Psalms 40:4

40:4 How blessed ¹  is the one ²  who trusts in the Lord ³ 

and does not seek help from ⁴  the proud or from liars! ⁵ 

Psalms 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. ⁶ 

I hate doing evil; ⁷ 

I will have no part of it. ⁸ 

Psalms 101:1

Psalm 101 ⁹ 

A psalm of David.

101:1 I will sing about loyalty and justice!

To you, O Lord, I will sing praises!

Psalms 10:13-14

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ¹⁰ 

He says to himself, ¹¹  “You ¹²  will not hold me accountable.” ¹³ 

10:14 You have taken notice, ¹⁴ 

for ¹⁵  you always see ¹⁶  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ¹⁷ 

The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ¹⁸ 

you deliver ¹⁹  the fatherless. ²⁰ 

Proverbs 14:14

14:14 The backslider ²¹  will be paid back ²²  from his own ways,

but a good person will be rewarded ²³  for his.

Jeremiah 2:19

2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.

Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ²⁴ 

Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ²⁵ 

it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ²⁶ 

to show no respect for me,” ²⁷ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ²⁸ 

Zephaniah 1:6

1:6 and those who turn their backs on ²⁹  the Lord

and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.” ³⁰ 

Hebrews 10:38

10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I ³¹  take no pleasure in him. ³² 

¹ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

² tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.

³ tn Heb “who has made the Lord his [object of] trust.”

⁴ tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”

⁵ tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”

⁶ tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

⁷ tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

⁸ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

⁹ sn Psalm 101. The psalmist, who appears to be a king, promises to promote justice in his land and vows to rid his royal court of evildoers.

¹⁰ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

¹¹ tn Heb “he says in his heart” (see vv. 6, 11). Another option is to understand an ellipsis of the interrogative particle here (cf. the preceding line), “Why does he say in his heart?”

¹² tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

¹³ tn Heb “you will not seek.” The verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as generalizing about what is typical and translate, “you do not hold [people] accountable.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”

¹⁵ tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”

¹⁶ tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.

¹⁷ tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.

¹⁸ 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.

¹⁹ tn Or “help.”

²⁰ 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).

²¹ tn Heb “a turning away of heart.” The genitive לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a backslidden heart.” The term סוּג (sug) means “to move away; to move backwards; to depart; to backslide” (BDB 690 s.v. I סוּג). This individual is the one who backslides, that is, who departs from the path of righteousness.

²² tn Heb “will be filled”; cf. KJV, ASV. The verb (“to be filled, to be satisfied”) here means “to be repaid,” that is, to partake in his own evil ways. His faithlessness will come back to haunt him.

²³ tn The phrase “will be rewarded” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

²⁴ tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”

²⁵ tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.

²⁶ tn Heb “to leave the Lord your God.” The change in person is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, which is common in Hebrew style but not in English, from third to first person between this line and the next.

²⁷ tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”

²⁸ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord God see the study note on 1:6. For the title “who rules over all” see the following study note. The title “the Lord who rules over all” is a way of rendering the title “Yahweh of armies.” It is an abbreviation of a longer title “Yahweh the God of armies” which occurs five times in Jeremiah (see, e.g., 44:7). The abbreviated title occurs seventy-seven times in the book of Jeremiah. On thirty-two occasions it is further qualified by the title “the God of Israel,” showing his special relation to Israel. On six occasions it is preceded by the title “Lord” (see, e.g., 46:10) and twice it is preceded by the title “the King” (see, e.g., 51:17). Both titles emphasize his sovereignty. Twice it is said that he is the maker of all things (10:16; 51:19), and once it is said that he made the earth and the people and animals on it and gives them into the control of whomever he wishes (27:4-5). On two occasions it is emphasized that he also made the heavenly elements and controls the natural elements of wind, rain, thunder, and hail (31:35; 51:14-16). All this is consistent with usage elsewhere where the “armies” over which he has charge are identified as (1) the angels which surround his throne (Isa 6:3, 5; 1 Kgs 22:19) and which he sends to protect his servants (2 Kgs 6:17), (2) the natural forces of thunder, rain, and hail (Isa 29:6; Josh 10:11; Judg 5:4, 5) through which he sends the enemy into panic and “gums” up their chariot wheels, (3) the armies of Israel (1 Sam 17:45) which he leads into battle (Num 10:34-35; Josh 5:14, 15) and for whom he fights as a mighty warrior (Exod 15:3; Isa 42:13; Ps 24:8), and even (4) the armies of the nations which he musters against his disobedient people (Isa 13:14). This title is most commonly found in the messenger formula “Thus says…” introducing both oracles of judgment (on Israel [e.g., 9:7, 15] and on the nations [e.g. 46:19; 50:18]; and see in general 25:29-32). It emphasizes his sovereignty as the king and creator, the lord of creation and of history, and the just judge who sees and knows all (11:20; 20:12) and judges each person and nation according to their actions (Jer 32:18-19). In the first instance (in the most dominant usage) this will involve the punishment of his own people through the agency of the Babylonians (cf., e.g., 25:8-9). But it will also include the punishment of all nations, including Babylon itself (cf. Jer 25:17-26, 32-38), and will ultimately result in the restoration of his people and a new relation with them (30:8; 31:35-37).

²⁹ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after.”

³⁰ tn Heb “who do not seek the Lord and do not inquire of him.” The present translation assumes the first verb refers to praying for divine help and the second to seeking his revealed will through an oracle. Note the usage of the two verbs in 2 Chr 20:3-4.

³¹ tn Grk “my soul.”

³² sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.