9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; 1
this is the destiny of 2 all the nations that ignore 3 God,
52:5 Yet 4 God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. 5
He will scoop you up 6 and remove you from your home; 7
he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
52:6 When the godly see this, they will be filled with awe,
and will mock the evildoer, saying: 8
52:7 “Look, here is the man who would not make 9 God his protector!
He trusted in his great wealth
and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” 10
73:18 Surely 11 you put them in slippery places;
you bring them down 12 to ruin.
73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!
Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 13
73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. 14
O Lord, when you awake 15 you will despise them. 16
73:21 Yes, 17 my spirit was bitter, 18
and my insides felt sharp pain. 19
73:22 I was ignorant 20 and lacked insight; 21
I was as senseless as an animal before you. 22
73:23 But I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
73:24 You guide 23 me by your wise advice,
and then you will lead me to a position of honor. 24
73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
I desire no one but you on earth. 25
73:26 My flesh and my heart may grow weak, 26
but God always 27 protects my heart and gives me stability. 28
73:27 Yes, 29 look! Those far from you 30 die;
you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. 31
73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. 32
I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,
as 33 I declare all the things you have done.
14:32 The wicked will be thrown down in his trouble, 34
but the righteous have refuge 35 even in the threat of death. 36
28:15 For you say,
“We have made a treaty with death,
with Sheol 37 we have made an agreement. 38
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by 39
it will not reach us.
For we have made a lie our refuge,
we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” 40
28:18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; 41
your agreement 42 with Sheol will not last. 43
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, 44
you will be overrun by it. 45
1 tn Heb “the wicked turn back to Sheol.” The imperfect verbal form either emphasizes what typically happens or describes vividly the aftermath of the
2 tn The words “this is the destiny of” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The verb “are turned back” is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
3 tn Heb “forget.” “Forgetting God” refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see also Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 44:20). The nations’ refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty accounts for their brazen attempt to attack and destroy his people.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”
6 tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.
7 tn Heb “from [your] tent.”
8 tn Heb “and the godly will see and will fear and at him will laugh.”
9 tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”
10 tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).
11 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.
12 tn Heb “cause them to fall.”
13 tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”
14 tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.
15 sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.
16 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.
17 tn Or perhaps “when.”
18 tn The imperfect verbal form here describes a continuing attitude in a past time frame.
19 tn Heb “and [in] my kidneys I was pierced.” The imperfect verbal form here describes a continuing condition in a past time frame.
20 tn Or “brutish, stupid.”
21 tn Heb “and I was not knowing.”
22 tn Heb “an animal I was with you.”
23 tn The imperfect verbal form here suggests this is the psalmist’s ongoing experience.
24 tn Heb “and afterward [to] glory you will take me.” Some interpreters view this as the psalmist’s confidence in an afterlife in God’s presence and understand כָּבוֹד (cavod) as a metonymic reference to God’s presence in heaven. But this seems unlikely in the present context. The psalmist anticipates a time of vindication, when the wicked are destroyed and he is honored by God for his godly life style. The verb לָקַח (laqakh, “take”) here carries the nuance “lead, guide, conduct,” as in Num 23:14, 27-28; Josh 24:3 and Prov 24:11.
25 tn Heb “Who [is there] for me in heaven? And besides you I do not desire [anyone] in the earth.” The psalmist uses a merism (heaven/earth) to emphasize that God is the sole object of his desire and worship in the entire universe.
26 tn The Hebrew verb כָלָה (khalah, “to fail; to grow weak”) does not refer here to physical death per se, but to the physical weakness that sometimes precedes death (see Job 33:21; Pss 71:9; 143:7; Prov 5:11).
27 tn Or “forever.”
28 tn Heb “is the rocky summit of my heart and my portion.” The psalmist compares the
29 tn Or “for.”
30 sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.
31 tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”
32 tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”
33 tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).
34 tn The prepositional phrase must be “in his time of trouble” (i.e., when catastrophe comes). Cf. CEV “In times of trouble the wicked are destroyed.” A wicked person has nothing to fall back on in such times.
35 sn The righteous have hope in a just retribution – they have a place of safety even in death.
36 tc The LXX reads this as “in his integrity,” as if it were בְּתוּמּוֹ (bÿtumo) instead of “in his death” (בְּמוֹתוֹ, bÿmoto). The LXX is followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB “in his honesty,” NRSV “in their integrity,” and TEV “by their integrity”).
37 sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.
38 tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.
39 tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).
40 sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.
41 tn On the meaning of כָּפַר (kafar) in this context, see HALOT 494 s.v. I כפר and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:515, n. 9.
42 tn Normally the noun חָזוּת (khazut) means “vision.” See the note at v. 15.
43 tn Or “will not stand” (NIV, NRSV).
44 tn See the note at v. 15.
45 tn Heb “you will become a trampling place for it.”