12:7 The wicked are overthrown 1 and perish, 2
but the righteous household 3 will stand.
14:11 The household 4 of the wicked will be destroyed,
but the tent 5 of the upright will flourish.
40:11 Scatter abroad 6 the abundance 7 of your anger.
Look at every proud man 8 and bring him low;
40:12 Look at every proud man and abase him;
crush the wicked on the spot! 9
40:13 Hide them in the dust 10 together,
imprison 11 them 12 in the grave. 13
For the music director; a well-written song 15 by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: “David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.” 16
52:1 Why do you boast about your evil plans, 17 O powerful man?
God’s loyal love protects me all day long! 18
52:5 Yet 19 God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. 20
He will scoop you up 21 and remove you from your home; 22
he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
138:6 Though the Lord is exalted, he takes note of the lowly,
and recognizes the proud from far away.
2:12 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, 23
for 24 all the high and mighty,
for all who are proud – they will be humiliated;
5:1 King Belshazzar 27 prepared a great banquet 28 for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of 29 them all. 30
5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared 31 and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. 32 The king was watching the back 33 of the hand that was writing.
1 sn This proverb is about the stability of the righteous in times of trouble. The term “overthrown” might allude to Gen 19:21.
2 tn Heb “and they are not.”
3 tn Heb “the house of the righteous.” The genitive צַדִּיקִים (tsadiqim) functions as an attributive adjective: “righteous house.” The noun בֵּית (bet, “house”) functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for the contents (= family, household; perhaps household possessions). Cf. NCV “a good person’s family”; NLT “the children of the godly.”
4 tn Heb “house.” The term “house” is a metonymy of subject, referring to their contents: families and family life.
5 tn The term “tent” is a metonymy here referring to the contents of the tent: families.
6 tn The verb was used for scattering lightning (Job 37:11). God is challenging Job to unleash his power and judge wickedness in the world.
7 tn Heb “the overflowings.”
8 tn The word was just used in the positive sense of excellence or majesty; now the exalted nature of the person refers to self-exaltation, or pride.
9 tn The expression translated “on the spot” is the prepositional phrase תַּחְתָּם (takhtam, “under them”). “Under them” means in their place. But it can also mean “where someone stands, on the spot” (see Exod 16:29; Jos 6:5; Judg 7:21, etc.).
10 tn The word “dust” can mean “ground” here, or more likely, “grave.”
11 tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) means “to bind.” In Arabic the word means “to bind” in the sense of “to imprison,” and that fits here.
12 tn Heb “their faces.”
13 tn The word is “secret place,” the place where he is to hide them, i.e., the grave. The text uses the word “secret place” as a metonymy for the grave.
14 sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.
15 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
16 tn Heb “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’”
17 tn Heb “Why do you boast in evil?”
18 tn Heb “the loyal love of God [is] all the day.” In this context, where the psalmist is threatened by his enemy, the point seems to be that the psalmist is protected by God’s loyal love at all times.
19 tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.
20 tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”
21 tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.
22 tn Heb “from [your] tent.”
23 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] has a day.”
24 tn Or “against” (NAB, NASB, NRSV).
25 tn Aram “heart.”
26 sn The point of describing Nebuchadnezzar as arrogant is that he had usurped divine prerogatives, and because of his immense arrogance God had dealt decisively with him.
27 sn As is clear from the extra-biblical records, it was actually Nabonidus (ca. 556-539
28 sn This scene of a Babylonian banquet calls to mind a similar grandiose event recorded in Esth 1:3-8. Persian kings were also renowned in the ancient Near Eastern world for their lavish banquets.
29 sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.
30 tn Aram “the thousand.”
31 tn Aram “came forth.”
32 sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.
33 tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.