Psalms 7

LORD my God, I take shelter in you. Save me from everyone who is hunting me, and set me free.

1O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

Note"LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Ancient Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud instead of pronouncing it, and English translations have followed that custom ever since by printing LORD. "My God" here translates a different, ordinary word for a deity.

2If you do not, he will tear me apart like a lion, ripping me to pieces, with no one there to rescue me.

2Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Note"He" is singular after the plural "pursuers" of verse 1, the Hebrew shifts from the whole pack to one of them, or to the group treated as a single beast. The word rendered "me" is *nephesh*, often translated "soul," but in Hebrew it means the whole living person, the life and breath of someone, not an immaterial part that survives the body.

3LORD my God, if I have really done this thing, if my hands are guilty of wrong,

3O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

Note"This thing" is never named. Verses 3–5 are a formal oath of innocence: the speaker lists what he is accused of and then calls down a punishment on himself if he did it. This was a recognized legal procedure when no witnesses could settle a charge, the accused swore before God and accepted the consequences of a false oath.

4if I have paid back evil to a man who was at peace with me (in fact I rescued the man who is my enemy for no reason),

4If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)

NoteThe second half of this verse is genuinely disputed. The Hebrew verb can mean "I rescued/set free" (as the King James and the rendering take it: I actually spared the man who attacked me for no reason) or "I plundered," which would make it a third charge he denies: "if I plundered my enemy without cause." Both readings are defensible from the same consonants.

5then let my enemy hunt me down and catch me. Let him trample my life into the ground and leave my honor lying in the dust. Selah.

5Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

NoteThis is the self-curse that completes the oath, not a wish. "My honor" translates *kabod*, a word covering reputation, standing, and a person's own weight or worth; laid "in the dust" it suggests both public disgrace and a corpse on the ground. "Selah" is a term found mainly in the Psalms whose meaning was already lost by ancient times; it is usually guessed to be a musical or performance direction, perhaps a pause or a louder passage.

6Get up, LORD, in your anger. Rise up against the fury of my enemies. Wake up for me; you have ordered that justice be done.

6Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

Note"Get up" and "wake up" are courtroom language, not comments on God's alertness. Hebrew poetry pictures the judge as seated and inactive until a case is brought, so a plaintiff calls on him to rise and take up the case. The image continues through verses 7–11.

7Then let the gathered peoples stand all around you, and for their sake take your place again high above them.

7So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

NoteThe picture is of a public court: the assembled peoples stand in a ring around the judge, who mounts the raised seat above them. "Take your place again high above them" translates a phrase that literally means return to the height, the elevated throne or judgment seat.

8The LORD is the one who judges the peoples. Judge me, LORD, according to how right I have been, and according to the honesty that is in me.

8The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Note"According to how right I have been" does not claim a spotless life. In this kind of legal psalm the speaker asks to be judged innocent of the specific charge just denied in verses 3–5, the way a defendant asks for acquittal on one indictment.

9Please bring the evil of the wicked to an end, but keep the righteous standing firm. For God, who is righteous, tests hearts and minds.

9Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

NoteThe King James "hearts and reins" is literally "hearts and kidneys." Ancient Hebrew located thought, planning, and will in the heart, and the deepest feelings and conscience in the kidneys, so the pair means the whole inner person, everything a human being hides from other humans. "Tests" is a metalworker's word for assaying metal to see what it really is.

10My shield comes from God, who saves those whose hearts are honest.

10My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.

11God judges rightly, and God is angry at the wicked every single day.

11God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

NoteThe Hebrew of the second half says only "and a God who is indignant every day": there is no object in the text. "At the wicked" is supplied by translators from the context; other translations leave it open.

12If a man will not turn back, God will sharpen his sword. He has already bent his bow and made it ready.

12If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

NoteThe Hebrew leaves the subject of "will not turn back" unstated, so it may be the wicked man who does not change course, or, on a minority reading, God who does not relent. "Turn back" is the ordinary Hebrew word for changing direction, used both of literally turning around and of abandoning a course of conduct. The one who sharpens the sword and strings the bow is God.

13He has also gotten his deadly weapons ready. He aims his arrows at those who hunt other people down.

13He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

NoteThe last phrase in Hebrew reads "he makes his arrows into burning ones", fire arrows, shafts wrapped with burning material, a standard siege weapon. The King James "ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors" follows a different understanding of the same word.

14Look at him: the wicked man goes into labor with evil. He becomes pregnant with trouble and gives birth to lies.

14Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

NoteThe three stages are deliberately out of biological order (labor pains first, then conception, then birth) a common device in Hebrew poetry for piling up images rather than narrating a sequence. The point of the metaphor is that what the man labors to produce turns out to be something other than what he intended.

15He made a hole and dug it deep, and then fell into the very pit he made.

15He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

16The trouble he causes comes back on his own head, and his violence falls down on the top of his own skull.

16His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

Note"Comes back on his own head" was ordinary legal idiom in Hebrew: responsibility for a death or a crime was said to fall on the head of whoever caused it. The King James "pate" is an old English word for the crown of the skull.

17I will thank the LORD because he does what is right, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

17I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

Note"Most High" translates *Elyon*, a title for God used across the ancient Near East for the highest god, and one of the standard divine titles in the Psalms.