Translations
Let death ambush them;
Let them descend to Sheol while still breathing;
For evil fills their homes;
And their very hearts.
Let death seize them;
Let them go down to Sheol alive;
For evil is in their very dwelling;
And within them!
Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes.
Footnotes
The opening verb (יַשִּׁי, yashshi) is textually difficult—its precise root is debated, with proposals ranging from nasha (to deceive/beguile) to sha'ah (to desolate). The LXX reads 'let death come upon them,' and most modern translations follow the general sense of death overtaking them suddenly or treacherously. The imprecation 'let them go down to Sheol alive' almost certainly echoes the fate of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num 16:30–33), swallowed alive for treachery within the covenant community—a typological precedent the psalmist invokes for his own betrayers. Sheol is the realm of the dead, not hell in the New Testament sense but the shadowy underworld where life and covenant belong to YHWH. Both translations retain Sheol untranslated to honor its distinct cosmological weight.

