Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 9:20

"Put them in fear, O Jehovah: Let the nations know themselves to be but men. Selah" — Psalms 9:20 (ASV)

Put them in fear. —There is a difficulty about the reading. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac read “place a lawgiver or master over them.” So Syriac, “law.” Hitzig conjectures, “set a guard upon them.” With the present reading, the rendering should apparently be, put a terror upon them: i.e., “give such a proof of power as to trouble and subdue them.”