Yeremia 11:20

11:20 So I said to the Lord, ¹ 

“O Lord who rules over all, ²  you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds. ³ 

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ⁴ 

Yeremia 12:8

12:8 The people I call my own ⁵  have turned on me

like a lion ⁶  in the forest.

They have roared defiantly ⁷  at me.

So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁸ 

Yeremia 17:18

17:18 May those who persecute me be disgraced.

Do not let me be disgraced.

May they be dismayed.

Do not let me be dismayed.

Bring days of disaster on them.

Bring on them the destruction they deserve.” ⁹ 

Yeremia 18:19-23

18:19 Then I said, ¹⁰ 

“Lord, pay attention to me.

Listen to what my enemies are saying. ¹¹ 

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹² 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ¹³ 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ¹⁴ 

18:21 So let their children die of starvation.

Let them be cut down by the sword. ¹⁵ 

Let their wives lose their husbands and children.

Let the older men die of disease ¹⁶ 

and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

18:22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses

when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. ¹⁷ 

For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden traps for me to step into.

18:23 But you, Lord, know

all their plots to kill me.

Do not pardon their crimes!

Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ¹⁸ 

Let them be brought down in defeat before you!

Deal with them while you are still angry! ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 18:2

18:2 “Go down at once ²⁰  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ²¹ 

Yeremia 24:1

Good Figs and Bad Figs

24:1 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim’s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon. ²² 

Mazmur 54:7

54:7 Surely ²³  he rescues me from all trouble, ²⁴ 

and I triumph over my enemies. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 59:10

59:10 The God who loves me will help me; ²⁶ 

God will enable me to triumph over ²⁷  my enemies. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 109:6-20

109:6 ²⁹ Appoint an evil man to testify against him! ³⁰ 

May an accuser stand ³¹  at his right side!

109:7 When he is judged, he will be found ³²  guilty! ³³ 

Then his prayer will be regarded as sinful.

109:8 May his days be few! ³⁴ 

May another take his job! ³⁵ 

109:9 May his children ³⁶  be fatherless,

and his wife a widow!

109:10 May his children ³⁷  roam around begging,

asking for handouts as they leave their ruined home! ³⁸ 

109:11 May the creditor seize ³⁹  all he owns!

May strangers loot his property! ⁴⁰ 

109:12 May no one show him kindness! ⁴¹ 

May no one have compassion ⁴²  on his fatherless children!

109:13 May his descendants ⁴³  be cut off! ⁴⁴ 

May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives! ⁴⁵ 

109:14 May his ancestors’ ⁴⁶  sins be remembered by the Lord!

May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ⁴⁷ 

109:15 May the Lord be constantly aware of them, ⁴⁸ 

and cut off the memory of his children ⁴⁹  from the earth!

109:16 For he never bothered to show kindness; ⁵⁰ 

he harassed the oppressed and needy,

and killed the disheartened. ⁵¹ 

109:17 He loved to curse ⁵²  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁵³ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁵⁴ 

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ⁵⁵ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ⁵⁶ 

109:19 May a curse attach itself to him, like a garment one puts on, ⁵⁷ 

or a belt ⁵⁸  one wears continually!

109:20 May the Lord repay my accusers in this way, ⁵⁹ 

those who say evil things about ⁶⁰  me! ⁶¹ 

Wahyu 6:10

6:10 They ⁶²  cried out with a loud voice, ⁶³  “How long, ⁶⁴  Sovereign Master, ⁶⁵  holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”

Wahyu 18:20

18:20 (Rejoice over her, O heaven,

and you saints and apostles and prophets,

for God has pronounced judgment ⁶⁶  against her on your behalf!) ⁶⁷ 

Wahyu 19:2-3

19:2 because his judgments are true and just. ⁶⁸ 

For he has judged ⁶⁹  the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,

and has avenged the blood of his servants ⁷⁰  poured out by her own hands!” ⁷¹ 

19:3 Then ⁷²  a second time the crowd shouted, “Hallelujah!” The smoke rises from her forever and ever. ⁷³ 

[11:20]  ¹ tn The words “So I said to the Lord” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift in address.

[11:20]  ² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:20]  sn For the significance of the term see the notes at 2:19 and 7:3.

