Psalms 52

 Hear how Tate translates this. His volume was published on September 29, 2015. 

Why Bring about evil, you hero!
God's loyal-love does not cease.

Why does your tongue plot destruction,
like a sharpened razor, you con-man!

You love evil more than good,
a lie more than speaking the truth, Selah.

You love every cruel word,
and a deceitful tongue.

Therefore God will ruin you completely.
He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent,
He will root you out from the land of the living. Selah.

My first reaction is that I am not very fond of this style of translation or of the choices in gloss, but the sentiment is not lost. How long have we wrestled with truth and falsehood. And now here is a psalm, the next in line in the book I found on the shelf, where the same struggle is noted from ancient time.

Compare with my translation. Note the antecedent of the pronoun in the 7th verse. It is the tongue that is personified. This bird can no longer tweet. Its tongue has been extirpated. (Why extirpate? Because it is a root used only 6 times in the Scripture. So I use extirpate only 6 times.)

spr thlim

Book of Psalms

nb

52

a

lmnxk mwcil ldvid.

1

For the leader. An insight of David.

b

bboa doag hadomi vigd lwaul,
viamr lo,
ba dvid al-bit akimlç.

2

In comes Doeg the Edomite and he makes it clear to Saul,
saying to him,
David goes to the house of Ahimelech.

g

mh-tthll bryh hgibor?
ksd al cl-hiom.

3

Why do you boast in evil, O valiant one?
The kindness of God is all the day long.

d

huot tkwob lwonç,
ctyr mlu'tw yowh rmiih.

4

Calamities your tongue devises,
like a honed razor that acts with deceit.

h

ahbt ry m'tob,
wqr mdbr xdq slh.

5

You love evil over good,
falsehood over a matter of righteousness. Selah.

v

ahbt cl-dbri-bly lwon mrmh.

6

You love to swallow up all sorts of things, tongue of deceit.

z

gm-al iitoxç lnxk.
iktç viiskç maohl,
vwirwç marx kiim slh.

7

But God will break off even you in perpetuity.
He will take hold of you and extirpate you from your tent,
and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.

k

virau xdiqim viirau vyliv iwkqu.

8

And the-many righteous will see and fear, and they will laugh at him.

't

hnh hgbr la iwim alohim myuzo,
vib'tk brob yowro,
iyoz bhvvto.

9

So this is the valiant one who did not set up God as his strength,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
and strengthened himself in his own calamity.

i

vani czit rynn bbit alohim.
b'tkti bksd-alohim yolm vyd.

10

But I am like an olive tree, green in the house of God.
I trust in God's kindness now and for ever.

ia

aodç lyolm ci ywit,
vaqvvh wmç ci-'tob ngd ksidiç.

11

I will thank you forever for you have acted,
and I await your name for it is good, made clear to those under your mercy.

For the full prosody, study the music.