Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageBut I am like a man who cannot hear — like someone with nothing to say in his own defense.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GBut I am like a deaf man — I do not hear; and like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
KJV
King James VersionBut I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleBut like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth.
Footnotes
The psalmist's silence before his accusers is strategic, not pathological. Like a *cheresh* (deaf man) and an *illem* (mute), he refuses to enter the fray — his only defence is YHWH (v.15). This silence anticipates the Servant of Isaiah 53:7 ("he did not open his mouth") and ultimately Yeshua/Jesus standing silent before His accusers at trial. The rhetorical move is deliberate: in a courtroom culture where silence meant guilt, the psalmist's silence is an act of radical trust. FOG preserves the double simile structure for its rhetorical force; FOG Message draws out the defensive implication.
