Mazmur 10:17-18

10:17 Lord, you have heard ¹  the request ²  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ³ 

10:18 You defend ⁴  the fatherless and oppressed, ⁵ 

so that mere mortals may no longer terrorize them. ⁶ 

Mazmur 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ⁷ 

From his heavenly temple ⁸  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ⁹ 

Mazmur 140:12

140:12 I know ¹⁰  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 145:19

145:19 He satisfies the desire ¹²  of his loyal followers; ¹³ 

he hears their cry for help and delivers them.

Mazmur 146:7-9

146:7 vindicates the oppressed, ¹⁴ 

and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord releases the imprisoned.

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ¹⁵ 

The Lord loves the godly.

146:9 The Lord protects those residing outside their native land;

he lifts up the fatherless and the widow, ¹⁶ 

but he opposes the wicked. ¹⁷ 

[10:17]  ¹ sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

[10:17]  ² tn Heb “desire.”

[10:17]  ³ tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

[10:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “to judge (on behalf of),” or “by judging (on behalf of).”

[10:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “crushed.” See v. 10.

[10:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “he will not add again [i.e., “he will no longer”] to terrify, man from the earth.” The Hebrew term אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh, “man”) refers here to the wicked nations (v. 16). By describing them as “from the earth,” the psalmist emphasizes their weakness before the sovereign, eternal king.

[18:6]  ⁷ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ⁹ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[140:12]  ¹⁰ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.

[140:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”

[145:19]  ¹² tn In this context “desire” refers to the followers’ desire to be delivered from wicked enemies.

[145:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “the desire of those who fear him, he does.”

[146:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “executes justice for the oppressed.”

[146:8]  ¹⁵ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[146:9]  ¹⁶ sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by resident aliens, the fatherless, and widows.

[146:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he makes the way of the wicked twisted.” The “way of the wicked” probably refers to their course of life (see Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1). God makes their path tortuous in the sense that he makes them pay the harmful consequences of their actions.