Psalm 35 verse 20 - Prepare For And/Or Deal With Evil Now...

The 35th Psalm is about dealing with evil.

The 20th verse says "Ki lo shalom yidabeiru, v'al rigei eretz mirmos yaichashaivun." "For it is not peace that they speak, and against the broken people of the earth they scheme deceitfully."

"Rigei eretz" literally "the broken people of the earth" - The commentators give various explanations of these words... 'David's followers' according to Sforno, according to Radak 'Those who rest peacefully in the earth' (based on the word rigei being related to margoa, rest). According to Targum: 'They deceitfully scheme to say false things about the righteous men who have come to their eternal rest in the Hereafter.' The Alshich says it's Samuel who was no longer living at that time.

But the Kotzker Rebbe points out that rigei can also be explained as 'minutes' - The minute that passed is gone. Your life may pass and you may not see the next minute. Therefore think of the purpose of the present moment. Yet, instead of doing this, people devise deceitful matters at this very moment.