Psalms 73:16

73:16 When I tried to make sense of this,

it was troubling to me. ¹ 

Psalms 7:14

7:14 See the one who is pregnant with wickedness,

who conceives destructive plans,

and gives birth to harmful lies – ² 

Psalms 94:20

94:20 Cruel rulers ³  are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws. ⁴ 

Psalms 140:9

140:9 As for the heads of those who surround me –

may the harm done by ⁵  their lips overwhelm them!

Psalms 10:7

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

his tongue injures and destroys. ⁷ 

Psalms 10:14

10:14 You have taken notice, ⁸ 

for ⁹  you always see ¹⁰  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ¹¹ 

The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ¹² 

you deliver ¹³  the fatherless. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 90:10

90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ¹⁵ 

or eighty, if one is especially strong. ¹⁶ 

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ¹⁷ 

Yes, ¹⁸  they pass quickly ¹⁹  and we fly away. ²⁰ 

[73:16]  ¹ tn Heb “and [when] I pondered to understand this, troubling it [was] in my eyes.”

[7:14]  ² tn Heb “and he conceives harm and gives birth to a lie.”

[94:20]  ³ tn Heb “a throne of destruction.” “Throne” stands here by metonymy for rulers who occupy thrones.

[94:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “Is a throne of destruction united to you, one that forms trouble upon a statute?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course not!” The translation, while not preserving the interrogative form of the statement, reflects its rhetorical force.

[140:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “harm of their lips.” The genitive here indicates the source or agent of the harm.

[10:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”

[10:7]  ⁶ 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.

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”

[10:14]  ⁷ tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”

[10:14]  ⁸ tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.

[10:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to give into your hand, upon you, he abandons, [the] unfortunate [one].” The syntax is awkward and the meaning unclear. It is uncertain who or what is being given into God’s hand. Elsewhere the idiom “give into the hand” means to deliver into one’s possession. If “to give” goes with what precedes (as the accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests), then this may refer to the wicked man being delivered over to God for judgment. The present translation assumes that “to give” goes with what follows (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The verb יַעֲזֹב (ya’azov) here has the nuance “entrust” (see Gen 39:6; Job 39:11); the direct object (“[his] cause”) is implied.

[10:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “help.”

[10:14]  ¹² tn Heb “[for] one who is fatherless, you are a deliverer.” The noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9).

[90:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”

[90:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”

[90:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).

[90:10]  ¹⁰ tn or “for.”

[90:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.

[90:10]  ¹² sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).