Psalm 55

^I “leader” = natasach. Properly, something that glitters from a distance. So, something that stands out, excels, has status/standing (such as a chief musician or superintendent of Temple services). This can also mean to be permanent or enduring.
^II “stringed instruments” = neginah. 13x in OT. From nagan (to strike a stringed instrument, to pluck or play it). This is music, a song, a taunt, or a stringed instrument. It can also be a poem given a musical setting.
^III “Maskil” = maskil. 13x in OT. From sakal (to consider or be prudent; to instruct, be an expert; dealing prudently, which implies success and prospering; can mean laying cross-wise). This is maskil or maschil. It is a poem used for instruction.
^IV “David” = David. From the same as dod (beloved, love, uncle); the root may mean to boil, which is used figuratively to describe love. So, this implies someone you love such as a friend, a lover, or a close family member like an uncle. David’s name likely means something like “beloved one.”

^V “give ear” = azan. Perhaps from ozen (ear, hearing, audience, show; properly, broadness – applied to its ear in reference to its shape). Properly, this is to expand or broaden one’s ear i.e. listen intently, pay attention, heed.
^VI “prayer” = tephillah. From palal (to judge for oneself or in an official capacity; to pray or make supplication, to entreat). This is prayer or intercession. It can also be a hymn.
^VII “God” = Elohim.
^VIII “hide” = alam. This is to conceal, cover from sight in a literal or figurative sense. Could be to escape, liar, neglect, or secret thing.
^IX “supplication” = techinnah. From chanan (beseech, show favor, be gracious; properly, to bend in kindness to someone with less status). This is grace, favor, entreaty, mercy.

^X “attend” = qashab. To listen, pay attention to, incline – used in the phrase incline the ears.
^XI “answer” = anah. This is answer, respond, announce, sing, shout, or testify. It means to pay attention, which implies responding and, by extension, starting to talk. Used in a specific sense for singing, shouting, testifying, etc.
^XII “troubled” = rud. 4x in OT. This is to roam, break loose, be troubled, be restless, mourn. It is to wander in the sense of being free or inconsolable.
^XIII “complaint” = siach. 13x in OT. Perhaps from siyach (to muse, meditate, complain, sing, sigh, speak, or utter). This is a musing, concern, communication, or prayer.

^XIV “distraught” = hum. 5x in OT. This is to roar, murmur, cause an uproar, agitate, be distraught. It is to defeat in battle, destroy.
^XV “noise” = qol. This is a sound, used often for human voices. Also used when God speaks or angels, animals or instruments. It can be a cry or a noise, thunder or earthquakes and so on.
^XVI “enemy” = oyeb. From ayab (to hate or be hostile to). This is a foe or enemy as one that you are hostile to.

^XVII “because” = paneh. From panah (to turn, face, appear). This is face in a literal or figurative sense. It could be face, presence, anger, respect. It can also be used of God to indicate divine favor or presence.
^XVIII “clamor” = aqah. 1x in OT. From uq (to totter, weigh down, be pressed). This is pressure, restriction, or oppression.
^XIX “wicked” = rasha. This is morally wrong so it refers to someone who is actively bad as wicked, criminal, an evil person, offender, condemned, or ungodly.

^XX “bring” = mot. This is to shake, slip, falter, stagger, move, fall, give way, waver, be carried.
^XXI “trouble” = aven. Root may mean panting as one does when expending a lot of energy, especially when it comes to nothing. This is nothingness, trouble, sorrow, distress, wickedness, evil, harm, sorrow, misfortune, and mischief. It is also used specifically to refer to idols.
^XXII “anger” = aph. From anaph (to be angry; properly, breathing hard as a signifier of being enraged). This properly refers to the nose or nostril and by extension the face. It can specifically refer to anger or wrath as one breathes hard and nostrils flare in times of great anger.
^XXIII “cherish enmity” = satam. 6x in OT. 2x in the Joseph cycle – Gen 49:23 in Jacob’s blessing they shot at Joseph and pressed him hard & Gen 50:15 when the brothers wonder if Joseph still bears a grudge against them; also Genesis 27:41 where Esau hated Jacob. This is to have a grudge or hate. Properly, it means lying in wait for so to persecute or oppose.

