50:6 The heavens declare his fairness, 3
for God is judge. 4 (Selah)
75:7 For God is the judge! 5
He brings one down and exalts another. 6
98:9 before the Lord!
For he comes to judge the earth!
He judges the world fairly, 7
and the nations in a just manner.
98:2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver; 8
in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.
1 tn Or “ruler.”
2 sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.
3 tn Or “justice.”
4 tn Or “for God, he is about to judge.” The participle may be taken as substantival (as in the translation above) or as a predicate (indicating imminent future action in this context).
5 tn Or “judges.”
6 tn The imperfects here emphasize the generalizing nature of the statement.
7 tn The verbal forms in v. 9 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).
8 tn Heb “makes known his deliverance.”
9 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”
10 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”