translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: PSA

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “from a wicked man.” The Hebrew uses the singular in a representative or collective sense (note the plural verbs in v. 2 ).


text: Heb “they devise wicked [plans] in [their] mind.”


label: NET textual note

text: Heb “they attack [for] war.” Some revocalize the verb (which is a Qal imperfect from גּוּר , gur , “to attack”) as יְגָרוּ ( yÿgaru ), a Piel imperfect from גָרָה ( garah , “stir up strife”). This is followed in the present translation.


text: Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”


text: The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.


text: Heb “under.”


text: Heb “hands.”


text: Heb “to push down my steps.”


text: Heb “and ropes,” but many prefer to revocalize the noun as a participle ( חֹבְלִים , khovÿlim ) from the verb חָבַל ( khaval , “act corruptly”).


text: Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”


text: Heb “cover.”


text: Heb “do not grant the desires of the wicked.”


text: Heb “his.” The singular is used in a representative sense (see v. 1 ).


text: Heb “his plot do not promote, they rise up.” The translation understands the final verb as being an unmarked temporal clause. Another option is to revocalize the verb as a Hiphil and take the verb with the next verse, “those who surround me lift up [their] head,” which could refer to their proud attitude as they anticipate victory (see Ps 27:6 ).


text: Heb “harm of their lips.” The genitive here indicates the source or agent of the harm.


text: The verb form in the Kethib (consonantal Hebrew text) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוּט ( mut , “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in Ps 55:3 , where it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ ( yamtiru , “they rain down”). In Ps 140:10 the form יַמְטֵר ( yamter , “let him rain down”) should probably be read.


text: Heb “into bottomless pits, they will not arise.” The translation assumes that the preposition - בְּ ( bet ) has the nuance “from” here. Another option is to connect the line with what precedes, take the final clause as an asyndetic relative clause, and translate, “into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot arise.” The Hebrew noun מַהֲמֹרָה ( mahamorah , “bottomless pit”) occurs only here in the OT.


text: Heb “a man of a tongue.”


text: Heb “be established in.”


text: Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה ( madkhefoh , “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.


text: The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.


text: Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”