Translations
For strangers have risen against me; ruthless men hunt my life—they have not set God before their eyes.
Selah.
For strangers have risen up against me, and violent men seek my nephesh—they have not set Elohim before them.
Selah.
For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them.
Selah.
For strangers rise up against me, and ruthless men seek my life—men with no regard for God.
Selah
Footnotes
Zarim ("strangers") here likely refers not to ethnic outsiders but to those who have made themselves alien to covenant loyalty—men estranged from God's ways. Aritsim ("violent men") carries the force of tyrants driven by brute power and devoid of moral restraint. Nephesh commonly rendered "soul" literally means "throat," the seat of breath, desire, and vitality; to seek someone's nephesh is to hunt their very life-force. FOG retains nephesh to honor this embodied semantic range; FOG Message uses "life" for natural readability. Selah is preserved in both versions as an untranslatable liturgical marker, most likely signalling a musical pause for meditation.

