Text -- Psalms 5:4 (NET)

5:4 Certainly you are not a God who approves of evil; evil people cannot dwell with you.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 5:4

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”

³ tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).

⁴ tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.

sn Only the godly are allowed to dwell with the Lord. Evil people are excluded. See Ps 15.