Esther 5:14

5:14 Haman’s ¹  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ²  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ³ 

It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Job 27:20-23

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ⁴ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity ⁵ 

as he flees headlong from its power.

27:23 It claps ⁶  its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place. ⁷ 

Psalms 7:15-16

7:15 he digs a pit ⁸ 

and then falls into the hole he has made. ⁹ 

7:16 He becomes the victim of his own destructive plans ¹⁰ 

and the violence he intended for others falls on his own head. ¹¹ 

Psalms 35:8

35:8 Let destruction take them by surprise! ¹² 

Let the net they hid catch them!

Let them fall into destruction! ¹³ 

Psalms 141:10

141:10 Let the wicked fall ¹⁴  into their ¹⁵  own nets,

while I escape. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 11:5-6

11:5 The righteousness of the blameless will make straight their way, ¹⁷ 

but the wicked person will fall by his own wickedness. ¹⁸ 

11:6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, ¹⁹ 

but the faithless will be captured ²⁰  by their own desires. ²¹ 

[5:14]  ¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”

[5:14]  ³ tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”

[27:20]  ⁴ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[27:22]  ⁵ tn The verb is once again functioning in an adverbial sense. The text has “it hurls itself against him and shows no mercy.”

[27:23]  ⁶ tn If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”

[27:23]  ⁷ tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).

[7:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “a pit he digs and he excavates it.” Apparently the imagery of hunting is employed; the wicked sinner digs this pit to entrap and destroy his intended victim. The redundancy in the Hebrew text has been simplified in the translation.

[7:15]  ⁹ tn The verb forms in vv. 15-16 describe the typical behavior and destiny of those who attempt to destroy others. The image of the evildoer falling into the very trap he set for his intended victim emphasizes the appropriate nature of God’s judgment.

[7:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his harm [i.e., the harm he conceived for others, see v. 14] returns on his head.”

[7:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and on his forehead his violence [i.e., the violence he intended to do to others] comes down.”

[35:8]  ¹² tn Heb “let destruction [which] he does not know come to him.” The singular is used of the enemy in v. 8, probably in a representative or collective sense. The psalmist has more than one enemy, as vv. 1-7 make clear.

[35:8]  ¹³ tn The psalmist’s prayer for his enemies’ demise continues. See vv. 4-6.

[141:10]  ¹⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate, “the wicked will fall.”

[141:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his.”

[141:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “at the same [that] I, until I pass by.” Another option is to take יַחַד (yakhad) with the preceding line, “let the wicked fall together into their own nets.”

[11:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his way.”

[11:5]  ¹⁸ sn The righteous will enjoy security and serenity throughout life. Righteousness makes the path straight; wickedness destroys the wicked.

[11:6]  ¹⁹ sn The contrast is between being rescued or delivered (נָצַל, natsal) and being captured (לָכַד, lakhad). Righteousness is freeing; [evil] desires are enslaving.

[11:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “taken captive” (so NRSV); NIV, TEV “are trapped.”

[11:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “but by the desire of the faithless are they taken captive.”