Enemies pictured as nighttime prowlers

These lines sit inside a complaint-prayer where the speaker asks for protection from violent opponents and portrays their behavior in vivid images. The “evening” return suggests repeated, ongoing harassment rather than a single moment. The city-prowling picture turns the enemies into a public, roaming danger, not a private quarrel. The focus then tightens from movement (prowling) to speech (what spills from their mouths), showing that their words function as weapons. The direct quote at the end exposes their attitude: they assume their threats can be made safely and in the dark.

The imagery fits life in an ancient walled town, where nighttime could amplify fear: light was limited, streets were quiet, and roaming scavenger dogs were common. Calling people “dogs” evokes not pets but half-wild animals associated with hunger, aggression, and noise. “Prowl around the city” suggests a hostile presence moving through public space, whether by armed men, informers, or gangs. The enemies’ confidence that “who hears us?” reflects a social world where power, secrecy, and lack of witnesses could let intimidation flourish, especially after dark.

Shared ground

Psalm 59:6–7 portrays the speaker’s enemies through a nighttime picture: they “return at evening,” sound like hungry street dogs, and roam the city looking for an opening. This is not a quiet, private conflict; it feels public, repeated, and hard to escape.

The image then narrows from movement to speech. The enemies’ talk “spews” out—uncontrolled and aggressive—and their words are compared to “swords,” meaning their speech is meant to cut, wound, and intimidate. The closing line (“who hears us?”) shows their confidence that they can threaten or slander without consequences.

Where interpretation differs

1) Is “they return at evening” a description or a wish? Some read it as reporting what happens night after night (their harassment keeps coming back). Others take it as the speaker’s wording that effectively calls for the enemies to be sent back again and again in frustration, which fits how later lines in the psalm reuse the “return” language.

2) What does “who hears us?” mean? Some take it mainly as “no witnesses are around,” stressing secrecy and the cover of darkness. Others take it as “no authority will act,” stressing arrogance that no one—human or divine—will hold them accountable.

Why the disagreement exists

The wording can naturally be read either as a straightforward description (“they come back every evening”) or as a line that can function like a wish (“let them keep returning”) depending on how one hears the verb. Also, “who hears?” can point either to the lack of human listeners at night or to a broader belief that no one who matters will respond.

What this passage clearly contributes

Explicitly, the text claims (1) repeated nighttime harassment, (2) enemies compared to loud, prowling dogs, (3) city-wide searching, and (4) weapon-like speech that spills out recklessly and assumes safety from exposure. Theological inference built from those claims is that the psalm treats harmful speech as real violence and views secrecy-driven intimidation as a moral problem, not merely a social annoyance—especially when perpetrators act as if they are beyond oversight (compare the broader biblical theme that God hears hidden speech, e.g., Psalm 139:4).