Judges 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ²  Otherwise ³  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Judges 9:23

9:23 God sent a spirit to stir up hostility ⁴  between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. He made the leaders of Shechem disloyal ⁵  to Abimelech.

Judges 9:56-57

9:56 God repaid Abimelech for the evil he did to his father by murdering his seventy half-brothers. ⁶  9:57 God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ⁷  on them.

Judges 7:22

7:22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords ⁸  throughout ⁹  the camp. The army fled to Beth Shittah on the way to Zererah. They went ¹⁰  to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

Judges 7:2

7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. ¹¹  Israel might brag, ¹²  ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ ¹³ 

Judges 20:22-23

20:22 The Israelite army ¹⁴  took heart ¹⁵  and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before. 20:23 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we ¹⁶  again march out to fight ¹⁷  the Benjaminites, our brothers?” ¹⁸  The Lord said, “Attack them!” ¹⁹ 

Psalms 21:9-10

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ²⁰  when you appear; ²¹ 

the Lord angrily devours them; ²² 

the fire consumes them.

21:10 You destroy their offspring ²³  from the earth,

their descendants ²⁴  from among the human race. ²⁵ 

Psalms 28:4

28:4 Pay them back for their evil deeds!

Pay them back for what they do!

Punish them! ²⁶ 

Psalms 52:1-5

Psalm 52 ²⁷ 

For the music director; a well-written song ²⁸  by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: “David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.” ²⁹ 

52:1 Why do you boast about your evil plans, ³⁰  O powerful man?

God’s loyal love protects me all day long! ³¹ 

52:2 Your tongue carries out your destructive plans; ³² 

it is as effective as a sharp razor, O deceiver. ³³ 

52:3 You love evil more than good,

lies more than speaking the truth. ³⁴  (Selah)

52:4 You love to use all the words that destroy, ³⁵ 

and the tongue that deceives.

52:5 Yet ³⁶  God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. ³⁷ 

He will scoop you up ³⁸  and remove you from your home; ³⁹ 

he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

Psalms 120:3-4

120:3 How will he severely punish you,

you deceptive talker? ⁴⁰ 

120:4 Here’s how! ⁴¹  With the sharp arrows of warriors,

with arrowheads forged over the hot coals. ⁴² 

Psalms 140:10

140:10 May he rain down ⁴³  fiery coals upon them!

May he throw them into the fire!

From bottomless pits they will not escape. ⁴⁴ 

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ³ tn Heb “If not.”

[9:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “an evil spirit.” A nonphysical, spirit being is in view, like the one who volunteered to deceive Ahab (1 Kgs 22:21). The traditional translation, “evil spirit,” implies the being is inherently wicked, perhaps even demonic, but this is not necessarily the case. The Hebrew adjective רָעַה (ra’ah) can have a nonethical sense, “harmful; dangerous; calamitous.” When modifying רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) it may simply indicate that the being in view causes harm to the object of God’s judgment. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 253) here refers to a “mischief-making spirit.”

[9:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “The leaders of Shechem were disloyal.” The words “he made” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:56]  ⁷ tn Heb “seventy brothers.”

[9:57]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “came.”

[7:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord set the sword of each one against his friend.”

[7:22]  ¹⁴ tc MT has “and throughout the camp,” but the conjunction (“and”) is due to dittography and should be dropped. Compare the ancient versions, which lack the conjunction here.

[7:22]  ¹⁵ tn The words “they went” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

[7:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

[7:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

[20:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “The people, the men of Israel.”

[20:22]  ²⁰ tn Or “encouraged one another.”

[20:23]  ²² tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:23]  ²³ tn Heb “approach for battle.”

[20:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

[20:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Go up against him” (collective singular).

[21:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).

[21:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

[21:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).

[21:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.

[21:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “seed.”

[21:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “sons of man.”

[28:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “Give to them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds. According to the work of their hands give to them. Return their due to them.” The highly repetitive style reflects the psalmist’s agitated emotional state and draws attention to his yearning for justice.

[52:1]  ³⁴ sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.

[52:1]  ³⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[52:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’”

[52:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Why do you boast in evil?”

[52:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the loyal love of God [is] all the day.” In this context, where the psalmist is threatened by his enemy, the point seems to be that the psalmist is protected by God’s loyal love at all times.

[52:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “destruction your tongue devises.”

[52:2]  ³⁸ tn Heb “like a sharpened razor, doer of deceit.” The masculine participle עָשָׂה (’asah) is understood as a substantival vocative, addressed to the powerful man.

[52:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “deceit more than speaking what is right.”

[52:4]  ⁴³ tn Heb “you love all the words of swallowing.” Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallowing” in the sense of “devouring” or “destructive” (see BDB 118 s.v. בָּלַע). HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע proposes a homonym here, meaning “confusion.” This would fit the immediate context nicely and provide a close parallel to the following line, which refers to deceptive words.

[52:5]  ⁴⁶ tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.

[52:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”

[52:5]  ⁴⁸ tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.

[52:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “from [your] tent.”

[120:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “What will he give to you, and what will he add to you, O tongue of deception?” The psalmist addresses his deceptive enemies. The Lord is the understood subject of the verbs “give” and “add.” The second part of the question echoes a standard curse formula, “thus the Lord/God will do … and thus he will add” (see Ruth 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17; 14:44; 20:13; 25:22; 2 Sam 3:9, 35; 19:13; 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Kgs 6:31).

[120:4]  ⁵² tn The words “here’s how” are supplied in the translation as a clarification. In v. 4 the psalmist answers the question he raises in v. 3.

[120:4]  ⁵³ tn Heb “with coals of the wood of the broom plant.” The wood of the broom plant was used to make charcoal, which in turn was used to fuel the fire used to forge the arrowheads.

[140:10]  ⁵⁵ tn The verb form in the Kethib (consonantal Hebrew text) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוּט (mut, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in Ps 55:3, where it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). In Ps 140:10 the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read.

[140:10]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “into bottomless pits, they will not arise.” The translation assumes that the preposition -בְּ (bet) has the nuance “from” here. Another option is to connect the line with what precedes, take the final clause as an asyndetic relative clause, and translate, “into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot arise.” The Hebrew noun מַהֲמֹרָה (mahamorah, “bottomless pit”) occurs only here in the OT.