Psalms 19:12

19:12 Who can know all his errors? ¹ 

Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. ² 

Psalms 49:20

49:20 Wealthy people do not understand; ³ 

they are like animals ⁴  that perish. ⁵ 

Psalms 94:7

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” ⁶ 

Psalms 92:6

92:6 The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;

the fool does not understand this. ⁷ 

[19:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Errors who can discern?” This rhetorical question makes the point that perfect moral discernment is impossible to achieve. Consequently it is inevitable that even those with good intentions will sin on occasion.

[19:12]  ² tn Heb “declare me innocent from hidden [things],” i.e., sins. In this context (see the preceding line) “hidden” sins are not sins committed in secret, but sins which are not recognized as such by the psalmist.

[49:20]  ³ tn Heb “mankind in honor does not understand.” The Hebrew term יְקָר (yÿqar, “honor”) probably refers here to the wealth mentioned in the preceding context. The imperfect verbal form draws attention to what is characteristically true. Some emend יָבִין (yavin, “understands”) to יָלִין (yalin, “remains”), but this is an unnecessary accommodation to the wording of v. 12.

[49:20]  ⁴ tn Or “cattle.”

[49:20]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb is derived from דָּמָה (damah, “cease, destroy”; BDB 198 s.v.). Another option is to derive the verb from דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”; see HALOT 225 s.v. II דמה, which sees two homonymic roots [I דָּמַה, “be silent,” and II דָּמַה, “destroy”] rather than a single root) and translate, “they are like dumb beasts.” This makes particularly good sense here, where the preceding line focuses on mankind’s lack of understanding.

[94:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[92:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the brutish man does not know, and the fool does not understand this.” The adjective בַּעַר (ba’ar, “brutish”) refers to spiritual insensitivity, not mere lack of intelligence or reasoning ability (see Pss 49:10; 73:22; Prov 12:1; 30:2, as well as the use of the related verb in Ps 94:8).