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 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ⁸  of the oppressed; ⁹ 

he did not ignore him; ¹⁰ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹¹ 

Psalms 34:6

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

he saved him ¹²  from all his troubles.

Psalms 69:33

69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;

he does not despise his captive people. ¹³ 

Psalms 102:17-20

102:17 when he responds to the prayer of the destitute, ¹⁴ 

and does not reject ¹⁵  their request. ¹⁶ 

102:18 The account of his intervention ¹⁷  will be recorded for future generations;

people yet to be born will praise the Lord.

102:19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; ¹⁸ 

from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, ¹⁹ 

102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,

and to set free those condemned to die, ²⁰ 

Psalms 109:31

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

to deliver him from those who threaten ²¹  his life.

Psalms 140:12

140:12 I know ²²  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ²³ 

Job 5:15-16

5:15 So he saves ²⁴  from the sword that comes from their mouth, ²⁵ 

even ²⁶  the poor from the hand of the powerful.

5:16 Thus the poor have hope,

and iniquity ²⁷  shuts its mouth. ²⁸ 

Proverbs 22:22-23

22:22 Do not exploit ²⁹  a poor person because he is poor

and do not crush the needy in court, ³⁰ 

22:23 for the Lord will plead their case ³¹ 

and will rob those who are robbing ³²  them.

[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).

[22:24]  ⁸ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ⁹ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “heard.”

[34:6]  ¹² tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[69:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

[102:17]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “despise.”

[102:17]  ¹⁶ 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.

[102:18]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text has simply “this,” referring to the anticipated divine intervention on behalf of Zion (vv. 13, 16-17). The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[102:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”

[102:19]  ¹⁹ tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.

[102:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.

[109:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “judge.”

[140:12]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”

[5:15]  ²⁴ tn The verb, the Hiphil preterite of יָשַׁע (yasha’, “and he saves”) indicates that by frustrating the plans of the wicked God saves the poor. So the vav (ו) consecutive shows the result in the sequence of the verses.

[5:15]  ²⁵ tn The juxtaposition of “from the sword from their mouth” poses translation difficulties. Some mss do not have the preposition on “their mouth,” but render the expression as a construct: “from the sword of their mouth.” This would mean their tongue, and by metonymy, what they say. The expression “from their mouth” corresponds well with “from the hand” in the next colon. And as E. Dhorme (Job, 67) notes, what is missing is a parallel in the first part with “the poor” in the second. So he follows Cappel in repointing “from the sword” as a Hophal participle, מֹחֳרָב (mokhorav), meaning “the ruined.” If a change is required, this has the benefit of only changing the pointing. The difficulty with this is that the word “desolate, ruined” is not used for people, but only to cities, lands, or mountains. The sense of the verse can be supported from the present pointing: “from the sword [which comes] from their mouth”; the second phrase could also be in apposition, meaning, “from the sword, i.e., from their mouth.”

[5:15]  ²⁶ tn If the word “poor” is to do double duty, i.e., serving as the object of the verb “saves” in the first colon as well as the second, then the conjunction should be explanatory.

[5:16]  ²⁷ tn Other translations render this “injustice” (NIV, NRSV, CEV) or “unrighteousness” (NASB).

[5:16]  ²⁸ tn The verse summarizes the result of God’s intervention in human affairs, according to Eliphaz’ idea that even-handed justice prevails. Ps 107:42 parallels v. 16b.

[22:22]  ²⁹ tn Two negated jussives form the instruction here: אַל־תִּגְזָל (’al-tigzal, “do not exploit”) and וְאַל־תְּדַכֵּא (ve’al-tÿdakke’, “do not crush”).

[22:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the gate” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “at the gate.” The “gate” of the city was the center of activity, the place of business as well as the place for settling legal disputes. The language of the next verse suggests a legal setting, so “court” is an appropriate translation here.

[22:23]  ³¹ tn The construction uses the verb יָרִיב (yariv) with its cognate accusative. It can mean “to strive,” but here it probably means “to argue a case, plead a case” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). How the Lord will do this is not specified – either through righteous people or by direct intervention.

[22:23]  ³² tn The verb קָבַע (qava’, “to rob; to spoil; to plunder”) is used here in both places to reflect the principle of talionic justice. What the oppressors did to the poor will be turned back on them by the Lord.