Translations
Scatter them into confusion, O Lord—confound their speech!
For I see nothing but violence and bitter strife filling the city.
Confound them, O Adonai—divide their tongues!
For I see violence and strife in the city.
Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
Footnotes
The verb pallag (divide/split tongues) unmistakably echoes the Tower of Babel narrative (Gen 11:1–9; cf. Peleg, 'division,' Gen 10:25), where YHWH scattered conspirators by confusing their language. The psalmist calls God to repeat that same judgment on the city's wicked. The preceding verb balla' (confound/swallow up) may additionally evoke the fate of Korah's company, swallowed by the earth for treachery within the covenant community (Num 16:32). Also significant: the word chamas (violence) is the precise term used to describe the corruption that triggered the Flood (Gen 6:11)—the psalmist is seeing Noah's world replicated in his city. F.O.G preserves 'Confound them… divide their tongues' to echo Babel directly; F.O.G.M 'scatter them into confusion' makes the typological resonance accessible without requiring prior knowledge.

