Psalms 37:28

37:28 For the Lord promotes justice,

and never abandons his faithful followers.

They are permanently secure,

but the children of evil men are wiped out.

Psalms 109:13

109:13 May his descendants be cut off!

May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives!

Psalms 109:1

Psalm 109

For the music director, a psalm of David.

109:1 O God whom I praise, do not ignore me! 10 

Psalms 13:1

Psalm 13 11 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? 12 

How long will you pay no attention to me? 13 

Job 18:16-19

18:16 Below his roots dry up,

and his branches wither above.

18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,

he has no name in the land. 14 

18:18 He is driven 15  from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

18:19 He has neither children nor descendants 16  among his people,

no survivor in those places he once stayed. 17 

Job 20:28

20:28 A flood will carry off his house,

rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.

Isaiah 14:20

14:20 You will not be buried with them, 18 

because you destroyed your land

and killed your people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never be mentioned again.

Malachi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) 19  “For indeed the day 20  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It 21  will not leave even a root or branch.


tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the Lord’s commitment to principles of justice causes him to actively promote these principles as he governs the world. The active participle describes characteristic behavior.

tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to this generalizing statement.

tn Or “protected forever.”

tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

tn Or “cut off”; or “removed.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 28b state general truths.

tn Or “offspring.”

sn On the expression cut off see Ps 37:28.

tn Heb “in another generation may their name be wiped out.”

sn Psalm 109. Appealing to God’s justice, the psalmist asks God to vindicate him and to bring severe judgment down upon his enemies.

10 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”

11 sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.

12 tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”

13 tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”

14 tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.

15 tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.

16 tn The two words נִין (nin, “offspring”) and נֶכֶד (nekhed, “posterity”) are always together and form an alliteration. This is hard to capture in English, but some have tried: Moffatt had “son and scion,” and Tur-Sinai had “breed or brood.” But the words are best simply translated as “lineage and posterity” or as in the NIV “offspring or descendants.”

17 tn Heb “in his sojournings.” The verb גּוּר (gur) means “to reside; to sojourn” temporarily, without land rights. Even this word has been selected to stress the temporary nature of his stay on earth.

18 tn Heb “you will not be united with them in burial” (so NASB).

19 sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

20 sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

21 tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.