[11:20]  ³ tn Heb “Lord of armies, just judge, tester of kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style. In Hebrew thought the “kidneys” were thought of as the seat of the emotions and passions and the “heart” was viewed as the seat of intellect, conscience, and will. The “heart” and the “kidneys” are often used figuratively for the thoughts, emotions, motives, and drives that are thought to be seated in them.

[11:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “Let me see your retribution [i.e., see you exact retribution] from them because I reveal my cause [i.e., plea for justice] to you.”

[12:8]  ⁵ tn See the note on the previous verse.

[12:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”

[12:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”

[12:8]  ⁸ tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.

[17:18]  ⁹ tn Or “complete destruction.” See the translator’s note on 16:18.

[17:18]  sn Jeremiah now does what he says he has not wanted to do or been hasty to do. He is, however, seeking his own vindication and that of God whose threats they have belittled.

[18:19]  ¹⁰ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from description of the peoples’ plots to his address to God to deal with the plotters.

[18:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”

[18:19]  sn Jeremiah’s prayers against the unjust treatment of his enemies here and elsewhere (see 11:18-20; 12:1-4; 15:15-18; 17:14-18) have many of the elements of the prayers of the innocent in the book of Psalms: an invocation of the Lord as just judge, a lament about unjust attacks, an appeal to innocence, and a cry for vindication which often calls for the Lord to pay back in kind those who unjustly attack the petitioner. See for examples Pss 5, 7, 17, 54 among many others.

[18:20]  ¹² tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[18:20]  sn See Jer 14:7-9, 19-21 and 15:1-4 for the idea.

[18:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.

[18:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.

[18:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.

[18:23]  ¹⁸ sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure which looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished, and a book of life for those who are to live, see e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Ps 51:1 (51:3 HT); 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[18:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”

[18:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”

[24:1]  ²² sn See 2 Kgs 24:10-17 (especially vv. 14-16). Nebuchadnezzar left behind the poorest people of the land under the puppet king Zedekiah. Jeconiah has already been referred to earlier in 13:18; 22:25-26. The deportation referred to here occurred in 597 b.c. and included the priest Ezekiel.

[54:7]  ²³ tn Or “for,” indicating a more specific reason why he will praise the Lord’s name (cf. v. 6).

[54:7]  ²⁴ tn The perfects in v. 7 are probably rhetorical, indicating the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s deliverance and his own vindication as if they were occurring or had already occurred.

[54:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and on my enemies my eyes look.”

[59:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the God of my [Qere (marginal reading); the Kethib (consonantal text) has “his”] loyal love will meet me.”

[59:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will cause me to look upon.”

[59:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 56:2.

[109:6]  ²⁹ sn In vv. 6-19 the psalmist calls on God to judge his enemies severely. Some attribute this curse-list to the psalmist’s enemies rather than the psalmist. In this case one should paraphrase v. 6: “They say about me, ‘Appoint an evil man, etc.’” Those supporting this line of interpretation point out that vv. 2-5 and 20 refer to the enemies’ attack on the psalmist being a verbal one. Furthermore in vv. 1-5, 20 the psalmist speaks of his enemies in the plural, while vv. 6-19 refer to an individual. This use of the singular in vv. 6-19 could be readily explained if this is the psalmist’s enemies’ curse on him. However, it is much more natural to understand vv. 6-19 as the psalmist’s prayer against his enemies. There is no introductory quotation formula in v. 6 to indicate that the psalmist is quoting anyone, and the statement “may the Lord repay my accusers in this way” in v. 20 most naturally appears to be a fitting conclusion to the prayer in vv. 6-19. But what about the use of the singular in vv. 6-19? Often in the psalms the psalmist will describe his enemies as a group, but then speak of them as an individual as well, as if viewing his adversaries collectively as one powerful foe. See, for example, Ps 7, where the psalmist uses both the plural (vv. 1, 6) and the singular (vv. 2, 4-5) in referring to enemies. Perhaps by using the singular in such cases, the psalmist wants to single out each enemy for individual attention, or perhaps he has one especially hostile enemy in mind who epitomizes the opposition of the whole group. This may well be the case in Ps 109. Perhaps we should understand the singular throughout vv. 6-19 in the sense of “each and every one.” For a lengthy and well-reasoned defense of the opposite view – that vv. 6-19 are a quotation of what the enemies said about the psalmist – see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 72-73.

