Mazmur 14:4

14:4 All those who behave wickedly ¹  do not understand – ² 

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to the Lord.

Mazmur 36:12

36:12 I can see the evildoers! They have fallen! ³ 

They have been knocked down and are unable to get up! ⁴ 

Mazmur 55:9

55:9 Confuse them, ⁵  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ⁶ 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

Mazmur 59:14

59:14 They return in the evening;

they growl ⁷  like a dog

and prowl around outside ⁸  the city.

Mazmur 82:5

82:5 They ⁹  neither know nor understand.

They stumble ¹⁰  around in the dark,

while all the foundations of the earth crumble. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 105:25

105:25 He caused them ¹²  to hate his people,

and to mistreat ¹³  his servants.

[14:4]  ¹ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.

[14:4]  ² tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).

[36:12]  ³ tn Heb “there the workers of wickedness have fallen.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the evildoers lying fallen at a spot that is vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[36:12]  ⁴ tn The psalmist uses perfect verbal forms in v. 12 to describe the demise of the wicked as if it has already taken place.

[55:9]  ⁵ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”

[59:14]  ⁷ tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”

[59:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “go around.”

[82:5]  ⁹ sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.

[82:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.

[82:5]  ¹¹ sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).

[105:25]  ¹² tn Heb “their heart.”

[105:25]  ¹³ tn Or “to deal deceptively.” The Hitpael of נָכַל (nakhal) occurs only here and in Gen 37:18, where it is used of Joseph’s brothers “plotting” to kill him.