^XXIV “heart” = leb. May be related to labab (to encourage; properly, to be encased as with fat; used in a good sense, this means to transport someone with love; used in a bad sense, it can mean to dull one’s senses). This is the heart, courage, one’s inner self, the mind, or the will. Heart is only used in a figurative sense in the Old and New Testaments.
^XXV “is in anguish” = chul. This is whirling around so dancing as in a circle or writhing in pain. It is used particularly for the pain of childbirth or from writhing due to fear. It can also be falling in pain or waiting.
^XXVI “within” = qereb. Perhaps from qarab (to come near or approach). This is among, in the midst, before, the center It is the inward part, whether literal or figurative. It can also be used for the heart, the site of thoughts and feelings. This word is also used as a technical term for the entrails of the animals who are sacrificed.

^XXVII “terrors” = emah. 17x in OT. From the same as ayom (dreadful, frightful, awesome). This is terror, fright, horror, fearsome, idol.
^XXVIII “death” = mavet. From muth (to die in a literal or figurative sense). This can be death, deadliness, the dead, or the place where the dead go. It can be used figuratively for pestilence or ruin.
^XXIX “fallen” = naphal. This is to fall, whether by accident, to fall prostrate, or to fall in violent death. Figuratively, it can refer to personal ruin or calamity, a city falling, an attack or a falling away. It can also be a deep sleep or wasting away.

^XXX “fear” = yirah. From yare (to fear, be afraid, dreadful; also fearful reverence – to fear in a moral sense is to say to revere, respect). This is fear or reverence.
^XXXI “trembling” = ra’ad. 5x in OT. From ra’ad (to tremble or shudder with more or less force). This is trembling or quaking.
^XXXII “horror” = pallatsuth. 4x in OT. From palats (to tremble, rend, quiver). This is shuddering or trembling – hence, horror or fear.
^XXXIII “overwhelms” = kasah. This is to cover, conceal, overwhelm. It is to cover as clothes do or to hide a secret.

^XXXIV “wings” = eber. 3x in OT. From the same as abar (to fly or soar). This is wings or pinions.
^XXXV “dove” = yonah. Perhaps from yayin (wine; root means to effervesce). This is a dove or pigeon. Used to refer to the exiles coming home, to describe sails of ships. Also used figuratively for mourning or as a description of beauty.
^XXXVI “fly away” = uph. This is to fly, flee, be weary. It can also mean to cloak with wings or darkness.
^XXXVII “be at rest” = shakan. This is to settle down in the sense of residing somewhere or staying there permanently. It can mean abide or continue. “Mishkan,” taken from this verb, is the Hebrew word for the Tabernacle (as a place where God abided).

^XXXVIII “truly” = hinneh. From hen (lo! Behold! If, though; an expression of surprise). This is to draw attention, show suddenness or surprise, or to emphasize the importance of the coming statement. See! Lo! Behold!
^XXXIX “flee” = nadad. This is to wave back and forth. Figuratively, it is to flee, stray, flutter chase away, shake, or shrink. It can also refer to a fugitive.
^XL “lodge” = luwn. This is to stay somewhere, usually for the night. It can mean abide, dwell, or endure. By implication, it can mean staying somewhere permanently. Taken in a negative sense, this would mean obstinance, particularly verbal. So, it can also mean murmur, grudge, or complaining.
^XLI “wilderness” = midbar. From dabar (to speak, command, declare). This is mouth or speech. It can also be desert or wilderness. Additionally, it can be used for a pasture to which one drives cattle.
^XLII “Selah” = selah. From salal (to lift up, build, pile, extol, exalt; can also be used for opposing as a dam holds back water). This is to lift up or exalt. Also, “selah” in the psalms where its precise meaning is uncertain. It could be a pause in the music, a moment of silence. It could signal a change in the service or mean something akin to amen.

