Psalms 36:1-4

Psalm 36 ¹ 

For the music director; written by the Lord’s servant, David; an oracle. ² 

36:1 An evil man is rebellious to the core. ³ 

He does not fear God, ⁴ 

36:2 for he is too proud

to recognize and give up his sin. ⁵ 

36:3 The words he speaks are sinful and deceitful;

he does not care about doing what is wise and right. ⁶ 

36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;

he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; ⁷ 

he does not reject what is evil. ⁸ 

Psalms 52:2

52:2 Your tongue carries out your destructive plans; ⁹ 

it is as effective as a sharp razor, O deceiver. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 58:3

58:3 The wicked turn aside from birth; ¹¹ 

liars go astray as soon as they are born. ¹² 

Psalms 62:4

62:4 They ¹³  spend all their time planning how to bring him ¹⁴  down. ¹⁵ 

They love to use deceit; ¹⁶ 

they pronounce blessings with their mouths,

but inwardly they utter curses. ¹⁷  (Selah)

Psalms 62:9

62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;

human beings are unreliable. ¹⁸ 

When they are weighed in the scales,

all of them together are lighter than air. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 111:1-3

Psalm 111 ²⁰ 

111:1 Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the godly and the congregation.

111:2 The Lord’s deeds are great,

eagerly awaited ²¹  by all who desire them.

111:3 His work is majestic and glorious, ²² 

and his faithfulness endures ²³  forever.

Jeremiah 9:3-6

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ²⁴ 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ²⁵ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ²⁶ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ²⁷ 

and do not pay attention to me. ²⁸ 

9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ²⁹ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ³⁰ 

And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

9:5 One friend deceives another

and no one tells the truth.

These people have trained themselves ³¹  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

9:6 They do one act of violence after another,

and one deceitful thing after another. ³² 

They refuse to pay attention to me,” ³³ 

says the Lord.

Micah 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ³⁴ 

her inhabitants lie, ³⁵ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ³⁶ 

Romans 1:29-31

1:29 They are filled ³⁷  with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with ³⁸  envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, ³⁹  heartless, ruthless.

Romans 3:13

3:13 “Their throats are open graves, ⁴⁰ 

they deceive with their tongues,

the poison of asps is under their lips.” ⁴¹ 

[36:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 36. Though evil men plan to harm others, the psalmist is confident that the Lord is the just ruler of the earth who gives and sustains all life. He prays for divine blessing and protection and anticipates God’s judgment of the wicked.

[36:1]  ² tn In the Hebrew text the word נאם (“oracle”) appears at the beginning of the next verse (v. 2 in the Hebrew text because the superscription is considered v. 1). The resulting reading, “an oracle of rebellion for the wicked [is] in the midst of my heart” (cf. NIV) apparently means that the psalm, which foresees the downfall of the wicked, is a prophetic oracle about the rebellion of the wicked which emerges from the soul of the psalmist. One could translate, “Here is a poem written as I reflected on the rebellious character of evil men.” Another option, followed in the translation above, is to attach נאם (nÿ’um, “oracle”) with the superscription. For another example of a Davidic poem being labeled an “oracle,” see 2 Sam 23:1.

[36:1]  ³ tn Heb “[the] rebellion of an evil man [is] in the midst of my heart.” The translation assumes a reading “in the midst of his heart” (i.e., “to the core”) instead of “in the midst of my heart,” a change which finds support in a a few medieval Hebrew mss, the Hebrew text of Origen’s Hexapla, and the Syriac.

[36:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no dread of God before his eyes.” The phrase “dread of God” refers here to a healthy respect for God which recognizes that he will punish evil behavior.

[36:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “for it causes to be smooth to him in his eyes to find his sin to hate.” The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. Perhaps the point is this: His rebellious attitude makes him reject any notion that God will hold him accountable. His attitude also prevents him from recognizing and repudiating his sinful ways.

[36:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “he ceases to exhibit wisdom to do good.” The Hiphil forms are exhibitive, indicating the outward expression of an inner attitude.

[36:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.

[36:4]  ⁸ tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.

[52:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “destruction your tongue devises.”

[52:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like a sharpened razor, doer of deceit.” The masculine participle עָשָׂה (’asah) is understood as a substantival vocative, addressed to the powerful man.

[58:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the womb.”

[58:3]  ¹² tn Heb “speakers of a lie go astray from the womb.”

[62:4]  ¹³ tn That is, the psalmist’s enemies addressed in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ¹⁴ tn That is, the generic “man” referred to in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “only from his lofty place [or perhaps, “dignity”] they plan to drive [him] away.”

[62:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they delight [in] a lie.”

[62:4]  ¹⁷ sn The enemies use deceit to bring down their victim. They make him think they are his friends by pronouncing blessings upon him, but inwardly they desire his demise.

[62:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.

[62:9]  ¹⁹ tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.

[111:1]  ²⁰ sn Psalm 111. The psalmist praises God for his marvelous deeds, especially the way in which he provides for and delivers his people. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[111:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “sought out.”

[111:3]  ²² tn For other uses of the Hebrew phrase וְהָדָר-הוֹד (hod-vÿhadar, “majesty and splendor”) see 1 Chr 16:27; Job 40:10; Pss 21:5; 96:6; 104:1.

[111:3]  ²³ tn Or “stands.”

[9:3]  ²⁴ tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ²⁸ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).

[9:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Be on your guard…Do not trust.” The verbs are second masculine plural of direct address and there seems no way to translate literally and not give the mistaken impression that Jeremiah is being addressed. This is another example of the tendency in Hebrew style to turn from description to direct address (a figure of speech called apostrophe).

[9:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.

[9:6]  ³² tc An alternate reading for vv. 5d-6b is: “They wear themselves out doing wrong. Jeremiah, you live in the midst of deceitful people. They deceitfully refuse to take any thought of/acknowledge me.” The translation which has been adopted is based on a redivision of the lines, a redivision of some of the words, and a revocalization of some of the consonants. The MT reads literally “doing wrong they weary themselves. Your sitting in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me” (הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ׃ שִׁבְתְּךָ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְמָה בְּמִרְמָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת־אוֹתִי). The Greek version reads literally “they do wrong and they do not cease to turn themselves around. Usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit. They do not want to know me.” This suggests that one should read the Hebrew text as שֻׁב׃ תֹּךְ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְ־מָה בְּמִרְ־מָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת אוֹתִי הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ, which translated literally yields “doing evil [= “they do evil” using the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ff)] they are not able [cf. KBL 468 s.v. לָאָה Niph.3 and see Exod 7:18 for parallel use] to repent. Oppression on oppression [cf. BDB 1067 s.v. תֹּךְ, II תּוֹךְ]; deceit on deceit. They refuse to know me.” This reading has ancient support and avoids the introduction of an unexpected second masculine suffix into the context. It has been adopted here along with a number of modern commentaries (cf., e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:201) and English versions as the more likely reading.

[9:6]  ³³ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” See the note on the phrase “do not take any thought of me” in 9:3.

[6:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”

[1:29]  ³⁷ tn Grk “being filled” or “having been filled,” referring to those described in v. 28. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:29]  ³⁸ tn Grk “malice, full of,” continuing the description. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:31]  ³⁹ tn Or “promise-breakers.”

[3:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”

[3:13]  ⁴¹ sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.