10:7 His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; 1
his tongue injures and destroys. 2
10:8 He waits in ambush near the villages; 3
in hidden places he kills the innocent.
His eyes look for some unfortunate victim. 4
10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; 5
he lies in ambush, waiting to catch 6 the oppressed;
he catches the oppressed 7 by pulling in his net. 8
10:10 His victims are crushed and beaten down;
they are trapped in his sturdy nets. 9
64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent 10 in secluded places.
They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. 11
64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. 12
They plan how to hide 13 snares,
and boast, 14 “Who will see them?” 15
64:6 They devise 16 unjust schemes;
they disguise 17 a well-conceived plot. 18
Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. 19
82:2 He says, 20 “How long will you make unjust legal decisions
and show favoritism to the wicked? 21 (Selah)
82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! 22
Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!
82:4 Rescue the poor and needy!
Deliver them from the power 23 of the wicked!
82:5 They 24 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 25 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 26
18:18 Then some people 27 said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! 28 There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. 29 Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! 30 Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 31 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 32
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 33
they hunt their own brother with a net. 34
1 tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”
2 tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.
3 tn Heb “he sits in the ambush of the villages.”
4 tn Heb “his eyes for an unfortunate person lie hidden.” The language may picture a lion (see v. 9) peering out from its hiding place in anticipation that an unsuspecting victim will soon come strolling along.
5 tn Or “in its den.”
6 tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.
7 tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.
8 tn Or “when he [i.e., the wicked man] pulls in his net.”
9 tn Heb “he crushes, he is bowed down, and he falls into his strong [ones], [the] unfortunate [ones].” This verse presents several lexical and syntactical difficulties. The first word (יִדְכֶּה, yidekeh) is an otherwise unattested Qal form of the verb דָּכָה (dakhah, “crush”). (The Qere [marginal] form is imperfect; the consonantal text [Kethib] has the perfect with a prefixed conjunction vav [ו].) If the wicked man’s victim is the subject, which seems to be the case (note the two verbs which follow), then the form should be emended to a Niphal (יִדָּכֶה, yiddakheh). The phrase בַּעֲצוּמָיו (ba’atsumayv, “into his strong [ones]”), poses interpretive problems. The preposition -בְּ (bet) follows the verb נָפַל (nafal, “fall”), so it may very well carry the nuance “into” here, with “his strong [ones]” then referring to something into which the oppressed individual falls. Since a net is mentioned in the preceding verse as the instrument used to entrap the victim, it is possible that “strong [ones]” here refers metonymically to the wicked man’s nets or traps. Ps 35:8 refers to a man falling into a net (רֶשֶׁת, reshet), as does Ps 141:10 (where the plural of מִכְמָר [mikhmar, “net”] is used). A hunter’s net (רֶשֶׁת), is associated with snares (פַּח [pakh], מֹקְשִׁים, [moqÿshim]) and ropes (חֲבָלִים, khavalim) in Ps 140:5. The final word in the verse (חֶלְכָּאִים (khelka’im, “unfortunate [ones]”) may be an alternate form of חֵלְכָח (khelkhakh, “unfortunate [one]”; see vv. 8, 14). The Qere (marginal reading) divides the form into two words, חֵיל כָּאִים (khel ka’im, “army/host of disheartened [ones]”). The three verb forms in v. 10 are singular because the representative “oppressed” individual is the grammatical subject (see the singular עָנִי [’aniy] in v. 9).
10 tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.
11 tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
12 tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”
13 tn Heb “they report about hiding.”
14 tn Heb “they say.”
15 tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).
16 tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”
17 tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew
18 tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.
19 tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.
20 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to indicate that the following speech is God’s judicial decision (see v. 1).
21 tn Heb “and the face of the wicked lift up.”
22 tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).
23 tn Heb “hand.”
24 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
25 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
26 sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).
27 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
28 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
29 tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”
30 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
31 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
32 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
33 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
34 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.
35 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.