the blameless; suddenly they shoot at him, and they do not fear. 5 They strengthen themselves in an evil plan; they talk of hiding snares; they say, "Who will see them?" 6 They search out wrongs: "We have accomplished a well-devised plan!" For the inward thought of a man and his heart are deep.

Elohim shoots His arrow

7 But Elohim shoots an arrow at them; suddenly they are wounded. 8 They are made to stumble, their own tongue turned against them; all who see them shake their heads. 9 Then all mankind fears; they declare the work of Elohim and wisely consider what He has done. 10 The righteous will rejoice in Yahweh and take refuge in Him, and all the upright in heart will glory.

Notes

  • 64:3 The weapons of these enemies are words: a tongue sharpened like a sword and bitter words aimed like arrows (compare 57:4; 59:7). Proverbs says the same: "There is one whose rash words are like the thrusts of a sword" (Proverbs 12:18). Like the archers of 11:2, they shoot "from hiding places" (verse 4), with slander and secret plots rather than open war.
  • 64:6 The Hebrew of this verse is hard and is read in more than one way. "We have accomplished a well-devised plan" takes the middle words as the plotters' own boast (literally "we have completed a searched-out search"); others read "they have finished their search" or "they have hidden" their plan. The closing words, "the inward thought of a man and his heart are deep," may describe how well hidden their schemes are, yet the next verse shows that nothing is hidden from Elohim (compare Jeremiah 17:9-10).
  • 64:7 Verses 7-9 turn the plot back on the plotters with their own words. They "shoot" (yarah) at the blameless "suddenly" (verse 4); now Elohim "shoots" an arrow and "suddenly" they are wounded. Their sharpened tongue (verse 3) becomes the tongue that makes them stumble (verse 8). They "do not fear" (verse 4), but in the end "all mankind fears" (verse 9) and declares what Elohim has done.

Psalm 63 · Psalm 65

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