Mazmur 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! ¹ 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ²  away from me! ³ 

Amsal 15:3

15:3 The eyes of the Lord ⁴  are in every place,

keeping watch ⁵  on those who are evil and those who are good.

Zefanya 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ⁶ 

those who think to themselves, ⁷ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ⁸ 

[51:11]  ¹ tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ² sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ³ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[15:3]  ⁴ sn The proverb uses anthropomorphic language to describe God’s exacting and evaluating knowledge of all people.

[15:3]  ⁵ tn The form צֹפוֹת (tsofot, “watching”) is a feminine plural participle agreeing with “eyes.” God’s watching eyes comfort good people but convict evil.

[1:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”