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 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ¹¹  of the oppressed; ¹² 

he did not ignore him; ¹³ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 34:6

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ¹⁵  from all his troubles.

Psalms 102:17

102:17 when he responds to the prayer of the destitute, ¹⁶ 

and does not reject ¹⁷  their request. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 3:7

3:7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen ¹⁹  the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ²⁰ 

Exodus 3:9

3:9 And now indeed ²¹  the cry ²²  of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. ²³ 

Luke 18:7-8

18:7 Won’t ²⁴  God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out ²⁵  to him day and night? ²⁶  Will he delay ²⁷  long to help them? 18:8 I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. ²⁸  Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith ²⁹  on earth?”

[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.”

[22:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ¹² sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heard.”

[34:6]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[102:17]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew adjective עַרְעָר (’arar, “destitute”) occurs only here in the OT. It is derived from the verbal root ערר (“to strip oneself”).

[102:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “despise.”

[102:17]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 16-17 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 15.

[3:7]  ¹⁹ tn The use of the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense intensifies the statement: I have surely seen – there is no doubt that I have seen and will do something about it.

[3:7]  ²⁰ sn Two new words are introduced now to the report of suffering: “affliction” and “pain/suffering.” These add to the dimension of the oppression of God’s people.

[3:9]  ²¹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

[3:9]  ²² tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”

[18:7]  ²⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[18:7]  ²⁵ sn The prayers have to do with the righteous who cry out to him to receive justice. The context assumes the righteous are persecuted.

[18:7]  ²⁶ tn The emphatic particles in this sentence indicate that God will indeed give justice to the righteous.

[18:7]  ²⁷ sn The issue of delay has produced a whole host of views for this verse. (1) Does this assume provision to endure in the meantime? Or (2) does it mean God restricts the level of persecution until he comes? Either view is possible.

[18:8]  ²⁸ tn Some argue this should be translated “suddenly.” When vindication comes it will be quick. But the more natural meaning is “soon.” God will not forget his elect and will respond to them. It may be that this verse has a prophetic perspective. In light of the eternity that comes, vindication is soon.

[18:8]  ²⁹ sn Will he find faith on earth? The Son of Man is looking for those who continue to believe in him, despite the wait.