Lamentations 3:59

3:59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

pronounce judgment on my behalf! ¹ 

Psalms 10:14

10:14 You have taken notice, ² 

for ³  you always see ⁴  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ⁵ 

The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ⁶ 

you deliver ⁷  the fatherless. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 11:19-20

11:19 Before this I had been like a docile lamb ready to be led to the slaughter.

I did not know they were making plans to kill me. ⁹ 

I did not know they were saying, ¹⁰ 

“Let’s destroy the tree along with its fruit! ¹¹ 

Let’s remove Jeremiah ¹²  from the world of the living

so people will not even be reminded of him any more.” ¹³ 

11:20 So I said to the Lord, ¹⁴ 

“O Lord who rules over all, ¹⁵  you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds. ¹⁶ 

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ¹⁷ 

[3:59]  ¹ tn Heb “Please judge my judgment.”

[10:14]  ² tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”

[10:14]  ³ tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”

[10:14]  ⁴ tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.

[10:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “to give into your hand, upon you, he abandons, [the] unfortunate [one].” The syntax is awkward and the meaning unclear. It is uncertain who or what is being given into God’s hand. Elsewhere the idiom “give into the hand” means to deliver into one’s possession. If “to give” goes with what precedes (as the accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests), then this may refer to the wicked man being delivered over to God for judgment. The present translation assumes that “to give” goes with what follows (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The verb יַעֲזֹב (ya’azov) here has the nuance “entrust” (see Gen 39:6; Job 39:11); the direct object (“[his] cause”) is implied.

[10:14]  ⁷ tn Or “help.”

[10:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “[for] one who is fatherless, you are a deliverer.” The noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9).

[11:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “against me.” The words “to kill me” are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:19]  ¹⁰ tn The words “I did not know that they were saying” are not in the text. The quote is without formal introduction in the original. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:19]  ¹¹ tn This word and its pronoun (לַחְמוֹ, lakhmo, “its bread”) is often emended to read “in/with its sap” = “in its prime” (either לֵחוֹ [lekho] or לֵחְמוֹ [lekhÿmo]); the latter would be more likely and the מוֹ (mo) could be explained as a rare use of the old poetic third plural suffix for the third singular; cf. GKC 258 §91.l for general use and Ps 11:7 and Job 27:23 for third singular use. Though this fits the context nicely the emendation is probably unnecessary since the word “bread” is sometimes used of other foodstuff than grain or its products (cf. BDB 537 s.v. לֶחֶם 2.a).

[11:19]  ¹² tn Heb “cut it [or him] off.” The metaphor of the tree may be continued, though the verb “cut off” is used also of killing people. The rendering clarifies the meaning of the metaphor.

[11:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “so that his name will not be remembered any more.”

[11:20]  ¹⁴ tn The words “So I said to the Lord” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift in address.

[11:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Lord of armies, just judge, tester of kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style. In Hebrew thought the “kidneys” were thought of as the seat of the emotions and passions and the “heart” was viewed as the seat of intellect, conscience, and will. The “heart” and the “kidneys” are often used figuratively for the thoughts, emotions, motives, and drives that are thought to be seated in them.

[11:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Let me see your retribution [i.e., see you exact retribution] from them because I reveal my cause [i.e., plea for justice] to you.”