1:27 when what you dread 1 comes like a whirlwind, 2
and disaster strikes you 3 like a devastating storm, 4
when distressing trouble 5 comes on you.
29:1 The one who stiffens his neck 6 after numerous rebukes 7
will suddenly be destroyed 8 without remedy. 9
73:18 Surely 10 you put them in slippery places;
you bring them down 11 to ruin.
73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!
Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 12
73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. 13
O Lord, when you awake 14 you will despise them. 15
30:13 So this sin will become your downfall.
You will be like a high wall
that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse;
it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. 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
5:3 So now, residents of Jerusalem, 22
people 23 of Judah,
you decide between me and my vineyard!
1 tn Heb “your dread.” See note on 1:31.
2 sn The term “whirlwind” (NAB, NIV, NRSV; cf. TEV, NLT “storm”) refers to a devastating storm and is related to the verb שׁוֹא (sho’, “to crash into ruins”; see BDB 996 s.v. שׁוֹאָה). Disaster will come swiftly and crush them like a devastating whirlwind.
3 tn Heb “your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.”
4 tn Heb “like a storm.” The noun סוּפָה (sufah, “storm”) is often used in similes to describe sudden devastation (Isa 5:28; Hos 8:7; Amos 1:14).
5 tn Heb “distress and trouble.” The nouns “distress and trouble” mean almost the same thing so they may form a hendiadys. The two similar sounding terms צוּקָה (tsuqah) and צָרָה (tsarah) also form a wordplay (paronomasia) which also links them together.
6 tn The idiom “to harden the neck” (מַקְשֶׁה־עֹרֶף, maqsheh-’oref) is the idea of resisting the rebukes and persisting in obstinacy (e.g., Exod 32:9). The opposite of a “stiff neck” would be the bending back, i.e., submission.
7 tn The Hebrew construction is אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת (’ish tokhakhot, “a man of rebukes”), meaning “a man who has (or receives) many rebukes.” This describes a person who is deserving of punishment and who has been given many warnings. The text says, then, “a man of rebukes hardening himself.”
8 sn The stubborn person refuses to listen; he will suddenly be destroyed when the calamity strikes (e.g., Prov 6:15; 13:18; 15:10).
9 tn Or “healing” (NRSV).
10 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.
11 tn Heb “cause them to fall.”
12 tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”
13 tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.
14 sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.
15 tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.
16 tn The verse reads literally, “So this sin will become for you like a breach ready to fall, bulging on a high wall, the breaking of which comes suddenly, in a flash.” Their sin produces guilt and will result in judgment. Like a wall that collapses their fall will be swift and sudden.
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 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
23 tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.