Psalms 51:6

51:6 Look, ¹  you desire ²  integrity in the inner man; ³ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ⁴ 

Psalms 58:2

58:2 No! ⁵  You plan how to do what is unjust; ⁶ 

you deal out violence in the earth. ⁷ 

Psalms 62:4

62:4 They ⁸  spend all their time planning how to bring him ⁹  down. ¹⁰ 

They love to use deceit; ¹¹ 

they pronounce blessings with their mouths,

but inwardly they utter curses. ¹²  (Selah)

Psalms 64:6

64:6 They devise ¹³  unjust schemes;

they disguise ¹⁴  a well-conceived plot. ¹⁵ 

Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 4:14

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ¹⁷ 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

Jeremiah 17:9

17:9 The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.

It is incurably bad. ¹⁸  Who can understand it?

Mark 7:21-22

7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 7:22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

Luke 11:39

11:39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean ¹⁹  the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ²⁰ 

[51:6]  ¹ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ² tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ³ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[58:2]  ⁵ tn The particle אַף (’af, “no”) is used here as a strong adversative emphasizing the following statement, which contrasts reality with the rulers’ claim alluded to in the rhetorical questions (see Ps 44:9).

[58:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the heart unjust deeds you do.” The phrase “in the heart” (i.e., “mind”) seems to refer to their plans and motives. The Hebrew noun עַוְלָה (’avlah, “injustice”) is collocated with פָּעַל (pa’al, “do”) here and in Job 36:23 and Ps 119:3. Some emend the plural form עוֹלֹת (’olot, “unjust deeds”; see Ps 64:6) to the singular עָוֶל (’avel, “injustice”; see Job 34:32), taking the final tav (ת) as dittographic (note that the following verbal form begins with tav). Some then understand עָוֶל (’avel, “injustice”) as a genitive modifying “heart” and translate, “with a heart of injustice you act.”

[58:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the earth the violence of your hands you weigh out.” The imagery is from the economic realm. The addressees measure out violence, rather than justice, and distribute it like a commodity. This may be ironic, since justice was sometimes viewed as a measuring scale (see Job 31:6).

[62:4]  ⁸ tn That is, the psalmist’s enemies addressed in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ⁹ tn That is, the generic “man” referred to in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “only from his lofty place [or perhaps, “dignity”] they plan to drive [him] away.”

[62:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they delight [in] a lie.”

[62:4]  ¹² 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.

[64:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

[64:6]  ¹⁴ tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tomnu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).

[64:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

[64:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.

[4:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

[17:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “incurably deceitful”; Heb “It is incurable.” For the word “deceitful” compare the usage of the verb in Gen 27:36 and a related noun in 2 Kgs 10:19. For the adjective “incurable” compare the usage in Jer 15:18. It is most commonly used with reference to wounds or of pain. In Jer 17:16 it is used metaphorically for a “woeful day” (i.e., day of irreparable devastation).

[11:39]  ¹⁹ sn The allusion to washing (clean the outside of the cup) shows Jesus knew what they were thinking and deliberately set up a contrast that charged them with hypocrisy and majoring on minors.

[11:39]  ²⁰ tn Or “and evil.”