7:9 May the evil deeds of the wicked 1 come to an end! 2
But make the innocent 3 secure, 4
O righteous God,
you who examine 5 inner thoughts and motives! 6
7:2 Otherwise they will rip 7 me 8 to shreds like a lion;
they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me. 9
21:12 For you make them retreat 10
when you shoot your arrows at them. 11
2:34 Even your clothes are stained with
the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong;
you did not catch them breaking into your homes. 12
Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, 13
1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.
I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, 14
those who think to themselves, 15
‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ 16
1 tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.
2 tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation here.
3 tn Or “the godly” (see Ps 5:12). The singular form is collective (see the plural “upright in heart” in v. 10), though it may reflect the personal focus of the psalmist in this context.
4 tn The prefixed verbal form expresses the psalmist’s prayer or wish.
5 tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 11:4; 26:2; 139:23.
6 tn Heb “and [the one who] tests hearts and kidneys, just God.” The translation inverts the word order to improve the English style. The heart and kidneys were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.
7 tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew text, even though “all who chase me” in v. 1 refers to a whole group of enemies. The singular is also used in vv. 4-5, but the psalmist returns to the plural in v. 6. The singular is probably collective, emphasizing the united front that the psalmist’s enemies present. This same alternation between a collective singular and a plural referring to enemies appears in Pss 9:3, 6; 13:4; 31:4, 8; 41:6, 10-11; 42:9-10; 55:3; 64:1-2; 74:3-4; 89:22-23; 106:10-11; 143:3, 6, 9.
8 tn Heb “my life.” The pronominal suffix attached to נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is equivalent to a personal pronoun. See Ps 6:3.
9 tn Heb “tearing and there is no one rescuing.” The verbal form translated “tearing” is a singular active participle.
10 tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”
11 tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”
12 tn The words “for example” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification. This is only one example of why their death was not legitimate.
13 tn KJV and ASV read this line with 2:34. The ASV makes little sense and the KJV again erroneously reads the archaic second person feminine singular perfect as first person common singular. All the modern English versions and commentaries take this line with 2:35.
14 tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.
15 tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”
16 tn Heb “The