Mazmur 5:12

5:12 Certainly ¹  you reward ²  the godly, ³  Lord.

Like a shield you protect ⁴  them ⁵  in your good favor. ⁶ 

Mazmur 11:5

11:5 The Lord approves of ⁷  the godly, ⁸ 

but he ⁹  hates ¹⁰  the wicked and those who love to do violence. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 11:7

11:7 Certainly ¹²  the Lord is just; ¹³ 

he rewards godly deeds; ¹⁴ 

the upright will experience his favor. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 17:1

Psalm 17 ¹⁶ 

A prayer of David.

17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! ¹⁷ 

Pay attention to my cry for help!

Listen to the prayer

I sincerely offer! ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 34:15

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 34:21

34:21 Evil people self-destruct; ²⁰ 

those who hate the godly are punished. ²¹ 

Mazmur 55:22

55:22 Throw your burden ²²  upon the Lord,

and he will sustain you. ²³ 

He will never allow the godly to be upended. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 64:10

64:10 The godly will rejoice in the Lord

and take shelter in him.

All the morally upright ²⁵  will boast. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 68:3

68:3 But the godly ²⁷  are happy;

they rejoice before God

and are overcome with joy. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 69:28

69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! ²⁹ 

Do not let their names be listed with the godly! ³⁰ 

Mazmur 71:16

71:16 I will come and tell about ³¹  the mighty acts of the sovereign Lord.

I will proclaim your justice – yours alone.

Mazmur 92:12

92:12 The godly ³²  grow like a palm tree;

they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. ³³ 

Mazmur 99:4

99:4 The king is strong;

he loves justice. ³⁴ 

You ensure that legal decisions will be made fairly; ³⁵ 

you promote justice and equity in Jacob.

Mazmur 119:128

119:128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. ³⁶ 

I hate all deceitful actions. ³⁷ 

Mazmur 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ³⁸ 

The Lord loves the godly.

[5:12]  ¹ tn Or “For.”

[5:12]  ² tn Or “bless.” The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line highlight how God characteristically rewards and protects the godly.

[5:12]  ³ tn Or “innocent.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense.

[5:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “surround.” In 1 Sam 23:26 the verb describes how Saul and his men hemmed David in as they chased him.

[5:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “him.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense and is thus translated “them.”

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Or “with favor” (cf. NRSV). There is no preposition before the noun in the Hebrew text, nor is there a pronoun attached. “Favor” here stands by metonymy for God’s defensive actions on behalf of the one whom he finds acceptable.

[11:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “examines,” the same verb used in v. 4b. But here it is used in a metonymic sense of “examine and approve” (see Jer 20:12).

[11:5]  ⁸ tn The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form “pure (of heart)” in v. 2.

[11:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “his [very] being.” A נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, soul”) is also attributed to the Lord in Isa 1:14, where a suffixed form of the noun appears as the subject of the verb “hate.” Both there and here the term is used of the seat of one’s emotions and passions.

[11:5]  ¹⁰ sn He hates the wicked. 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 5:5.

[11:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the wicked [one] and the lover of violence.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked [ones]”) in vv. 2 and 6.

[11:7]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[11:7]  ¹³ tn Or “righteous.”

[11:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he loves righteous deeds.” The “righteous deeds” are probably those done by godly people (see v. 5). The Lord “loves” such deeds in the sense that he rewards them. Another option is to take צְדָקוֹת (tsÿdaqot) as referring to God’s acts of justice (see Ps 103:6). In this case one could translate, “he loves to do just deeds.”

[11:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the upright will see his face.” The singular subject (“upright”) does not agree with the plural verb. However, collective singular nouns can be construed with a plural predicate (see GKC 462 §145.b). Another possibility is that the plural verb יֶחֱזוּ (yekhezu) is a corruption of an original singular form. To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 17:15 and Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזָה (khazah), is used]). On the form פָנֵימוֹ (fanemo, “his face”) see GKC 300-301 §103.b, n. 3.

[17:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 17. The psalmist asks God to intervene on his behalf because his life is threatened by dangerous enemies. He appeals to divine justice, for he is certain of his own innocence. Because he is innocent, he expects to encounter God and receive an assuring word.

[17:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “hear, Lord, what is just.”

[17:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”

[34:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:21]  ²⁰ tn Heb “evil kills the wicked [one].” The singular form is representative; the typical evil person is envisioned. The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the typical nature of the action.

[34:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “are guilty,” but the verb is sometimes used metonymically with the meaning “to suffer the consequences of guilt,” the effect being substituted for the cause.

[55:22]  ²² tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[55:22]  ²³ tn The pronoun is singular; the psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually.

[55:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he will never allow swaying for the righteous.”

[64:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “upright in heart.”

[64:10]  ²⁶ tn That is, about the Lord’s accomplishments on their behalf.

[68:3]  ²⁷ tn By placing the subject first the psalmist highlights the contrast between God’s ecstatic people and his defeated enemies (vv. 1-2).

[68:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and they are happy with joy” (cf. NEB). Some translate the prefixed verbal forms of v. 3 as jussives, “Let the godly be happy, let them rejoice before God, and let them be happy with joy!” (Cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV; note the call to praise in v. 4.)

[69:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”

[69:28]  sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.

[69:28]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”

[69:28]  sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.

[71:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “I will come with.”

[92:12]  ³² tn The singular is used in a representative sense, with the typical godly person being in view.

[92:12]  ³³ sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size.

[99:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and strength, a king, justice he loves.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult here. The translation assumes that two affirmations are made about the king, the Lord (see v. 1, and Ps 98:6). The noun עֹז (’oz, “strength”) should probably be revocalized as the adjective עַז (’az, “strong”).

[99:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you establish fairness.”

[119:128]  ³⁶ tn Heb “for this reason all the precepts of everything I regard as right.” The phrase “precepts of everything” is odd. It is preferable to take the kaf (כ) on כֹּל (kol, “everything) with the preceding form as a pronominal suffix, “your precepts,” and the lamed (ל) with the following verb as an emphatic particle. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 138.

[119:128]  ³⁷ tn Heb “every false path.”

[146:8]  ³⁸ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).