[109:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “appoint against him an evil [man].”

[109:6]  ³¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive here (note the imperative in the preceding line).

[109:7]  ³² tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as a jussive, but the use of the imperfect form in the following line suggests that v. 7 anticipates the outcome of the accusation envisioned in v. 6.

[109:7]  ³³ tn Heb “he will go out [as] a criminal” (that is, guilty).

[109:8]  ³⁴ tn The prefixed verbal forms (except those with vav [ו] consecutive) in vv. 8-20 are taken as jussives of prayer. Note the distinct jussive forms used in vv. 12-13, 15, 19.

[109:8]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew noun פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah) can mean “charge” or “office,” though BDB 824 s.v. suggests that here it refers to his possessions.

[109:9]  ³⁶ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ³⁷ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and roaming, may his children roam and beg, and seek from their ruins.” Some, following the LXX, emend the term וְדָרְשׁוּ (vÿdoreshu, “and seek”) to יְגֹרְשׁוּ (yÿgoreshu; a Pual jussive, “may they be driven away” [see Job 30:5; cf. NIV, NRSV]), but דָּרַשׁ (darash) nicely parallels שִׁאֵלוּ (shi’elu, “and beg”) in the preceding line.

[109:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “lay snares for” (see Ps 38:12).

[109:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the product of his labor.”

[109:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “may there not be for him one who extends loyal love.”

[109:12]  ⁴² tn Perhaps this refers to being generous (see Ps 37:21).

[109:13]  ⁴³ tn Or “offspring.”

[109:13]  ⁴⁴ sn On the expression cut off see Ps 37:28.

[109:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in another generation may their name be wiped out.”

[109:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “fathers’ sins.”

[109:14]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “not be wiped out.”

[109:14]  sn According to ancient Israelite theology and its doctrine of corporate solidarity and responsibility, children could be and often were punished for the sins of their parents. For a discussion of this issue see J. Kaminsky, Corporate Responsibility in the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSup). (Kaminsky, however, does not deal with Ps 109.)

[109:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “may they [that is, the sins mentioned in v. 14] be before the Lord continually.”

[109:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.

[109:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “he did not remember to do loyal love.”

[109:16]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and he chased an oppressed and needy man, and one timid of heart to put [him] to death.”

[109:17]  ⁵² sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[109:18]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”

[109:19]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “may it be for him like a garment one puts on.”

[109:19]  ⁵⁸ tn The Hebrew noun מֵזַח (mezakh, “belt; waistband”) occurs only here in the OT. The form apparently occurs in Isa 23:10 as well, but an emendation is necessary there.

[109:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “[may] this [be] the repayment to my accusers from the Lord.”

[109:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “against.”

[109:20]  ⁶¹ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being; soul”) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[6:10]  ⁶² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:10]  ⁶³ tn Grk “voice, saying”; the participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[6:10]  ⁶⁴ tn The expression ἕως πότε (ews pote) was translated “how long.” Cf. BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.γ.

[6:10]  ⁶⁵ tn The Greek term here is δεσπότης (despoths; see L&N 37.63).

[18:20]  ⁶⁶ tn On the phrase “pronounced judgment” BDAG 567 s.v. κρίμα 4.b states, “The OT is the source of the expr. κρίνειν τὸ κρ. (cp. Zech 7:9; 8:16; Ezk 44:24) ἔκρινεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ κρίμα ὑμῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς God has pronounced judgment for you against her or God has pronounced on her the judgment she wished to impose on you (HHoltzmann, Hdb. 1893 ad loc.) Rv 18:20.”

[18:20]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “God has judged a judgment of you of her.” Verse 20 is set in parentheses because in it the saints, etc. are addressed directly in the second person.

[18:20]  sn This verse forms a parenthetical aside in the narrative.

[19:2]  ⁶⁸ tn Compare the similar phrase in Rev 16:7.

[19:2]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “has punished.” See BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.b.α, describing the OT background which involves both the vindication of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty.

[19:2]  ⁷⁰ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[19:2]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “from her hand” (referring to her responsibility in causing the blood of God’s followers to be shed).

[19:3]  ⁷² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[19:3]  ⁷³ tn Or “her smoke ascends forever and ever.”