Sunday, June 7, 2026

Psalm 55:4

When I read Psalm 55 in German, I noticed a pair of synonyms in verse 5:  "Mein Herz ängstet sich in meinem Leibe, und Todesfurcht ist auf mich gefallen."  "Ängstet sich" and "Todesfurcht" both mean fear (first as a verb and then as a noun, "fear of death" specifically).  In the ESV, however (where this is verse 4), it's translated as "My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me."  That the descriptions of these two fears (or "anguish" and "terrors") encompass both the internal ("in meinem Leibe" "within me" [literally "in my body"]) and the external ("auf mich" "upon me") provides a sense of totality.

In the Latin Vulgate, these phrases are "in vitalibus meis" ("in my vitals," akin to the Hebrew בְּקִרְבִּי) and "super me" ("upon me," עָלָֽי).