Psalm 55
The full text of Psalm 55 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, 'Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.'
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
then I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God's house we walked in the throng.
15 Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their hearts.
16 But I call to God,
and the LORD will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
18 He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
19 God will give ear and humble them,
he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not change
and do not fear God.
20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
he violated his covenant.
21 His speech was smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.
Translation notes (5)
- Psalm 55:13a The Hebrew enosh ke'erki (אֱנוֹשׁ כְּעֶרְכִּי) means literally 'a man according to my valuation', that is, one of the psalmist's own rank, and alluph (אַלּוּף) denotes an intimate companion. Jewish tradition identified this betrayer as Ahithophel, David's counselor who joined Absalom's revolt, while many Christian interpreters since the patristic era have read the passage as prefiguring Judas.
- Psalm 55:15a The wish that they "go down to Sheol alive" echoes the fate of Korah and his company, whom the earth swallowed so that they "went down alive to Sheol" (Numbers 16:30-33). The psalmist thus invokes a paradigmatic judgment on treacherous insiders, fitting for the false friend described in this psalm.
- Psalm 55:19a The epithet translates yoshev qedem (יֹשֵׁב קֶדֶם), literally 'the one sitting of old'. The verb yashav, 'to sit', regularly denotes royal session when used of God (compare Psalm 9:7), hence 'enthroned', while qedem here carries its temporal sense of primeval antiquity rather than its spatial sense, 'the east'.
- Psalm 55:21a The Hebrew machamaot (מַחְמָאֹת), related to chemah, 'curds' or 'butter', occurs only in this verse. Its counterpart petichot, 'drawn swords', literally 'unsheathed things', is likewise unique to the Hebrew Bible, so the contrast between soft speech and hidden violence is carried by two rare terms.
- Psalm 55:22a Hebrew yehavka — 'your lot/what is given you'; what God has assigned. Quoted 1 Pet 5:7.
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