Psalms 139:20

For they speak. — Better, Who rebel against thee. This is actually the reading of the fifth of the Greek translations preserved by Origen, and entails only a change of the vowel pointing.

And thine enemies. — The state of the text is unsatisfactory. The subject to the verb must be that of the last clause, and the rendering “enemies” of a word properly meaning cities is very doubtful, in spite of 1 Samuel 28:16 (but Aquila has “rivals,” and Symmachus” adversaries”), where there is also a textual correction required.

Of the various proposed emendations, the simplest produces

“And rise up against them in vain.”