Psalms 10:13

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ¹ 

He says to himself, ²  “You ³  will not hold me accountable.” ⁴ 

Psalms 50:4

50:4 He summons the heavens above,

as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people. ⁵ 

Psalms 56:9

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ⁶ 

I know that God is on my side. ⁷ 

Psalms 138:3

138:3 When ⁸  I cried out for help, you answered me.

You made me bold and energized me. ⁹ 

[10:13]  ¹ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

[10:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

[10:13]  ⁴ 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.”

[50:4]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”

[56:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[138:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the day.”

[138:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you made me bold in my soul [with] strength.”