Mazmur 12:5

12:5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed, ¹ 

because of the painful cries ²  of the needy,

I will spring into action,” ³  says the Lord.

“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.” ⁴ 

Mazmur 37:28

37:28 For the Lord promotes ⁵  justice,

and never abandons ⁶  his faithful followers.

They are permanently secure, ⁷ 

but the children ⁸  of evil men are wiped out. ⁹ 

Mazmur 41:2

41:2 May the Lord protect him and save his life! ¹⁰ 

May he be blessed ¹¹  in the land!

Do not turn him over ¹²  to his enemies! ¹³ 

Mazmur 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ¹⁴  among those who want to devour me; ¹⁵ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 62:3

62:3 How long will you threaten ¹⁷  a man?

All of you are murderers, ¹⁸ 

as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ²⁰ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ²¹ 

Mazmur 140:5

140:5 Proud men hide a snare for me;

evil men ²²  spread a net by the path;

they set traps for me. (Selah)

Mazmur 141:4

141:4 Do not let me have evil desires, ²³ 

or participate in sinful activities

with men who behave wickedly. ²⁴ 

I will not eat their delicacies. ²⁵ 

[12:5]  ¹ tn The term translated “oppressed” is an objective genitive; the oppressed are the recipients/victims of violence.

[12:5]  ² tn Elsewhere in the psalms this noun is used of the painful groans of prisoners awaiting death (79:11; 102:20). The related verb is used of the painful groaning of those wounded in combat (Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15) and of the mournful sighing of those in grief (Ezek 9:4; 24:17).

[12:5]  ³ tn Heb “I will rise up.”

[12:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will place in deliverance, he pants for it.” The final two words in Hebrew (יָפִיחַ לוֹ, yafiakh lo) comprise an asyndetic relative clause, “the one who pants for it.” “The one who pants” is the object of the verb “place” and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix (in the phrase “for it”) is “deliverance.” Another option is to translate, “I will place in deliverance the witness for him,” repointing יָפִיחַ (a Hiphil imperfect from פּוּחַ, puakh, “pant”) as יָפֵחַ (yafeakh), a noun meaning “witness.” In this case the Lord would be promising protection to those who have the courage to support the oppressed in the court of law. However, the first part of the verse focuses on the oppressed, not their advocates.

[37:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the Lord’s commitment to principles of justice causes him to actively promote these principles as he governs the world. The active participle describes characteristic behavior.

[37:28]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to this generalizing statement.

[37:28]  ⁷ tn Or “protected forever.”

[37:28]  ⁸ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[37:28]  ⁹ tn Or “cut off”; or “removed.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 28b state general truths.

[41:2]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal forms are taken as jussives in the translation because the jussive is clearly used in the final line of the verse, suggesting that this is a prayer. The psalmist stops to pronounce a prayer of blessing on the godly individual envisioned in v. 1. Of course, he actually has himself primarily in view. He mixes confidence (vv. 1, 3) with petition (v. 2) because he stands in the interval between the word of assurance and the actual intervention by God.

[41:2]  ¹¹ tc The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib), which has a Pual (passive) prefixed form, regarded here as a jussive. The Pual of the verb אָשַׁר (’ashar) also appears in Prov 3:18. The marginal reading (Qere) assumes a vav (ו) consecutive and Pual perfect. Some, with the support of the LXX, change the verb to a Piel (active) form with an objective pronominal suffix, “and may he bless him,” or “and he will bless him” (cf. NIV).

[41:2]  ¹² tn The negative particle אַל (’al) before the prefixed verbal form indicates the verb is a jussive and the statement a prayer. Those who want to take v. 2 as a statement of confidence suggest emending the negative particle to לֹא (lo’), which is used with the imperfect. See the earlier note on the verbal forms in line one of this verse. According to GKC 322 §109.e, this is a case where the jussive is used rhetorically to “express that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one might translate, “you will not turn him over to his enemies,” and take the preceding verbal forms as indicative in mood.

[41:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “do not give him over to the desire of his enemies” (see Ps 27:12).

[57:4]  ¹⁴ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[62:3]  ¹⁷ tn The verb form is plural; the psalmist addresses his enemies. The verb הוּת occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “shout at.”

[62:3]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text has a Pual (passive) form, but the verb form should be vocalized as a Piel (active) form. See BDB 953-54 s.v. רָצַח.

[62:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like a bent wall and a broken fence.” The point of the comparison is not entirely clear. Perhaps the enemies are depicted as dangerous, like a leaning wall or broken fence that is in danger of falling on someone (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:69).

[92:7]  ²⁰ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[92:7]  sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.

[140:5]  ²² tn Heb “and ropes,” but many prefer to revocalize the noun as a participle (חֹבְלִים, khovÿlim) from the verb חָבַל (khaval, “act corruptly”).

[141:4]  ²³ tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”

[141:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”

[141:4]  ²⁵ sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.