Psalms 10:14

10:14 You have taken notice, ¹ 

for ²  you always see ³  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ⁴ 

The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ⁵ 

you deliver ⁶  the fatherless. ⁷ 

Psalms 10:17

10:17 Lord, you have heard ⁸  the request ⁹  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 35:10

35:10 With all my strength I will say, ¹¹ 

“O Lord, who can compare to you?

You rescue ¹²  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ¹³ 

the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ¹⁴ 

Psalms 72:4

72:4 He will defend ¹⁵  the oppressed among the people;

he will deliver ¹⁶  the children ¹⁷  of the poor

and crush the oppressor.

Psalms 72:12-13

72:12 For he will rescue the needy ¹⁸  when they cry out for help,

and the oppressed ¹⁹  who have no defender.

72:13 He will take pity ²⁰  on the poor and needy;

the lives of the needy he will save.

Psalms 107:41

107:41 Yet he protected ²¹  the needy from oppression,

and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.

Psalms 109:31

109:31 because he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to deliver him from those who threaten ²²  his life.

Psalms 140:12

140:12 I know ²³  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ²⁴ 

[10:14]  ¹ tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”

[10:14]  ² tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”

[10:14]  ³ tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.

[10:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.

[10:14]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “help.”

[10:14]  ⁷ 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).

[10:17]  ⁸ sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

[10:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “desire.”

[10:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

[35:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all my bones will say.”

[35:10]  ¹² tn Heb “[the one who] rescues.” The substantival participle in the Hebrew text characterizes God as one who typically rescues the oppressed.

[35:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “from [the one who is] too strong for him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense. The typical oppressed individual and typical oppressor are in view.

[35:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the oppressed [one] and needy [one] from [the one who] robs him.” As in the previous line, the singular forms are used in a representative sense.

[72:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “judge [for].”

[72:4]  ¹⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

[72:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sons.”

[72:12]  ¹⁸ tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.

[72:12]  ¹⁹ tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.

[72:13]  ²⁰ tn The prefixed verb form is best understood as a defectively written imperfect (see Deut 7:16).

[107:41]  ²¹ tn Heb “set on high.”

[109:31]  ²² tn Heb “judge.”

[140:12]  ²³ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.

[140:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”