^XLIII “hurry” = chush. This is to hurry, be eager.
^XLIV “find a shelter” = miphlat. 1x in OT. From palat (to escape, slip out, deliver, calve). This is an escape i.e. a place in which one finds refuge.
^XLV “raging” = saah. 1x in OT. This is stormy, rushing like a wind in a storm
^XLVI “wind” = ruach. This is breath, wind, air, cool, spirit. This is wind, which resembles the breath and so this can be used figuratively for life itself or being frail/mortal/impermanent. It can refer to the air of the sky or the spirit.
^XLVII “tempest” = saar. From sa’ar (to storm, scattered by a storm, blow away, rage, storm tossed; this is to toss in a literal or figurative sense). This is a storm or whirlwind. It can also be stormy.

^XLVIII “confuse” = bala. This is to swallow, engulf, cover, or destroy.
^XLIX “Lord” = Adonai. From adon (lord, master, owner); root means to rule or be sovereign. This is the actual Hebrew word for Lord used (in a different form) of humans and (in the present form) of God. It means someone who is in control.
^L “confound” = palag. 4x in OT. This is to split or divide in a literal or figurative sense.
^LI “speech” = lashon. This is tongue, talker, language, or wedge. It can also be a tongue of flame or a water cove.

^LII “see” = raah. This is to see in a literal or figurative sense so stare, advise, think, view.
^LIII “violence” = chamas. From chamas (to violate, do violence, to wrong; implies mistreatment). This is violence, cruelty, damage, wrong, injustice, or unrighteous. Violence implies a wrong done. The term is also used to describe unjust gain.
^LIV “strife” = rib. From rib (properly to toss or grapple; used figuratively to mean wrangling and so for arguments, complaints, or disputes; used in a legal setting for pleading or defending a case). This is strife or dispute – whether a personal one or one in a court of law.
^LV “city” = iyr. From uwr (to awaken or wake oneself up). This can mean excitement in the sense of wakefulness or city. Properly, this is a place that is guarded. Guards kept schedules according to watches. This sense of the word would include cities as well as encampments or posts that were guarded.

^LVI “night” = layil. Properly, this refers to light twisting away. It is used for night or midnight. Figuratively, this can mean adversity.
^LVII “go around” = sabab. This is turning around, going around; to surround, cast, walk, fetch. It is to revolve or border in a literal or figurative sense.
^LVIII “walls” = chomah. From the same as cham (father-in-law – one’s husband’s father; perhaps from a root meaning to join). This is a wall – a wall as used for protection.
^LIX “iniquity” = aven. Same as “trouble” in v3. See note XXI above.
^LX “trouble” = amal. From amal (to work – hard labor). This is trouble, toil, labor as well as misery, sorrow, or iniquity. It is work that wearies through effort so hence worry – can refer to body or mind.

^LXI “ruin” = havvah. 15x in OT. From havah (to become, get); from hava’ (to fall, become). This is a chasm, emptiness, or deep pit. It can be destruction or calamity. It can also be greed, craving, or mischief. It implies falling and ruin.
^LXII “midst” = qereb. Same as “within” in v4. See note XXVI above.
^LXIII “oppression” = tok. 3x in OT. Perhaps from the same as tavek (among, middle, in the midst, center; perhaps properly to sever). This is injury, deceit, or oppression.
^LXIV “fraud” = mirmah. From ramah (to betray, deceive, beguile). This is deceit, treachery, guile, or fraud.
^LXV “depart” = mush. Perhaps from the same as muwsh (to touch, handle). This is to depart, take away, stop. It is to withdraw in a literal or figurative sense.
^LXVI “marketplace” = rechob. From rachab (to grow wide or enlarge in a literal or figurative sense; extend, relieve, rejoice, or speak boldly). This is a wide, open place like a plaza, square, or avenue.

