Psalms 10:11

10:11 He says to himself, ¹ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ² 

Psalms 59:7

59:7 Look, they hurl insults at me

and openly threaten to kill me, ³ 

for they say, ⁴ 

“Who hears?”

Psalms 73:11

73:11 They say, “How does God know what we do?

Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” ⁵ 

Psalms 94:7-9

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

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” ⁶ 

94:8 Take notice of this, ⁷  you ignorant people! ⁸ 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ⁹ 

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? ¹⁰  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, ¹¹  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ¹² 

Zephaniah 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹³ 

those who think to themselves, ¹⁴ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ¹⁵ 

[10:11]  ¹ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ² tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[59:7]  ³ tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”

[59:7]  ⁴ tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.

[73:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” They appear to be practical atheists, who acknowledge God’s existence and sovereignty in theory, but deny his involvement in the world (see Pss 10:4, 11; 14:1).

[94:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[94:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[8:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:9]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[1:12]  ¹³ 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.

[1:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”