Psalm 59
New English Translation
Psalm 59[a]
For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;[b] a prayer[c] of David, written when Saul sent men to surround his house and murder him.[d]
59 Deliver me from my enemies, my God.
Protect me[e] from those who attack me.[f]
2 Deliver me from evildoers.[g]
Rescue me from violent men.[h]
3 For look, they wait to ambush me;[i]
powerful men stalk[j] me,
but not because I have rebelled or sinned, O Lord.[k]
4 Though I have done nothing wrong,[l] they are anxious to attack.[m]
Spring into action and help me. Take notice of me.[n]
5 You, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,[o] the God of Israel,
rouse yourself and punish[p] all the nations.
Have no mercy on any treacherous evildoers. (Selah)
6 They return in the evening;
they growl[q] like dogs
and prowl around outside[r] the city.
7 Look, they hurl insults at me
and openly threaten to kill me,[s]
for they say,[t]
“Who hears?”
8 But you, O Lord, laugh in disgust at them;[u]
you taunt[v] all the nations.
9 You are my source of strength. I will wait for you.[w]
For God is my refuge.[x]
10 The God who loves me will help me;[y]
God will enable me to triumph over[z] my enemies.[aa]
11 Do not strike them dead suddenly,
because then my people might forget the lesson.[ab]
Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down,
O Lord who shields us.[ac]
12 They speak sinful words.[ad]
So let them be trapped by their own pride
and by the curses and lies they speak.
13 Angrily wipe them out. Wipe them out so they vanish.
Let them know that God rules
over Jacob and to the ends of the earth. (Selah)
14 They return in the evening;
they growl[ae] like dogs
and prowl around outside[af] the city.
15 They wander around looking for something to eat;
they refuse to sleep until they are full.[ag]
16 As for me, I will sing about your strength;
I will praise your loyal love in the morning.
For you are my refuge[ah]
and my place of shelter when I face trouble.[ai]
17 You are my source of strength. I will sing praises to you.[aj]
For God is my refuge,[ak] the God who loves me.[al]
Footnotes
- Psalm 59:1 sn Psalm 59. The psalmist calls down judgment on his foreign enemies, whom he compares to ravenous wild dogs.
- Psalm 59:1 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the superscription to Pss 57-58, 75.
- Psalm 59:1 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56-58, 60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
- Psalm 59:1 tn Heb “when Saul sent and they watched his house in order to kill him.”sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when Saul sent assassins to surround David’s house and kill him in the morning (see 1 Sam 19:11). However, the psalm itself mentions foreign enemies (vv. 5, 8). Perhaps these references reflect a later adaptation of an original Davidic psalm.
- Psalm 59:1 tn Or “make me secure”; Heb “set me on high.”
- Psalm 59:1 tn Heb “from those who raise themselves up [against] me.”
- Psalm 59:2 tn Heb “from the workers of wickedness.”
- Psalm 59:2 tn Heb “from men of bloodshed.”
- Psalm 59:3 tn Heb “my life.”
- Psalm 59:3 tn The Hebrew verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 56:8.
- Psalm 59:3 sn The point is that the psalmist’s enemies have no justifiable reason for attacking him. He has neither rebelled or sinned against the Lord.
- Psalm 59:4 tn Heb “without sin.”
- Psalm 59:4 tn Heb “they run and they are determined.”
- Psalm 59:4 tn Heb “arise to meet me and see.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qaraʾ, “to meet; to encounter”) here carries the nuance of “to help.”
- Psalm 59:5 tn Heb “Lord, God, Hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי (ʾelohe) before צְבָאוֹת (tsevaʾot, “hosts”). See Ps 89:9, but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ʾelohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsevaʾot) in Pss 80:4, 19; 84:8 as well.
- Psalm 59:5 tn Heb “wake up to punish” (see Pss 35:23; 44:23).
- Psalm 59:6 tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
- Psalm 59:6 tn Heb “go around.”
- Psalm 59:7 tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”
- Psalm 59:7 tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.
- Psalm 59:8 sn Laugh in disgust. See Pss 2:4; 37:13.
- Psalm 59:8 tn Or “scoff at”; or “deride”; or “mock” (see Ps 2:4).
- Psalm 59:9 tc Heb “his strength, for you I will watch.” “His strength” should be emended to “my strength” (see v. 17). Some also emend אֶשְׁמֹרָה (ʾeshmorah, “I will watch”) to אֱזַמֵּרָה (ʾezammerah, “I will sing praises [to you]”) See v. 17.
- Psalm 59:9 tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
- Psalm 59:10 tn Heb “the God of my [Qere (marginal reading); the Kethib (consonantal text) has “his”] loyal love will meet me.”
- Psalm 59:10 tn Heb “will cause me to look upon.”
- Psalm 59:10 tn Heb “those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 56:2.
- Psalm 59:11 tn Heb “do not kill them, lest my people forget.”sn My people might forget the lesson. Swift, sudden destruction might be quickly forgotten. The psalmist wants God’s judgment to be prolonged so that it might be a continual reminder of divine justice.
