Mazmur 38:16

38:16 I have prayed for deliverance, because otherwise they will gloat over me; ¹ 

when my foot slips they will arrogantly taunt me. ² 

Mazmur 69:28

69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! ³ 

Do not let their names be listed with the godly! ⁴ 

Mazmur 78:56

78:56 Yet they challenged and defied ⁵  the sovereign God, ⁶ 

and did not obey ⁷  his commands. ⁸ 

Mazmur 83:4

83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! ⁹ 

Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”

[38:16]  ¹ tn Heb “For I said, ‘Lest they rejoice over me.’” The psalmist recalls the motivating argument of his petition. He probably prefaced this statement with a prayer for deliverance (see Pss 7:1-2; 13:3-4; 28:1).

[38:16]  ² tn Heb “they will magnify against me.” See Pss 35:26; 55:13.

[69:28]  ³ tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”

[69:28]  sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.

[69:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”

[69:28]  sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.

[78:56]  ⁵ tn Or “tested and rebelled against.”

[78:56]  ⁶ tn Heb “God, the Most High.”

[78:56]  ⁷ tn Or “keep.”

[78:56]  ⁸ tn Heb “his testimonies” (see Ps 25:10).

[83:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”