8:3 Then Esther again spoke with the king, falling at his feet. She wept and begged him for mercy, that he might nullify the evil of Haman the Agagite which he had intended against the Jews. 1
2:1 Why 3 do the nations rebel? 4
Why 5 are the countries 6 devising 7 plots that will fail? 8
2:2 The kings of the earth 9 form a united front; 10
the rulers collaborate 11
against the Lord and his anointed king. 12
36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;
he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; 13
he does not reject what is evil. 14
52:2 Your tongue carries out your destructive plans; 15
it is as effective as a sharp razor, O deceiver. 16
30:1 “The rebellious 17 children are as good as dead,” 18 says the Lord,
“those who make plans without consulting me, 19
who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, 20
and thereby compound their sin. 21
59:4 No one is concerned about justice; 22
no one sets forth his case truthfully.
They depend on false words 23 and tell lies;
they conceive of oppression 24
and give birth to sin.
5:5 I will go to the leaders 25
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands. 26
Surely they know what their God requires of them.” 27
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him. 28
18:18 Then some people 29 said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! 30 There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. 31 Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! 32 Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, 33
those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. 34
As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, 35
because they have the power to do so.
2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,
and seize the houses they want. 36
They defraud people of their homes, 37
and deprive people of the land they have inherited. 38
1 sn As in 7:4 Esther avoids implicating the king in this plot. Instead Haman is given sole responsibility for the plan to destroy the Jews.
2 sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.
3 tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.
4 tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.
5 tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
6 tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).
7 tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).
8 tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.
9 sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.
10 tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.
11 tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).
12 tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).
13 tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.
14 tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.
15 tn Heb “destruction your tongue devises.”
16 tn Heb “like a sharpened razor, doer of deceit.” The masculine participle עָשָׂה (’asah) is understood as a substantival vocative, addressed to the powerful man.
17 tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”
18 tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”
19 tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”
20 tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.
21 tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”
22 tn Heb “no one pleads with justice.”
23 tn Heb “nothing”; NAB “emptiness.”
24 tn Or “trouble” (NIV), or “harm.”
25 tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”
26 tn Heb “the way of the
27 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
28 tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.
29 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
30 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
31 tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”
32 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
33 tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.
34 tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”
35 tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”
36 tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”
37 tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”
38 tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.