Mazmur 7:10

7:10 The Exalted God is my shield, ¹ 

the one who delivers the morally upright. ² 

Mazmur 9:17

9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; ³ 

this is the destiny of ⁴  all the nations that ignore ⁵  God,

Mazmur 11:5

11:5 The Lord approves of ⁶  the godly, ⁷ 

but he ⁸  hates ⁹  the wicked and those who love to do violence. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 37:20

37:20 But ¹¹  evil men will die;

the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated ¹²  –

they will go up in smoke. ¹³ 

Mazmur 73:27

73:27 Yes, ¹⁴  look! Those far from you ¹⁵  die;

you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 94:23

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin. ¹⁷ 

He will destroy them because of ¹⁸  their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Mazmur 106:43

106:43 Many times he delivered ¹⁹  them,

but they had a rebellious attitude, ²⁰ 

and degraded themselves ²¹  by their sin.

Mazmur 112:10

112:10 When the wicked ²²  see this, they will worry;

they will grind their teeth in frustration ²³  and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 140:12

140:12 I know ²⁵  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ²⁶ 

Amsal 14:32

14:32 The wicked will be thrown down in his trouble, ²⁷ 

but the righteous have refuge ²⁸  even in the threat of death. ²⁹ 

Amsal 24:16

24:16 Although ³⁰  a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again,

but the wicked will be brought down ³¹  by calamity.

[7:10]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “my shield is upon God” (cf. NASB). As in v. 8, עַל (’al) should be understood as a divine title, here compounded with “God” (cf. NIV, “God Most High”). See M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:45-46. The shield metaphor pictures God as a protector against deadly attacks.

[7:10]  ² tn Heb “pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

[9:17]  ³ tn Heb “the wicked turn back to Sheol.” The imperfect verbal form either emphasizes what typically happens or describes vividly the aftermath of the Lord’s victory over the psalmist’s enemies. See v. 3.

[9:17]  ⁴ tn The words “this is the destiny of” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The verb “are turned back” is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[9:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “forget.” “Forgetting God” refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see also Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 44:20). The nations’ refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty accounts for their brazen attempt to attack and destroy his people.

[11:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “examines,” the same verb used in v. 4b. But here it is used in a metonymic sense of “examine and approve” (see Jer 20:12).

[11:5]  ⁷ tn The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form “pure (of heart)” in v. 2.

[11:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “his [very] being.” A נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, soul”) is also attributed to the Lord in Isa 1:14, where a suffixed form of the noun appears as the subject of the verb “hate.” Both there and here the term is used of the seat of one’s emotions and passions.

[11:5]  ⁹ sn He hates the wicked. The Lord “hates” the wicked in the sense that he despises their wicked character and deeds, and actively opposes and judges them for their wickedness. See Ps 5:5.

[11:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the wicked [one] and the lover of violence.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked [ones]”) in vv. 2 and 6.

[37:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “for,” but Hebrew כי in this case would have to extend all the way back to v. 17a. Another option is to understand the particle as asseverative, “surely” (see v. 22).

[37:20]  ¹² tc The meaning of the MT (כִּיקַר כָּרִים [kiqar karim], “like what is precious among the pastures/rams”) is uncertain. One possibility is to take the noun כָּרִים as “pastures” and interpret “what is precious” as referring to flowers that blossom but then quickly disappear (see v. 2 and BDB 430 s.v. יָקָר 3). If כָּרִים is taken as “rams,” then “what is precious” might refer to the choicest portions of rams. The present translation follows a reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpPs37), כיקוד כורם (“like the burning of an oven”). The next line, which pictures the Lord’s enemies being consumed in smoke, supports this reading, which assumes confusion of the Hebrew letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) at the end of the first word in the sequence.

[37:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “they perish in smoke, they perish.” In addition to repeating the verb for emphasis, the psalmist uses the perfect form of the verb to picture the enemies’ demise as if it had already taken place. In this way he draws attention to the certitude of their judgment.

[73:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for.”

[73:27]  ¹⁵ sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.

[73:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”

[94:23]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:23]  ¹⁸ tn Or “in.”

[106:43]  ¹⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“he would deliver”).

[106:43]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but they rebelled in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“they would have a rebellious attitude”).

[106:43]  ²¹ tn Heb “they sank down.” The Hebrew verb מָכַךְ (makhakh, “to lower; to sink”) occurs only here in the Qal.

[112:10]  ²² tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).

[112:10]  ²³ tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.

[112:10]  ²⁴ tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).

[140:12]  ²⁵ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.

[140:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”

[14:32]  ²⁷ tn The prepositional phrase must be “in his time of trouble” (i.e., when catastrophe comes). Cf. CEV “In times of trouble the wicked are destroyed.” A wicked person has nothing to fall back on in such times.

[14:32]  ²⁸ sn The righteous have hope in a just retribution – they have a place of safety even in death.

[14:32]  ²⁹ tc The LXX reads this as “in his integrity,” as if it were בְּתוּמּוֹ (bÿtumo) instead of “in his death” (בְּמוֹתוֹ, bÿmoto). The LXX is followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB “in his honesty,” NRSV “in their integrity,” and TEV “by their integrity”).

[14:32]  tn Heb “in his death.” The term “death” may function as a metonymy of effect for a life-threatening situation.

[24:16]  ³⁰ tn The clause beginning with כִּי (ki) could be interpreted as causal or conditional; but in view of the significance of the next clause it seems better to take it as a concessive clause (“although”). Its verb then receives a modal nuance of possibility. The apodosis is then “and he rises up,” which could be a participle or a perfect tense; although he may fall, he gets up (or, will get up).

[24:16]  sn The righteous may suffer adversity or misfortune any number of times – seven times here – but they will “rise” for virtue triumphs over evil in the end (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 140).

[24:16]  ³¹ tn The verb could be translated with an English present tense (“are brought down,” so NIV) to express what happens to the wicked in this life; but since the saying warns against being like the wicked, their destruction is more likely directed to the future.