10:14 You have taken notice, 1
for 2 you always see 3 one who inflicts pain and suffering. 4
The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; 5
you deliver 6 the fatherless. 7
22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering 8 of the oppressed; 9
he did not ignore him; 10
when he cried out to him, he responded. 11
34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;
he saved him 12 from all his troubles.
69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;
he does not despise his captive people. 13
102:17 when he responds to the prayer of the destitute, 14
and does not reject 15 their request. 16
102:18 The account of his intervention 17 will be recorded for future generations;
people yet to be born will praise the Lord.
102:19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; 18
from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, 19
102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,
and to set free those condemned to die, 20
109:31 because he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to deliver him from those who threaten 21 his life.
140:12 I know 22 that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed
and vindicates the poor. 23
5:15 So he saves 24 from the sword that comes from their mouth, 25
even 26 the poor from the hand of the powerful.
5:16 Thus the poor have hope,
and iniquity 27 shuts its mouth. 28
22:22 Do not exploit 29 a poor person because he is poor
and do not crush the needy in court, 30
22:23 for the Lord will plead their case 31
and will rob those who are robbing 32 them.
1 tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”
2 tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”
3 tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.
4 tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.
5 tn Heb “to give into your hand, upon you, he abandons, [the] unfortunate [one].” The syntax is awkward and the meaning unclear. It is uncertain who or what is being given into God’s hand. Elsewhere the idiom “give into the hand” means to deliver into one’s possession. If “to give” goes with what precedes (as the accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests), then this may refer to the wicked man being delivered over to God for judgment. The present translation assumes that “to give” goes with what follows (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The verb יַעֲזֹב (ya’azov) here has the nuance “entrust” (see Gen 39:6; Job 39:11); the direct object (“[his] cause”) is implied.
6 tn Or “help.”
7 tn Heb “[for] one who is fatherless, you are a deliverer.” The noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9).
8 tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”
9 sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.
10 tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).
11 tn Heb “heard.”
12 tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.
13 tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”
14 tn The Hebrew adjective עַרְעָר (’arar, “destitute”) occurs only here in the OT. It is derived from the verbal root ערר (“to strip oneself”).
15 tn Heb “despise.”
16 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 16-17 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 15.
17 tn The Hebrew text has simply “this,” referring to the anticipated divine intervention on behalf of Zion (vv. 13, 16-17). The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”
19 tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.
20 tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.
21 tn Heb “judge.”
22 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
23 tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”
24 tn The verb, the Hiphil preterite of יָשַׁע (yasha’, “and he saves”) indicates that by frustrating the plans of the wicked God saves the poor. So the vav (ו) consecutive shows the result in the sequence of the verses.
25 tn The juxtaposition of “from the sword from their mouth” poses translation difficulties. Some
26 tn If the word “poor” is to do double duty, i.e., serving as the object of the verb “saves” in the first colon as well as the second, then the conjunction should be explanatory.
27 tn Other translations render this “injustice” (NIV, NRSV, CEV) or “unrighteousness” (NASB).
28 tn The verse summarizes the result of God’s intervention in human affairs, according to Eliphaz’ idea that even-handed justice prevails. Ps 107:42 parallels v. 16b.
29 tn Two negated jussives form the instruction here: אַל־תִּגְזָל (’al-tigzal, “do not exploit”) and וְאַל־תְּדַכֵּא (ve’al-tÿdakke’, “do not crush”).
30 tn Heb “in the gate” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “at the gate.” The “gate” of the city was the center of activity, the place of business as well as the place for settling legal disputes. The language of the next verse suggests a legal setting, so “court” is an appropriate translation here.
31 tn The construction uses the verb יָרִיב (yariv) with its cognate accusative. It can mean “to strive,” but here it probably means “to argue a case, plead a case” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). How the
32 tn The verb קָבַע (qava’, “to rob; to spoil; to plunder”) is used here in both places to reflect the principle of talionic justice. What the oppressors did to the poor will be turned back on them by the