Figurative

Metaphor

v.9ab. The image of a pathway (דֶּרֶךְ) maps onto Yahweh's righteousness. This metaphorical mapping is suggested by the parallelism (בצדקתך // דרכך). Yahweh's pathway (=lifestyle) is characterized by righteousness and justice (cf. Gen. 18:19). The psalmist (the king) asks to be guided along this pathway (=that his life and reign would align with Yahweh's characteristic righteousness), because it is the righteous (צדיק) whom Yahweh blesses. The pathway imagery here at the heart of Psalm 5 forges one of several links with Psalm 1.
v.10b. The image of "destructive ruin" (הַוּוֹת) maps onto the "insides" (קרב) of the psalmist's enemies.
v.10c. The image of an open grave (קבר פתוח), an image that connotes death, ritual uncleanness, and a foul stench, maps onto the "throat" (גרון) of the psalmist's enemies. Their words are thus like the unclean odor exuded by a rotting corpse.
v.12 Yahweh is a refuge (v.12ac).,

v.13b. Yahweh is compared to "the shield" (כַּצִּנָּה) – this generic use of the article is common in similes. The צִנָּה was a "long, oblong shield. It was about the height of a man since it was intended to protect the entire body."^[1] In this respect, the צִנָּה differed from the smaller מָגֵן (cf. Ps.3:4). In Ps. 5:13, the image of a shield (צִנָּה) "connotes encompassing protection"^[2] and maps onto Yahweh as the protector of the righteous.,

v.10. The various body-parts in v.10 are related metonymically to the act of speaking. Speech originates as a thought inside a person (קרב), proceeds through the throat (גרון) and out of the mouth (פה) by way of the tongue (לשׁון). The psalmist declares that each of these parts, and thus the speech of his enemies from beginning to end, is corrupt. The various images are presented in a chiastic arrangement.
- v.10a. "Mouth" (פֶּה) is metonymic for speech.
- v.10b. "Insides" (קֶרֶב) are metonymic for the "the inner psychological and spiritual core of a person"^[3] (LXX: καρδία) which is the seat of that person's thoughts (see Jer. 4:14). What comes out of the "mouth" (10a) and the "tongue" (10d) begins inside a person (10b).
- v.10c. "Throat" or "windpipe" (גָּרוֹן) is associated with a person's voice (Isa. 58:1; Ps.69:4; 115:7). In Ps. 5:10, the "throat" is the point at which the thoughts of a person's inner being (10b) begins to be articulated into sound.
- v.10d. "Tongue" (לָשׁוֹן) is metonymic for speech. The smoothness of their tongues (חלק) is metonymic for flattery.,

v.5b. The adjective רַע, which functions as a substantive, may refer to "an evil person" (so LXX, πονηρευόμενος). Alternatively, this may be an instance of personification. "Evil (רע) may not sojourn" with Yahweh.,

Anthropatheia

↑ Ray Pritz, The Works of Their Hands: Man-made things in the Bible (New York: UBS), 102.
↑ William Brown, Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 199.
↑ Leland Ryken, James Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., "Inner, Inside, Within," in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove: IVP, 1998), 424.