Psalms 139:20

(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.”