119:7 I will give you sincere thanks, 1
when I learn your just regulations.
119:62 In the middle of the night I arise 2 to thank you
for your just regulations.
119:128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. 3
I hate all deceitful actions. 4
119:160 Your instructions are totally reliable;
all your just regulations endure. 5
32:4 As for the Rock, 6 his work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
He is a reliable God who is never unjust,
he is fair 7 and upright.
34:23 For he does not still consider a person, 8
that he should come before God in judgment.
12:1 Lord, you have always been fair
whenever I have complained to you. 9
However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. 10
Why are wicked people successful? 11
Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?
1 tn Heb “I will give you thanks with an upright heart.”
2 tn The psalmist uses an imperfect verbal form to emphasize that this is his continuing practice.
3 tn Heb “for this reason all the precepts of everything I regard as right.” The phrase “precepts of everything” is odd. It is preferable to take the kaf (כ) on כֹּל (kol, “everything) with the preceding form as a pronominal suffix, “your precepts,” and the lamed (ל) with the following verb as an emphatic particle. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 138.
4 tn Heb “every false path.”
5 tn Heb “the head of your word is truth, and forever [is] all your just regulation.” The term “head” is used here of the “sum total” of God’s instructions.
6 tc The LXX reads Θεός (qeos, “God”) for the MT’s “Rock.”
7 tn Or “just” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “righteous” (NASB).
8 tn Heb “for he does not put upon man yet.” This has been given a wide variety of interpretations, all of which involve a lot of additional thoughts. The word עוֹד (’od, “yet, still”) has been replaced with מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, “an appointed time,” Reiske and Wright), with the ם (mem) having dropped out by haplography. This makes good sense. If the MT is retained, the best interpretation would be that God does not any more consider (from “place upon the heart”) man, that he might appear in judgment.
9 tn Or “
10 tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).
11 tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”