12:8 for the wicked seem to be everywhere, 1
when people promote evil. 2
69:8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger;
they act as if I were a foreigner. 3
72:4 He will defend 4 the oppressed among the people;
he will deliver 5 the children 6 of the poor
and crush the oppressor.
Written by the Korahites; a psalm, a song.
87:1 The Lord’s city is in the holy hills. 8
115:16 The heavens belong to the Lord, 9
but the earth he has given to mankind. 10
145:12 so that mankind 11 might acknowledge your mighty acts,
and the majestic splendor of your kingdom.
147:9 He gives food to the animals,
and to the young ravens when they chirp. 12
1 tn Heb “the wicked walk all around.” One could translate v. 8a as an independent clause, in which case it would be a concluding observation in proverbial style. The present translation assumes that v. 8a is a subordinate explanatory clause, or perhaps a subordinate temporal clause (“while the wicked walk all around”). The adverb סָבִיב (saviv, “around”), in combination with the Hitpael form of the verb “walk” (which indicates repeated action), pictures the wicked as ubiquitous. They have seemingly overrun society.
2 tn Heb “when evil is lifted up by the sons of man.” The abstract noun זֻלּוּת (zulut, “evil”) occurs only here. On the basis of evidence from the cognate languages (see HALOT 272 s.v.), one might propose the meaning “base character,” or “morally foolish behavior.”
3 tn Heb “and I am estranged to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.”
5 tn Heb “judge [for].”
6 tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.
7 tn Heb “sons.”
7 sn Psalm 87. The psalmist celebrates the Lord’s presence in Zion and the special status of its citizens.
8 tn Heb “his foundation [is] in the hills of holiness.” The expression “his foundation” refers here by metonymy to the
9 tn Heb “the heavens [are] heavens to the
10 tn Heb “to the sons of man.”
11 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
13 tn Heb “which cry out.”