30:1 Hezekiah sent messages throughout Israel and Judah; he even wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, summoning them to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem 2 and observe a Passover celebration for the Lord God of Israel.
10:17 Lord, you have heard 3 the request 4 of the oppressed;
you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. 5
16:1 The intentions of the heart 6 belong to a man, 7
but the answer of the tongue 8 comes from 9 the Lord. 10
1 tn Heb “also in Judah the hand of God was to give to them one heart to do the command of the king and the officials by the word of the
2 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
3 sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.
4 tn Heb “desire.”
5 tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”
6 tn Heb “plans of the heart” (so ASV, NASB, NIV). The phrase מַעַרְכֵי־לֵב (ma’arkhe-lev) means “the arrangements of the mind.”
7 tn Heb “[are] to a man.”
8 tn Here “the tongue” is a metonymy of cause in which the instrument of speech is put for what is said: the answer expressed.
9 sn The contrasting prepositions enhance the contrasting ideas – the ideas belong to people, but the words come from the
10 sn There are two ways this statement can be taken: (1) what one intends to say and what one actually says are the same, or (2) what one actually says differs from what the person intended to say. The second view fits the contrast better. The proverb then is giving a glimpse of how God even confounds the wise. When someone is trying to speak [“answer” in the book seems to refer to a verbal answer] before others, the