Psalms 5:5

5:5 Arrogant people cannot stand in your presence; ¹ 

you hate ²  all who behave wickedly. ³ 

Psalms 6:8

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, ⁴ 

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! ⁵ 

Psalms 10:7

10:7 His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; ⁶ 

his tongue injures and destroys. ⁷ 

Psalms 14:4

14:4 All those who behave wickedly ⁸  do not understand – ⁹ 

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to the Lord.

Psalms 36:12

36:12 I can see the evildoers! They have fallen! ¹⁰ 

They have been knocked down and are unable to get up! ¹¹ 

Psalms 53:4

53:4 All those who behave wickedly ¹²  do not understand ¹³  –

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to God.

Psalms 55:3

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ¹⁴ 

and because of how the wicked ¹⁵  pressure me, ¹⁶ 

for they hurl trouble ¹⁷  down upon me ¹⁸ 

and angrily attack me.

Psalms 55:10

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ¹⁹ 

while wickedness and destruction ²⁰  are within it.

Psalms 56:7

56:7 Because they are bent on violence, do not let them escape! ²¹ 

In your anger ²²  bring down the nations, ²³  O God!

Psalms 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ²⁴ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ²⁵ 

Psalms 94:16

94:16 Who will rise up to defend me ²⁶  against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? ²⁷ 

Psalms 94:23

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin. ²⁸ 

He will destroy them because of ²⁹  their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Psalms 101:8

101:8 Each morning I will destroy all the wicked people in the land,

and remove all evildoers from the city of the Lord.

Psalms 125:5

125:5 As for those who are bent on traveling a sinful path, ³⁰ 

may the Lord remove them, ³¹  along with those who behave wickedly! ³² 

May Israel experience peace! ³³ 

[5:5]  ¹ tn Heb “before your eyes.”

[5:5]  ² sn You hate. The Lord “hates” the wicked in the sense that he despises their wicked character and deeds and actively opposes and judges them for their wickedness. See Ps 11:5.

[5:5]  ³ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.”

[6:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

[6:8]  ⁵ sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

[10:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”

[10:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.

[14:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.

[14:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).

[36:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “there the workers of wickedness have fallen.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the evildoers lying fallen at a spot that is vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[36:12]  ¹⁴ tn The psalmist uses perfect verbal forms in v. 12 to describe the demise of the wicked as if it has already taken place.

[53:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8. Ps 14:4 adds כֹּל (kol, “all of”) before “workers of wickedness.”

[53:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-6).

[55:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ²⁰ tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ²² tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ²³ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).

[55:10]  ²² tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ²³ sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[56:7]  ²⁵ tc Heb “because of wickedness, deliverance to them.” As it stands, the MT makes no sense. The negative particle אַיִן (’ayin, “there is not,” which is due to dittography of the immediately preceding אָוֶן, ’aven, “wickedness”), should probably be added before “deliverance” (see BHS, note a). The presence of an imperative in the next line (note “bring down”) suggests that this line should be translated as a prayer as well, “may there not be deliverance to them.”

[56:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in anger.” The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[56:7]  ²⁷ tn Or perhaps “people” in a general sense.

[92:7]  ²⁸ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[94:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “for me.”

[94:16]  ³² sn Who will stand up for me…? The questions anticipate the answer, “No one except God” (see v. 17).

[94:23]  ³⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:23]  ³⁵ tn Or “in.”

[125:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and the ones making their paths twisted.” A sinful lifestyle is compared to a twisting, winding road.

[125:5]  ³⁸ tn Heb “lead them away.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer here (note the prayers directly before and after this). Another option is to translate, “the Lord will remove them” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[125:5]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.”

[125:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 122:8 for a similar prayer for peace).