^LXVII “taunt” = charaph. This is to expose and so figuratively to reproach, defame, carp at, defy. It can also mean spend the winter or betroth.
^LXVIII “bear” = nasa. This to lift in a broad sense, literally and figuratively. So it could be to carry, take, or arise. It could also be bring forth, advance, accept.
^LXIX “adversaries” = sane. This is an enemy or foe. It is one that is hated with a personal hatred.
^LXX “deal insolently” = gadal. This is to grow up, become great, become wealthy – to advance. The root meaning may be to twist in the sense of the process of growing.
^LXXI “hide” = sathar. This is hide, conceal, or be absent. It is hiding because something is covered – used in a literal or figurative sense.

^LXXII {untranslated} = enosh. From anash (to be weak, sick, or frail). This is human, humankind, another. It is mortal.
^LXXIII “equal” = erek. From arak (to arrange by setting in a row; to set a battle, estimate, put in order, or compare). This is order, arrangement, price, estimate, value. It refers to something that is brought into order.
^LXXIV “companion” = alluph. From alaph (to learn, speak, associate with). This is a friend, something gentle like a tame bull. It can also refer to someone who is noble or a leader like a captain, guide, or governor.
^LXXV “familiar friend” = yada. This is to know, acknowledge, advise, answer, be aware, be acquainted with. Properly, this is to figure something out by seeing. It includes ideas of observation, recognition, and care about something. It can be used causatively for instruction, designation, and punishment.

^LXXVI “with” = yachad. From yachad (to join, be united). This is a unit, both, altogether, unitedness, alike.
^LXXVII “kept pleasant” = mathoq. 5x in OT. This is to be sweet, sweeten, become pleasant, cover, to suck, to relish.
^LXXVIII “company” = sod. Perhaps from yasad (to establish, appoint, instruct; to set in a literal or figurative sense; also, to sit down together and so to consult or take counsel). This is a session, counsel, or assembly. It can also mean a consultation.

^LXXIX “walked” = halak. This is go, come, walk. It is walk literally and figuratively and includes people and animals. It can be used figuratively for one’s moral life – how we walk according to God’s way or against it. It can also refer to the walk of life as in the course one’s life takes, the choices we make, etc.
^LXXX “house” = bayit. Probably from banah (to build, make, set up, obtain children; to build literally or figuratively). This is house, court, family, palace, temple.
^LXXXI “throng” = regesh. 2x in OT. From ragash (to be in an uproar, in tumult, to rage). This is a crowd that is in an uproar – a throng or an insurrection.

^LXXXII “let death come” = yeshimah. Related to “death” in v4. 1x in OT. From mavet (see note XXVIII above) OR from yasham (to lay waste, strip). This is desolation, death coming.
^LXXXIII “go down” = yarad. This is to go down, descend; going down in a literal or figurative sense. It can be going to the shore or a boundary, bringing down an enemy.
^LXXXIV “alive” = chay. From chayah (to live or keep alive literally or figuratively). This is alive, living, lifetime. It can also be used to describe someone’s age. It can refer to animals, plants, water, or a company or congregation of people. It is life in a very broad sense.
^LXXXV “Sheol” = Sheol. Perhaps from sha’al (to ask, request). This is the place where the dead go, the grace, the underworld.

^LXXXVI “evil” = ra’. From ra’a’ (to be evil, bad, afflict; properly, to spoil – to destroy by breaking into pieces; figuratively, to cause something to be worthless; this is bad in a physical, social, or moral sense; that which displeases, to do harm or mischief, to punish or vex). This is bad, disagreeable, that which causes pain, misery, something having little or no value, something that is ethically bad, wicked, injury, calamity. This refers to anything that is not what it ought to be – a natural disaster, a disfigurement, an injury, a sin.
^LXXXVII “homes” = magor. Perhaps from gur (properly, the act of turning off the road for any reason; sojourning, becoming a guest; can mean being fearful since one is outside of home territory; also dwelling, living, or inhabiting if one has turned off the root to encamp for a longer duration). This is a dwelling place, a temporary lodging. It can also mean to be fearful as one might be in a strange place.
^LXXXVIII “in their hearts” = qereb. Same as “within” in v4. See note XXVI above.

