Mazmur 10:8-10

10:8 He waits in ambush near the villages; ¹ 

in hidden places he kills the innocent.

His eyes look for some unfortunate victim. ² 

10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; ³ 

he lies in ambush, waiting to catch ⁴  the oppressed;

he catches the oppressed ⁵  by pulling in his net. ⁶ 

10:10 His victims are crushed and beaten down;

they are trapped in his sturdy nets. ⁷ 

Mazmur 64:2-6

64:2 Hide me from the plots of evil men,

from the crowd of evildoers. ⁸ 

64:3 They ⁹  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ¹⁰ 

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ¹¹  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ¹² 

64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. ¹³ 

They plan how to hide ¹⁴  snares,

and boast, ¹⁵  “Who will see them?” ¹⁶ 

64:6 They devise ¹⁷  unjust schemes;

they disguise ¹⁸  a well-conceived plot. ¹⁹ 

Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. ²⁰ 

Daniel 6:4

6:4 Consequently the supervisors and satraps were trying to find ²¹  some pretext against Daniel in connection with administrative matters. ²²  But they were unable to find any such damaging evidence, ²³  because he was trustworthy and guilty of no negligence or corruption. ²⁴ 

[10:8]  ¹ tn Heb “he sits in the ambush of the villages.”

[10:8]  ² tn Heb “his eyes for an unfortunate person lie hidden.” The language may picture a lion (see v. 9) peering out from its hiding place in anticipation that an unsuspecting victim will soon come strolling along.

[10:9]  ³ tn Or “in its den.”

[10:9]  ⁴ tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.

[10:9]  ⁵ tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.

[10:9]  ⁶ tn Or “when he [i.e., the wicked man] pulls in his net.”

[10:9]  sn The background of the imagery is hunting, where the hunter uses a net to entrap an unsuspecting bird or wild animal.

[10:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “he crushes, he is bowed down, and he falls into his strong [ones], [the] unfortunate [ones].” This verse presents several lexical and syntactical difficulties. The first word (יִדְכֶּה, yidekeh) is an otherwise unattested Qal form of the verb דָּכָה (dakhah, “crush”). (The Qere [marginal] form is imperfect; the consonantal text [Kethib] has the perfect with a prefixed conjunction vav [ו].) If the wicked man’s victim is the subject, which seems to be the case (note the two verbs which follow), then the form should be emended to a Niphal (יִדָּכֶה, yiddakheh). The phrase בַּעֲצוּמָיו (ba’atsumayv, “into his strong [ones]”), poses interpretive problems. The preposition -בְּ (bet) follows the verb נָפַל (nafal, “fall”), so it may very well carry the nuance “into” here, with “his strong [ones]” then referring to something into which the oppressed individual falls. Since a net is mentioned in the preceding verse as the instrument used to entrap the victim, it is possible that “strong [ones]” here refers metonymically to the wicked man’s nets or traps. Ps 35:8 refers to a man falling into a net (רֶשֶׁת, reshet), as does Ps 141:10 (where the plural of מִכְמָר [mikhmar, “net”] is used). A hunter’s net (רֶשֶׁת), is associated with snares (פַּח [pakh], מֹקְשִׁים, [moqÿshim]) and ropes (חֲבָלִים, khavalim) in Ps 140:5. The final word in the verse (חֶלְכָּאִים (khelka’im, “unfortunate [ones]”) may be an alternate form of חֵלְכָח (khelkhakh, “unfortunate [one]”; see vv. 8, 14). The Qere (marginal reading) divides the form into two words, חֵיל כָּאִים (khel ka’im, “army/host of disheartened [ones]”). The three verb forms in v. 10 are singular because the representative “oppressed” individual is the grammatical subject (see the singular עָנִי [’aniy] in v. 9).

[64:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”

[64:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[64:4]  ¹¹ tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[64:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”

[64:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they report about hiding.”

[64:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they say.”

[64:5]  ¹⁶ tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).

[64:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

[64:6]  ¹⁸ tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tomnu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).

[64:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

[64:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.

[6:4]  ²¹ tn Aram “looking to find.”

[6:4]  ²² tn Aram “from the side of the kingdom.”

[6:4]  ²³ tn Aram “pretext and corruption.”

[6:4]  ²⁴ tn Aram “no negligence or corruption was found in him.” The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the phrase “and no negligence or corruption was found in him.”