Psalms 34:11-16

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ¹ 

34:12 Do you want to really live? ² 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ³ 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ⁴ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁵ 

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ⁶ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ⁷ 

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ⁸ 

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ⁹ 

[34:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[34:12]  ² tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ³ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[34:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

[34:14]  ⁶ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[34:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”