Psalms 89:28

89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,

and my covenant with him is secure. ¹ 

Psalms 89:34

89:34 I will not break ²  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ³ 

Psalms 89:38

89:38 But you have spurned ⁴  and rejected him;

you are angry with your chosen king. ⁵ 

Psalms 89:2

89:2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established; ⁶ 

in the skies you set up your faithfulness.” ⁷ 

Psalms 2:4

2:4 The one enthroned ⁸  in heaven laughs in disgust; ⁹ 

the Lord taunts ¹⁰  them.

Psalms 5:3

5:3 Lord, in the morning ¹¹  you will hear ¹²  me; ¹³ 

in the morning I will present my case to you ¹⁴  and then wait expectantly for an answer. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ¹⁶ 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ¹⁷  “There is no God.” ¹⁸ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ¹⁹ 

none of them does what is right. ²⁰ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ²¹ 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ²²  “There is no God.” ²³ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ²⁴ 

none of them does what is right. ²⁵ 

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ²⁶ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ²⁷ 

Who may live on your holy hill? ²⁸ 

Ecclesiastes 8:2

8:2 Obey the king’s command, ²⁹ 

because you took ³⁰  an oath before God ³¹  to be loyal to him. ³² 

Ezekiel 17:16-19

17:16 “‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, surely in the city ³³  of the king who crowned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke – in the middle of Babylon he will die! 17:17 Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help ³⁴  him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people. 17:18 He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Take note ³⁵  – he gave his promise ³⁶  and did all these things – he will not escape!

17:19 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will certainly repay him ³⁷  for despising my oath and breaking my covenant!

[89:28]  ¹ tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”

[89:34]  ² tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ³ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”

[89:38]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew construction (conjunction + pronoun, followed by the verb) draws attention to the contrast between what follows and what precedes.

[89:38]  ⁵ tn Heb “your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “your anointed one”) refers here to the Davidic king (see Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 84:9; 132:10, 17).

[89:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “built.”

[89:2]  ⁷ sn You set up your faithfulness. This may allude to the Lord’s heavenly throne, which symbolizes his just rule and from which the Lord decrees his unconditional promises (see vv. 8, 14).

[2:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12; 123:1).

[2:4]  ⁹ tn As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter. The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in vv. 4-5 describe the action from the perspective of an eyewitness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”

[5:3]  ¹¹ sn In the morning is here viewed as the time of prayer (Pss 59:16; 88:13) and/or of deliverance (Ps 30:5).

[5:3]  ¹² tn The imperfect is here understood in a specific future sense; the psalmist is expressing his confidence that God will be willing to hear his request. Another option is to understand the imperfect as expressing the psalmist’s wish or request. In this case one could translate, “Lord, in the morning hear me.”

[5:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “my voice.”

[5:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will arrange for you.” Some understand a sacrifice or offering as the implied object (cf. NEB “I set out my morning sacrifice”). The present translation assumes that the implied object is the psalmist’s case/request. See Isa 44:7.

[5:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I will watch.”

[14:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ¹⁸ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[14:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ²² tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ²³ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[15:1]  ²⁶ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ²⁸ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[8:2]  ²⁹ tc The Leningrad Codex (the basis of BHS) reads אֲנִי (’ani, 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun): “I obey the king’s command.” Other medieval Hebrew mss and all the versions (LXX, Vulgate, Targum, Syriac Peshitta) preserve an alternate textual tradition of the definite accusative marker אֶת־ (’et) introducing the direct object: אֶת־פִּי־מֶלֶךְ שְׁמוֹר (’et-pi-melekh shÿmor, “Obey the command of the king”). External evidence supports the alternate textual tradition. The MT is guilty of simple orthographic confusion between similar looking letters. The BHS editors and the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project adopt אֶת־ as the original reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:582–83.

[8:2]  ³⁰ tn The phrase “you took” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[8:2]  ³¹ tn The genitive-construct שְׁבוּעַת אֱלֹהִים (shÿvu’at ’elohim, “an oath of God”) functions as a genitive of location (“an oath before God”) or an adjectival genitive of attribute (“a supreme oath”).

[8:2]  ³² tn The words “to be loyal to him” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:16]  ³³ tn Heb “place.”

[17:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “deal with” or “work with.”

[17:18]  ³⁵ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something.

[17:18]  ³⁶ sn Heb “hand.” “Giving one’s hand” is a gesture of promise (2 Kgs 10:15).

[17:19]  ³⁷ tn Heb “place it on his head.”