Job 21:15

21:15 Who is the Almighty, that ¹  we should serve him?

What would we gain

if we were to pray ²  to him?’ ³ 

Psalms 10:11-13

10:11 He says to himself, ⁴ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ⁵ 

10:12 Rise up, Lord! ⁶ 

O God, strike him down! ⁷ 

Do not forget the oppressed!

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ⁸ 

He says to himself, ⁹  “You ¹⁰  will not hold me accountable.” ¹¹ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ¹² 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ¹³  “There is no God.” ¹⁴ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ¹⁵ 

none of them does what is right. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 94:7

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 5:19

5:19 They say, “Let him hurry, let him act quickly, ¹⁸ 

so we can see;

let the plan of the Holy One of Israel ¹⁹  take shape ²⁰  and come to pass,

then we will know it!”

Jeremiah 10:5

10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot talk.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them

because they cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.” ²¹ 

Ezekiel 8:12

8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? ²²  For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”

Ezekiel 9:9

9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ²³  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ²⁴ 

Malachi 3:14-15

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ²⁵  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ²⁶  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ²⁷  In fact, those who challenge ²⁸  God escape!’”

Malachi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ²⁹  like a launderer’s soap.

Malachi 3:4

3:4 The offerings ³⁰  of Judah and Jerusalem ³¹  will be pleasing to the Lord as in former times and years past.

[21:15]  ¹ tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”

[21:15]  ² tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.

[21:15]  ³ tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.

[10:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[10:12]  ⁶ sn Rise up, O Lord! The psalmist’s mood changes from lament to petition and confidence.

[10:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift up your hand.” Usually the expression “lifting the hand” refers to praying (Pss 28:2; 134:2) or making an oath (Ps 106:26), but here it probably refers to “striking a blow” (see 2 Sam 18:28; 20:21). Note v. 15, where the psalmist asks the Lord to “break the arm of the wicked.” A less likely option is that the psalmist is requesting that the Lord declare by oath his intention to intervene.

[10:13]  ⁸ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

[10:13]  ⁹ 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?”

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

[10:13]  ¹¹ 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.”

[14:1]  ¹² sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ¹⁴ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[94:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[5:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “let his work hurry, let it hasten.” The pronoun “his” refers to God, as the parallel line makes clear. The reference to his “work” alludes back to v. 12, which refers to his ‘work” of judgment. With these words the people challenged the prophet’s warning of approaching judgment. They were in essence saying that they saw no evidence that God was about to work in such a way.

[5:19]  ¹⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[5:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “draw near” (so NASB); NRSV “hasten to fulfillment.”

[10:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[8:12]  ²² tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:9]  ²³ tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”

[9:9]  ²⁴ sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[3:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ²⁶ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[3:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ²⁸ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[3:2]  ²⁹ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[3:4]  ³⁰ tn Or “gift.”

[3:4]  ³¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.