- Psalm 59:11 tn Heb “make them roam around by your strength and bring them down, O our shield, the Lord.”
- Psalm 59:12 tn Heb “the sin of their mouth [is] the word of their lips.”
- Psalm 59:14 tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
- Psalm 59:14 tn Heb “go around.”
- Psalm 59:15 tn Heb “if they are not full, they stay through the night.”
- Psalm 59:16 tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
- Psalm 59:16 tn Heb “and my shelter in the day of my distress.”
- Psalm 59:17 tn Heb “my strength, to you I will sing praises.”
- Psalm 59:17 tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
- Psalm 59:17 tn Heb “the God of my loyal love.”
Psalm 59
International Standard Version
To the Director: A special Davidic psalm[a] to the tune of[b] “Do Not Destroy,” when Saul sent men to watch the house in order to kill him.
A Prayer for Deliverance and Justice
59 Save me from my enemies, my God!
Keep me safe from those who rise up against me.
2 Save me from those who practice evil;
deliver me from bloodthirsty men.
3 Look, they lie in ambush for my life;
these violent men gather together against me,
but not because of any transgression or sin of mine, Lord.
4 Without any fault on my part,
they rush together and prepare themselves.
Get up!
Come help me!
Pay attention!
5 You, Lord God of the Heavenly Armies, God of Israel,
stir yourself up to punish all the nations.
Show no mercy to those wicked transgressors.
6 At night they return like howling dogs;
they prowl around the city.
7 Look what pours out of their mouths!
They use their lips like swords,
saying[c] “Who will hear us?”
8 But you, Lord, will laugh at them;
you will mock all the nations.
9 My Strength, I will watch for you,
for God is my fortress.
10 My God of Gracious Love will meet me;
God will enable me to see what happens[d] to my enemies.
11 Don’t kill them!
Otherwise, my people may forget.
By your power make them stumble around;
bring them down low,
Lord, our Shield.
12 The sin of their mouth is the word on their lips.
They will be caught in their own conceit;
for they speak curses and lies.
13 Go ahead and destroy them in anger!
Wipe them out,
and they will know to the ends of the earth
that God rules over Jacob.[e]
14 At night they return like howling dogs;
they prowl around the city.
15 They scavenge for food.
If they find nothing,
they become hungry and growl.
16 But I will sing of your power
and in the morning I will shout for joy about your gracious love.
For you have been a fortress for me;
and a refuge when I am distressed.[f]
17 My Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, God of Gracious Love, are my fortress.
Footnotes
- Psalm 59:1 The Heb. reads miktam
- Psalm 59:1 Lit. David according to
- Psalm 59:7 The Heb. lacks saying
- Psalm 59:10 The Heb. lacks what happens
- Psalm 59:13 Or know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth
- Psalm 59:16 Lit. refuge in the day of my distress
1 Samuel 19:11-18
New English Translation
11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself[a] tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he ran away and escaped.
13 Then Michal took a household idol[b] and put it on the bed. She put a quilt[c] made of goats’ hair over its head[d] and then covered the idol with a garment. 14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.” 16 When the messengers came, they found only the idol on the bed and the quilt made of goats’ hair at its head.
17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’”[e]
18 Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 19:11 tn Heb “your life.”
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn Heb “teraphim” (also a second time in this verse and once in v. 16). These were statues that represented various deities. According to 2 Kgs 23:24 they were prohibited during the time of Josiah’s reform movement in the seventh century. The idol Michal placed under the covers was of sufficient size to give the mistaken impression that David lay in the bed, thus facilitating his escape.
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew word כָּבִיר (kavir) is uncertain; it is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in v. 16. It probably refers to a quilt made of goats’ hair, perhaps used as a fly net while one slept. See HALOT 458 s.v. *כָּבִיר. Cf. KJV, TEV “pillow”; NLT “cushion”; NAB, NRSV “net.”
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn Heb “at the place of its head.”
- 1 Samuel 19:17 tn Heb “Send me away! Why should I kill you?” The question has the force of a threat in this context. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 325-26.
1 Samuel 19:11-18
International Standard Version
Michal Helps David Escape
11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him so they could kill him in the morning. David’s wife, Michal, told him, “If you don’t escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be put to death.” 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he escaped and fled. 13 Then Michal took the household idol[a] and laid it on the bed with a cover of goat hair placed at its head. Then she covered it with clothes.
14 When Saul sent the messengers to take David, Michal said, “He’s sick.”
15 Then Saul sent messengers to check on[b] David. He told them, “Bring him to me on the bed so I may kill him.”[c] 16 The messengers went in, and there was the household idol in the bed with the cover of goat hair at its head!
17 Then Saul told Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and let my enemy go so he could escape?”
Michal told Saul, “He told me, ‘Let me go or I’ll kill you!’”[d]
Saul Prophesies at Ramah and David Escapes
18 David escaped and fled. He came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 19:13 Heb. teraphim
- 1 Samuel 19:15 Or to see
- 1 Samuel 19:15 Lit. in order to kill him
- 1 Samuel 19:17 Lit. why should I kill you?
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