^LXXXIX “call” = qara. This is to call or call out – to call someone by name. Also used more broadly for calling forth.
^XC “Lord” = YHVH. Related to “ruin” in v11. From havah (see note LXI above) or hayah (to come to pass, become, be). This is the name of the God of Israel, the self-existent and eternal one, the tetragrammaton. This pronunciation has been lost to time so “Lord” is generally used in its place.
^XCI “save” = yasha. To deliver, defend, help, preserve, rescue, be safe. Properly, to be open, wide or free, which implies being safe. Used causatively, it means to free.

^XCII “morning” = boqer. From baqar (to seek, plow, break forth, admire, care for). This refers to the break of day. So it is dawn, early, morning, or morrow.
^XCIII “noon” = tsohar. From tsahar (pressing oil, glistening); from yitshar (fresh oil, anointed; oil as that which is burned to make light; used figuratively to talk about anointing). This is a light, window, or midday.
^XCIV “utter my complain” = siach. Related to “complaint” in v2. See note XIII above.
^XCV “moan” = hamah. This is to growl or roar, be disturbed, mourn, yearn. It is being noisy so it can imply tumult, rage, war.
^XCVI “hear” = shama. This is to hear, call, consent, or consider. It implies listening intelligently, giving attention, and, because of these two factors, obedience and action are often implied.
^XCVII “voice” = qol. Same as “noise” in v3. See note XV above.

^XCVIII “redeem” = padah. This is to sever, which is to say to ransom. To secure someone’s release (by paying their debt to free them from slavery) and thus redeem, rescue, deliver, preserve. Can also be the redemption price.
^XCIX “me” = nephesh. Related to naphash (to refresh or be refreshed). This is soul, self, person, emotion. It is a breathing creature. Can also refer to appetites and desires.
^C “unharmed” = shalom. From shalam (to be complete or sound; to have safety mentally, physically, or extending to one’s estate; so, if these things are safe and complete, the implication is that one would be friendly; and, if being friendly, one would make amends and that friendship would be reciprocated). This is completeness, soundness, welfare, favor, friend, good health. It is to be safe and figuratively well, happy, at peace, friendly. Abstractly, it includes the ideas of welfare and prosperity (not in excessive wealth, but in having enough).
^CI “battle” = qerab. Perhaps related to “within” in v4. 9x in OT. From qarab (see note XXVI above). This is a violent encounter, battle.

^CII “God” = El. Related to “God” in v1. See note VII above.
^CIII “enthroned” = yashab. This is to sit and so to remain and so to dwell. It is sitting for any reason – as a judge, in order to ambush, or just sitting quietly. Causatively, this can mean settling or marrying. This can also mean continue, endure, or establish.
^CIV “of old” = qedem. Perhaps from qadam (to come in front or be in front; to meet, anticipate, confront, receive, or rise; sometimes to meet for help). This is front, formerly, before, east, eternal, everlasting, antiquity.
^CV “humble” = anah. This is to be bowed down. It can refer to a sense of humility or to a sense of being browbeaten, oppressed, afflicted, or depressed. This can be literal or figurative – depressed in mood or circumstance.

^CVI “change” = chaliphah. 12x in OT. From chalaph (to slide by or rush like a flood; to pass through, change, sprout, renew, break a promise, pierce, or violate). This is a change, alternation, release, shift, change of clothing.
^CVII “fear” = yare. Related to “fear” in v5. See note XXX above.
^CVIII “God” = Elohim. Same as “God” in v1. See note VII above.

^CIX “laid” = shalach. This is to send out, away, send for, forsake. It can also mean to divorce or set a slave free.
^CX “hands” = yad. This is hand, ability, power. Hand in a literal sense, but also what one can do or the means by which one does it.
^CXI “friend” = shalom. Same as “unharmed” in v18. See note C above.
^CXII “violated” = chalal. This is to pierce, which implies to wound. It is used figuratively for making someone or something profane or breaking your word. It can also mean to begin as though one opened a wedge. Also, to eat something as a common thing.
^CXIII “covenant” = berit. Perhaps from barah (to eat, choose, make clear); perhaps from bar (grain, wheat); from bara (to select, purify, cleanse, test, brighten, polish). This is a compact, covenant, alliance, treaty, or league.

