Psalms 10:15

10:15 Break the arm ¹  of the wicked and evil man!

Hold him accountable for his wicked deeds, ² 

which he thought you would not discover. ³ 

Psalms 5:4

5:4 Certainly ⁴  you are not a God who approves of evil; ⁵ 

evil people ⁶  cannot dwell with you. ⁷ 

Psalms 45:7

45:7 You love ⁸  justice and hate evil. ⁹ 

For this reason God, your God ¹⁰  has anointed you ¹¹ 

with the oil of joy, ¹²  elevating you above your companions. ¹³ 

Psalms 84:10

84:10 Certainly ¹⁴  spending just one day in your temple courts is better

than spending a thousand elsewhere. ¹⁵ 

I would rather stand at the entrance ¹⁶  to the temple of my God

than live ¹⁷  in the tents of the wicked.

Psalms 125:3

125:3 Indeed, ¹⁸  the scepter of a wicked king ¹⁹  will not settle ²⁰ 

upon the allotted land of the godly.

Otherwise the godly might

do what is wrong. ²¹ 

Psalms 141:4

141:4 Do not let me have evil desires, ²² 

or participate in sinful activities

with men who behave wickedly. ²³ 

I will not eat their delicacies. ²⁴ 

[10:15]  ¹ sn The arm symbolizes the strength of the wicked, which they use to oppress and exploit the weak.

[10:15]  ² tn Heb “you seek his wickedness.” As in v. 13, the verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as describing a fact, “you hold him accountable,” or as anticipating divine judgment, “you will hold him accountable.” However, since the verb is in apparent parallelism with the preceding imperative (“break”), it is better to understand the imperfect as expressing the psalmist’s desire or request.

[10:15]  ³ tn Heb “you will not find.” It is uncertain how this statement relates to what precedes. Some take בַל (bal), which is used as a negative particle in vv. 4, 6, 11, 18, as asseverative here, “Indeed find (i.e., judge his wickedness).” The translation assumes that the final words are an asyndetic relative clause which refers back to what the wicked man boasted in God’s face (“you will not find [i.e., my wickedness]”). See v. 13.

[5:4]  ⁴ tn Or “for.”

[5:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”

[5:4]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).

[5:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.

[45:7]  ⁷ sn To love justice means to actively promote it.

[45:7]  ⁸ sn To hate evil means to actively oppose it.

[45:7]  ⁹ tn For other examples of the repetition of Elohim, “God,” see Pss 43:4; 48:8, 14; 50:7; 51:14; 67:7. Because the name Yahweh (“Lord”) is relatively rare in Pss 42-83, where the name Elohim (“God”) predominates, this compounding of Elohim may be an alternative form of the compound name “the Lord my/your/our God.”

[45:7]  ¹⁰ sn Anointed you. When read in the light of the preceding context, the anointing is most naturally taken as referring to the king’s coronation. However, the following context (vv. 8-9) focuses on the wedding ceremony, so some prefer to see this anointing as part of the king’s preparations for the wedding celebration. Perhaps the reference to his anointing at his coronation facilitates the transition to the description of the wedding, for the king was also anointed on this occasion.

[45:7]  ¹¹ sn The phrase oil of joy alludes to the fact that the coronation of the king, which was ritually accomplished by anointing his head with olive oil, was a time of great celebration and renewed hope. (If one understands the anointing in conjunction with the wedding ceremony, the “joy” would be that associated with the marriage.) The phrase “oil of joy” also appears in Isa 61:3, where mourners are granted “oil of joy” in conjunction with their deliverance from oppression.

[45:7]  ¹² tn Heb “from your companions.” The “companions” are most naturally understood as others in the royal family or, more generally, as the king’s countrymen.

[84:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for.”

[84:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”

[84:10]  ¹² tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).

[84:10]  ¹³ tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.

[125:3]  ¹³ tn Or “for.”

[125:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a scepter of wickedness.” The “scepter” symbolizes royal authority; when collocated with “wickedness” the phrase refers to an oppressive foreign conqueror.

[125:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “rest.”

[125:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “so that the godly might not stretch out their hands in wrongdoing.” A wicked king who sets a sinful example can have an adverse moral and ethical effect on the people he rules.

[141:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”

[141:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”

[141:4]  ¹⁸ sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.