Amsal 20:8

20:8 A king sitting on the throne to judge ¹ 

separates out ²  all evil with his eyes. ³ 

Amsal 20:2

20:2 The king’s terrifying anger ⁴  is like the roar of a lion;

whoever provokes him ⁵  sins against himself. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 4:9-12

4:9 Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁷  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle. 4:11 The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.

Eli Dies

4:12 On that day ⁸  a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head.

Mazmur 101:5-8

101:5 I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret.

I will not tolerate anyone who has a cocky demeanor and an arrogant attitude. ⁹ 

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ¹⁰ 

and allow them to live with me. ¹¹ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ¹² 

101:7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace. ¹³ 

Liars will not be welcome in my presence. ¹⁴ 

101:8 Each morning I will destroy all the wicked people in the land,

and remove all evildoers from the city of the Lord.

[20:8]  ¹ tn The infinitive construct is דִּין; it indicates purpose, “to judge” (so NIV, NCV) even though it does not have the preposition with it.

[20:8]  ² tn The second line uses the image of winnowing (cf. NIV, NRSV) to state that the king’s judgment removes evil from the realm. The verb form is מִזָרֶה (mÿzareh), the Piel participle. It has been translated “to sift; to winnow; to scatter” and “to separate” – i.e., separate out evil from the land. The text is saying that a just government roots out evil (cf. NAB “dispels all evil”), but few governments have been consistently just.

[20:8]  ³ sn The phrase with his eyes indicates that the king will closely examine or look into all the cases that come before him.

[20:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the terror of a king” (so ASV, NASB); The term “terror” is a metonymy of effect for cause: the anger of a king that causes terror among the people. The term “king” functions as a possessive genitive: “a king’s anger” (cf. NIV “A king’s wrath”; NLT “The king’s fury”).

[20:2]  ⁵ tn The verb מִתְעַבְּרוֹ (mit’abbÿro) is problematic; in the MT the form is the Hitpael participle with a pronominal suffix, which is unusual, for the direct object of this verb usually takes a preposition first: “is angry with.” The LXX rendered it “angers [or, irritates].”

[20:2]  ⁶ sn The expression “sins against himself” has been taken by some to mean “forfeits his life” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “endangers his life” (cf. NCV, NLT). That may be the implication of getting oneself in trouble with an angry king (cf. TEV “making him angry is suicide”).

[4:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[4:12]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.f.

[101:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “[one who has] pride of eyes and wideness [i.e., arrogance] of heart, him I will not endure.”

[101:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ¹² tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[101:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will not live in the midst of my house, one who does deceit.”

[101:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.”