Mazmur 5:4

5:4 Certainly ¹  you are not a God who approves of evil; ² 

evil people ³  cannot dwell with you. ⁴ 

Mazmur 55:18

55:18 He will rescue ⁵  me and protect me from those who attack me, ⁶ 

even though ⁷  they greatly outnumber me. ⁸ 

[5:4]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[5:4]  ² tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”

[5:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).

[5:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.

[5:4]  sn Only the godly are allowed to dwell with the Lord. Evil people are excluded. See Ps 15.

[55:18]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form is here used rhetorically to indicate that the action is certain to take place (the so-called perfect of certitude).

[55:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “he will redeem in peace my life from [those who] draw near to me.”

[55:18]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[55:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “among many they are against me.” For other examples of the preposition עִמָּד (’immad) used in the sense of “at, against,” see HALOT 842 s.v.; BDB 767 s.v.; IBHS 219 §11.2.14b.