Mazmur 9:9

9:9 Consequently ¹  the Lord provides safety for the oppressed; ² 

he provides safety in times of trouble. ³ 

Mazmur 10:14-18

10:14 You have taken notice, ⁴ 

for ⁵  you always see ⁶  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ⁷ 

The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ⁸ 

you deliver ⁹  the fatherless. ¹⁰ 

10:15 Break the arm ¹¹  of the wicked and evil man!

Hold him accountable for his wicked deeds, ¹² 

which he thought you would not discover. ¹³ 

10:16 The Lord rules forever! ¹⁴ 

The nations are driven out of his land. ¹⁵ 

10:17 Lord, you have heard ¹⁶  the request ¹⁷  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ¹⁸ 

10:18 You defend ¹⁹  the fatherless and oppressed, ²⁰ 

so that mere mortals may no longer terrorize them. ²¹ 

Mazmur 12:5

12:5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed, ²² 

because of the painful cries ²³  of the needy,

I will spring into action,” ²⁴  says the Lord.

“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.” ²⁵ 

Mazmur 72:4

72:4 He will defend ²⁶  the oppressed among the people;

he will deliver ²⁷  the children ²⁸  of the poor

and crush the oppressor.

Mazmur 72:12

72:12 For he will rescue the needy ²⁹  when they cry out for help,

and the oppressed ³⁰  who have no defender.

Mazmur 109:31

109:31 because he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to deliver him from those who threaten ³¹  his life.

Mazmur 146:7

146:7 vindicates the oppressed, ³² 

and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord releases the imprisoned.

[9:9]  ¹ tn Following the imperfect in v. 9, the construction vav (ו) conjunctive + shortened form of the prefixed verb הָיָה (hayah) indicates a consequence or result of the preceding statement. The construction functions this same way in Pss 81:15 and 104:20.

[9:9]  ² tn Heb “and the Lord is an elevated place for the oppressed.” The singular form דָּךְ (dakh, “oppressed”) is collective here.

[9:9]  ³ tn Heb “[he is] an elevated place for times in trouble.” Here an “elevated place” refers to a stronghold, a defensible, secure position that represents a safe haven in times of unrest or distress (cf. NEB “tower of strength”; NIV, NRSV “stronghold”).

[10:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”

[10:14]  ⁵ tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.

[10:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.

[10:14]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “help.”

[10:14]  ¹⁰ 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).

[10:14]  sn The fatherless. Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 68:5; 82:3; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[10:15]  ¹¹ sn The arm symbolizes the strength of the wicked, which they use to oppress and exploit the weak.

[10:15]  ¹² tn Heb “you seek his wickedness.” As in v. 13, the verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as describing a fact, “you hold him accountable,” or as anticipating divine judgment, “you will hold him accountable.” However, since the verb is in apparent parallelism with the preceding imperative (“break”), it is better to understand the imperfect as expressing the psalmist’s desire or request.

[10:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “you will not find.” It is uncertain how this statement relates to what precedes. Some take בַל (bal), which is used as a negative particle in vv. 4, 6, 11, 18, as asseverative here, “Indeed find (i.e., judge his wickedness).” The translation assumes that the final words are an asyndetic relative clause which refers back to what the wicked man boasted in God’s face (“you will not find [i.e., my wickedness]”). See v. 13.

[10:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord is king forever and ever.”

[10:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the nations perish from his land.” The perfect verb form may express what is typical or it may express rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude that God’s deliverance is “as good as done.”

[10:16]  sn The nations may be the underlying reality behind the psalmist’s references to the “wicked” in the earlier verses. This reference to the nations may have motivated the combining of Ps 10 with Ps 9 (see Ps 9:5, 15, 19).

[10:17]  ¹⁶ sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

[10:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “desire.”

[10:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

[10:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to judge (on behalf of),” or “by judging (on behalf of).”

[10:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “crushed.” See v. 10.

[10:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “he will not add again [i.e., “he will no longer”] to terrify, man from the earth.” The Hebrew term אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh, “man”) refers here to the wicked nations (v. 16). By describing them as “from the earth,” the psalmist emphasizes their weakness before the sovereign, eternal king.

[12:5]  ²² tn The term translated “oppressed” is an objective genitive; the oppressed are the recipients/victims of violence.

[12:5]  ²³ tn Elsewhere in the psalms this noun is used of the painful groans of prisoners awaiting death (79:11; 102:20). The related verb is used of the painful groaning of those wounded in combat (Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15) and of the mournful sighing of those in grief (Ezek 9:4; 24:17).

[12:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I will rise up.”

[12:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will place in deliverance, he pants for it.” The final two words in Hebrew (יָפִיחַ לוֹ, yafiakh lo) comprise an asyndetic relative clause, “the one who pants for it.” “The one who pants” is the object of the verb “place” and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix (in the phrase “for it”) is “deliverance.” Another option is to translate, “I will place in deliverance the witness for him,” repointing יָפִיחַ (a Hiphil imperfect from פּוּחַ, puakh, “pant”) as יָפֵחַ (yafeakh), a noun meaning “witness.” In this case the Lord would be promising protection to those who have the courage to support the oppressed in the court of law. However, the first part of the verse focuses on the oppressed, not their advocates.

[72:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “judge [for].”

[72:4]  ²⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

[72:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “sons.”

[72:12]  ²⁹ tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.

[72:12]  ³⁰ tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.

[109:31]  ³¹ tn Heb “judge.”

[146:7]  ³² tn Heb “executes justice for the oppressed.”