Mazmur 10:9

10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; ¹ 

he lies in ambush, waiting to catch ²  the oppressed;

he catches the oppressed ³  by pulling in his net. ⁴ 

Ayub 20:19

20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; ⁵ 

he has seized a house which he did not build. ⁶ 

[10:9]  ¹ tn Or “in its den.”

[10:9]  ² tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.

[10:9]  ³ tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.

[10:9]  ⁴ 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.

[20:19]  ⁵ tc The verb indicates that after he oppressed the poor he abandoned them to their fate. But there have been several attempts to improve on the text. Several have repointed the text to get a word parallel to “house.” Ehrlich came up with עֹזֵב (’ozev, “mud hut”), Kissane had “hovel” (similar to Neh 3:8). M. Dahood did the same (“The Root ’zb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 306-7). J. Reider came up with עֶזֶב (’ezev, the “leavings”), what the rich were to leave for the poor (“Contributions to the Scriptural text,” HUCA 24 [1952/53]: 103-6). But an additional root עָזַב (’azav) is questionable. And while the text as it stands is general and not very striking, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Dhorme reverses the letters to gain בְּעֹז (bÿ’oz, “with force [or violence]”).

[20:19]  ⁶ tn The last clause says, “and he did not build it.” This can be understood in an adverbial sense, supplying the relative pronoun to the translation.