^CXIV “speech” = peh. This is mouth in a literal or figurative sense. So, more literally, it can be beak or jaws. More figuratively, it refers to speech, commands, or promises.
^CXV “smoother” = chalaq. This is to be smooth in a figurative sense. So, it can refer to the stones that were part of casting lots – hence, apportion, share, distribute. Figuratively, it can also mean to flatter.
^CXVI “butter” = machamaah. Perhaps related to “walls” in v10. 1x in OT. Perhaps from chem’ah (curd, butter, cheese); from the same as chomah (see note LVIII above). This is butter or something made from curd. It can also mean pleasant or flattery.
^CXVII “war” = qerab. Same as “battle” in v18. See note CI above.

^CXVIII “words” = dabar. Related to “wilderness” in v7. From dabar (see note XLI above). This is speech, a word, a matter, an affair, charge, command, message, promise, purpose, report, request. It is a word, which implies things that are spoken of in a wide sense.
^CXIX “were softer” = rakak. 8x in OT. This is to be tender, soft, faint, weak. It is to soften or mollify.
^CXX “oil” = shemen. From shamen (to shine, which implies being oily, growing fat). This is fat, oil, grease, olive oil – often with perfume. Used figuratively for fertile, lavish, rich.
^CXXI “drawn swords” = pethichah. 1x in OT. From pathach (to open wide in a literal or figurative sense; open, draw out, let something go free, break forth; to plow, engrave, or carve). This is something that is open like a sword that is drawn.

^CXXII “cast” = shalak. This is to throw, fling, or hurl. It can also be to throw away in a literal or figurative sense.
^CXXIII “burden” = yehab. 1x in OT. From yahab (to give, put, bring, take; to give in a literal or figurative sense). This is something that is given – a lot or burden as given by fate.
^CXXIV “sustain” = kul. This is to hold in. So, it can be to contain, measure, guide, or feed. It can also mean to be able to or sustain.

^CXXV “never” = lo… + olam. Lo is not. Olam is a long scope of time whether in the past (antiquity, ancient time) or in the future (eternal, everlasting).
^CXXVI “permit” = natan. This is to give, put, set, offer. It is to give literally or figuratively.
^CXXVII “righteous” = tsaddiq. From the same as tsedeq (rightness, righteousness, just cause, vindication; that which is right in a natural, moral, or legal sense; abstractly equity; figuratively prosperity). This is just, innocent, righteous, righteous one, or lawful.
^CXXVIII “be moved” = mot. Same as “bring” in v3. See note XX above.

^CXXIX “God” = Elohim. Same as “God” in v1. See note VII above.
^CXXX “cast…down” = yarad. Same as “go down” in v15. See note LXXXIII above.
^CXXXI “lowest” = shachath. From shuach (to bow or sink down in a literal or figurative sense, humble). This is ditch, trap, grave, or hole. Figuratively, it could be destruction or corruption.
^CXXXII “pit” = beer. From baar (to make plain; to dig; can also mean to engrave or figuratively to explain). This is a well or pit.

^CXXXIII “bloodthirsty” = enosh + dam. Literally “men of blood.” Enosh is the same as {untranslated} in v13. See note LXXII above. Dam is perhaps from damam (to cease, be or become mute, silent, still, cut off, hold peace, be astonished, die). This is blood, bloodshed, bloodguilt, lifeblood, and death. It is used for people and animals. More often blood from a wound or the blood of the innocent. Used figuratively for violence or for wine. Closely tied to life and death.
^CXXXIV “treacherous” = mirmah. Same as “fraud” in v11. See note LXIV above.
^CXXXV “live out half” = chatsah. 15x in OT. This is to halve, divide, reach, participate.
^CXXXVI “trust” = batach. This is to hide for refuge, be secure or sure. Figuratively, it refers to trust, being confident, or hoping.