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Psalm 120:3-5
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 120:3-5
New Catholic Bible
3 What will he[a] inflict upon you,
and what more will he add to it,
O deceitful tongue?
4 He has prepared a warrior’s sharp arrows
and red-hot coals[b] of the broom tree.
5 Why have I been doomed as an exile in Meshech
and forced to dwell among the tents of Kedar?[c]
Footnotes
- Psalm 120:3 He: i.e., the Lord. What more will he add to it: the full curse formula was: “May the Lord do such and such to you and add still more to it” (see Ru 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17; 14:44; 25:22; 2 Sam 3:35; 1 Ki 2:23).
- Psalm 120:4 Sharp arrows . . . red-hot coals: the evil tongue is like a sharp arrow (see Pss 57:4; 64:3; Prov 25:18; Jer 9:8) and a scorching fire (see Prov 16:27; Jas 3:6); but the enemies of the psalmist will be destroyed by the far more potent shafts of God’s arrows of truth (see Ps 64:8) and coals of judgment (see Ps 140:11). Broom tree: apparently its roots burn well and yield coal that produces intense heat.
- Psalm 120:5 Meshech . . . Kedar: Meshech is located to the far north in Asia Minor by the Black Sea (see Gen 10:2; Ezek 38:2). Kedar stands for the Arab tribesmen of the south in the Arabian Desert (see Isa 21:16f; Jer 2:10; 49:28; Ezek 27:21). The psalmist feels that he is dwelling among a barbarian and ungodly people.
