18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against 4 Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant 5 18:21 that I must go down 6 and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. 7 If not, 8 I want to know.”
73:16 When I tried to make sense of this,
it was troubling to me. 9
73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, 10
and understood the destiny of the wicked. 11
73:18 Surely 12 you put them in slippery places;
you bring them down 13 to ruin.
73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!
Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 14
12:1 Lord, you have always been fair
whenever I have complained to you. 15
However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. 16
Why are wicked people successful? 17
Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?
12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. 18
They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. 19
They always talk about you,
but they really care nothing about you. 20
12:3 But you, Lord, know all about me.
You watch me and test my devotion to you. 21
Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered!
Appoint a time when they will be killed! 22
1 tn Heb “for seven days yet,” meaning “after [or “in”] seven days.”
2 tn The Hiphil participle מַמְטִיר (mamtir, “cause to rain”) here expresses the certainty of the act in the imminent future.
3 tn The active participle here refers to an action that is imminent.
4 tn Heb “the outcry of Sodom,” which apparently refers to the outcry for divine justice from those (unidentified persons) who observe its sinful ways.
5 tn Heb “heavy.”
6 tn The cohortative indicates the
7 tn Heb “[if] according to the outcry that has come to me they have done completely.” Even the
8 sn The short phrase if not provides a ray of hope and inspires Abraham’s intercession.
9 tn Heb “and [when] I pondered to understand this, troubling it [was] in my eyes.”
10 tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).
11 tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.
12 tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.
13 tn Heb “cause them to fall.”
14 tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”
15 tn Or “
16 tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).
17 tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”
18 tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”
19 tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.
20 tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”
21 tn Heb “You,
22 tn Heb “set aside for them a day of killing.”
23 tn Grk “they,” but in an indefinite sense, “people.”
24 tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.
25 tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”