Psalms 10:11

10:11 He says to himself, ¹ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ² 

Psalms 10:13

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ³ 

He says to himself, ⁴  “You ⁵  will not hold me accountable.” ⁶ 

Psalms 73:11

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

Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” ⁷ 

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.” ⁸ 

94:8 Take notice of this, ⁹  you ignorant people! ¹⁰ 

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? ¹¹ 

Job 22:12-13

22:12 “Is not God on high in heaven? ¹² 

And see ¹³  the lofty stars, ¹⁴  how high they are!

22:13 But you have said, ‘What does God know?

Does he judge through such deep darkness? ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 33:24

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹⁶  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁷  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁸ 

[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.”

[10:13]  ³ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

[10:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

[10:13]  ⁶ 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.”

[73:11]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[94:8]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[22:12]  ¹² tn This reading preserves the text as it is. The nouns “high” and “heavens” would then be taken as adverbial accusatives of place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).

[22:12]  ¹³ tn The parallel passage in Isa 40:26-27, as well as the context here, shows that the imperative is to be retained here. The LXX has “he sees.”

[22:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “head of the stars.”

[22:13]  ¹⁵ sn Eliphaz is giving to Job the thoughts and words of the pagans, for they say, “How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?” (see Ps 73:11; 94:11).

[33:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).