Ayub 8:3

8:3 Does God pervert ¹  justice? ² 

Or does the Almighty pervert ³  what is right?

Mazmur 10:11-13

10:11 He says to himself, ⁴ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ⁵ 

10:12 Rise up, Lord! ⁶ 

O God, strike him down! ⁷ 

Do not forget the oppressed!

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ⁸ 

He says to himself, ⁹  “You ¹⁰  will not hold me accountable.” ¹¹ 

[8:3]  ¹ tn The Piel verb יְעַוֵּת (yÿ’avvet) means “to bend; to cause to swerve from the norm; to deviate; to pervert.” The LXX renders the first colon as “will the Lord be unjust when he judges?”

[8:3]  ² tn The first word is מִשְׁפָּת (mishpat, “justice”). It can mean an act of judgment, place of judgment, or what is just, that is, the outcome of the decision. It basically describes an umpire’s decision. The parallel word is צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “righteousness,” or “what is right”). The basic idea here is that which conforms to the standard, what is right. See S. H. Scholnick, “The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job,” JBL 101 (1982): 521-29.

[8:3]  ³ tn Some commentators think that the second verb should be changed in order to avoid the repetition of the same word and to reflect the different words in the versions. The suggestion is to read יְעַוֵּה (yÿ’avveh) instead; this would mean “to cause someone to deviate,” for the root means “to bend.” The change is completely unwarranted; the LXX probably chose different words for stylistic reasons (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 198). The repetition in the Hebrew text is a common type; it strengthens the enormity of the charge Job seems to be making.

[10:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[10:12]  ⁶ sn Rise up, O Lord! The psalmist’s mood changes from lament to petition and confidence.

[10:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift up your hand.” Usually the expression “lifting the hand” refers to praying (Pss 28:2; 134:2) or making an oath (Ps 106:26), but here it probably refers to “striking a blow” (see 2 Sam 18:28; 20:21). Note v. 15, where the psalmist asks the Lord to “break the arm of the wicked.” A less likely option is that the psalmist is requesting that the Lord declare by oath his intention to intervene.

[10:13]  ⁸ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

[10:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “he says in his heart” (see vv. 6, 11). Another option is to understand an ellipsis of the interrogative particle here (cf. the preceding line), “Why does he say in his heart?”

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you will not seek.” The verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as generalizing about what is typical and translate, “you do not hold [people] accountable.”