5:6 You destroy 1 liars; 2
the Lord despises 3 violent and deceitful people. 4
58:3 The wicked turn aside from birth; 5
liars go astray as soon as they are born. 6
63:11 But the king 7 will rejoice in God;
everyone who takes oaths in his name 8 will boast,
for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. 9
9:3 The Lord says, 10
“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.
Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. 11
They have become powerful in the land,
but they have not done so by honest means. 12
Indeed, they do one evil thing after another 13
and do not pay attention to me. 14
4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, 15 for we are members of one another.
1 tn The imperfect verbal form indicates God’s typical response to such individuals. Another option is to translate the verb as future (“You will destroy”); the psalmist may be envisioning a time of judgment when God will remove the wicked from the scene.
2 tn Heb “those who speak a lie.” In the OT a “lie” does not refer in a general philosophical sense to any statement that fails to correspond to reality. Instead it refers more specifically to a slanderous and/or deceitful statement that promotes one’s own selfish, sinful interests and/or exploits or harms those who are innocent. Note the emphasis on violence and deceit in the following line.
3 tn The imperfect verbal form highlights the
4 tn Heb “a man of bloodshed and deceit.” The singular אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) is used here in a collective or representative sense; thus the translation “people” is appropriate here. Note the plural forms in vv. 5-6a.
5 tn Heb “from the womb.”
6 tn Heb “speakers of a lie go astray from the womb.”
7 sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.
8 tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”
9 tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.
10 tn The words “The
11 tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”
12 tn Heb “but not through honesty.”
13 tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”
14 tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).
15 sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.