Mazmur 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ¹  among those who want to devour me; ² 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ³ 

Mazmur 57:1

Psalm 57 ⁴ 

For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; ⁵  a prayer ⁶  of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave. ⁷ 

57:1 Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me!

For in you I have taken shelter. ⁸ 

In the shadow of your wings ⁹  I take shelter

until trouble passes.

1 Samuel 20:30-33

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ¹⁰  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ¹¹  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse? 20:31 For as long as ¹²  this son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. Now, send some men ¹³  and bring him to me. For he is as good as dead!” ¹⁴ 

20:32 Jonathan responded to his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 20:33 Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan ¹⁵  in order to strike him down. So Jonathan was convinced ¹⁶  that his father had decided to kill David.

Yehezkiel 2:6

2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers ¹⁷  and thorns ¹⁸  surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, ¹⁹  for they are a rebellious house!

Matius 10:16

Persecution of Disciples

10:16 “I ²⁰  am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, ²¹  so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matius 10:36

10:36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. ²² 

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

[57:4]  ¹ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ² tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ³ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[57:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.

[57:1]  ⁵ 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 heading to Pss 58-59, 75.

[57:1]  ⁶ 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.”

[57:1]  ⁷ sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.

[57:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.

[57:1]  ⁹ sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).

[20:30]  ¹⁰ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ¹¹ tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.

[20:31]  ¹² tn Heb “all the days that.”

[20:31]  ¹³ tn The words “some men” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[20:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a son of death.”

[20:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “knew.”

[2:6]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[2:6]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.

[2:6]  sn Here thorns may be a figure for hostility (Ezek 28:24; Mic 7:4).

[2:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “of their faces.”

[10:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Behold I.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[10:16]  ²¹ sn This imagery of wolves is found in intertestamental Judaism; see Pss. Sol. 8:23, 30.

[10:36]  ²² tn Matt 10:35-36 are an allusion to Mic 7:6.