Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 31:13

"For I have heard the defaming of many, Terror on every side: While they took counsel together against me, They devised to take away my life." — Psalms 31:13 (ASV)

Again, compare Jeremiah 20:10, which reproduces word for word the first two clauses. The expression rendered “fear on every side” was actually a motto of the prophet (Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:3 (margin); Jeremiah 46:5; Jeremiah 49:29. Compare Lamentations 2:22). But the most probable derivation makes the noun mean not terror but conspiracy, while for slander here we must render whisper.

“For I heard the whispering of the many,
‘Conspiracy all around.’”

Under cover of a pretended general panic they were really, as the psalmist saw, plotting evil against him.