Mazmur 69:5

69:5 O God, you are aware of my foolish sins; ¹ 

my guilt is not hidden from you. ² 

Mazmur 69:28

69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! ³ 

Do not let their names be listed with the godly! ⁴ 

Mazmur 87:6

87:6 The Lord writes in the census book of the nations, ⁵ 

“This one was born there.” ⁶  (Selah)

[69:5]  ¹ tn Heb “you know my foolishness.”

[69:5]  ² sn The psalmist is the first to admit that he is not perfect. But even so, he is innocent of the allegations which his enemies bring against him (v. 5b). God, who is aware of his foolish sins and guilt, can testify to the truth of his claim.

[69:28]  ³ tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”

[69:28]  sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.

[69:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”

[69:28]  sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.

[87:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord records in the writing of the nations.”

[87:6]  ⁶ tn As noted in v. 4, the translation assumes a contrast between “there” (the various foreign lands) and “in her” (Zion). In contrast to foreigners, the citizens of Zion have special status because of their birthplace (v. 5). In this case vv. 4 and 6 form a structural frame around v. 5.