Psalms 34:14

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right!

Strive for peace and promote it!

Psalms 36:4

36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;

he is committed to a sinful lifestyle;

he does not reject what is evil.

Psalms 45:7

45:7 You love justice and hate evil.

For this reason God, your God has anointed you

with the oil of joy, elevating you above your companions. 10 

Psalms 97:10

97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!

He protects 11  the lives of his faithful followers;

he delivers them from the power 12  of the wicked.

Psalms 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. 13 

I hate doing evil; 14 

I will have no part of it. 15 

Psalms 119:104

119:104 Your precepts give me discernment.

Therefore I hate all deceitful actions. 16 

Psalms 119:163

119:163 I hate and despise deceit;

I love your law.

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate 17  evil;

I hate arrogant pride 18  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. 19 

Amos 5:15

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote 20  justice at the city gate! 21 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on 22  those who are left from 23  Joseph. 24 

Hebrews 1:9

1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions 25  with the oil of rejoicing. 26 


tn Or “do good.”

tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.

tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.

sn To love justice means to actively promote it.

sn To hate evil means to actively oppose it.

tn For other examples of the repetition of Elohim, “God,” see Pss 43:4; 48:8, 14; 50:7; 51:14; 67:7. Because the name Yahweh (“Lord”) is relatively rare in Pss 42-83, where the name Elohim (“God”) predominates, this compounding of Elohim may be an alternative form of the compound name “the Lord my/your/our God.”

sn Anointed you. When read in the light of the preceding context, the anointing is most naturally taken as referring to the king’s coronation. However, the following context (vv. 8-9) focuses on the wedding ceremony, so some prefer to see this anointing as part of the king’s preparations for the wedding celebration. Perhaps the reference to his anointing at his coronation facilitates the transition to the description of the wedding, for the king was also anointed on this occasion.

sn The phrase oil of joy alludes to the fact that the coronation of the king, which was ritually accomplished by anointing his head with olive oil, was a time of great celebration and renewed hope. (If one understands the anointing in conjunction with the wedding ceremony, the “joy” would be that associated with the marriage.) The phrase “oil of joy” also appears in Isa 61:3, where mourners are granted “oil of joy” in conjunction with their deliverance from oppression.

10 tn Heb “from your companions.” The “companions” are most naturally understood as others in the royal family or, more generally, as the king’s countrymen.

11 tn The participle may be verbal, though it might also be understood as substantival and appositional to “the Lord.” In this case one could translate, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, the one who protects the lives…and delivers them.”

12 tn Heb “hand.”

13 tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

14 tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

15 tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

16 tn Heb “every false path.”

17 tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

18 tn Since both גֵּאָה (geah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (gaon, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (gaah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

19 tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

20 tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

21 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

22 tn Or “will show favor to.”

23 tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

24 sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

25 sn God…has anointed you over your companions. God’s anointing gives the son a superior position and authority over his fellows.

26 sn A quotation from Ps 45:6-7.