Mazmur 55:10

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ¹ 

while wickedness and destruction ²  are within it.

Amsal 4:17

4:17 For they eat bread ³  gained from wickedness ⁴ 

and drink wine obtained from violence. ⁵ 

Yesaya 58:4

58:4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by ⁶  arguments, brawls,

and fistfights. ⁷ 

Do not fast as you do today,

trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

[55:10]  ¹ tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ² sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[4:17]  ³ tn The noun is a cognate accusative stressing that they consume wickedness.

[4:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “the bread of wickedness” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). There are two ways to take the genitives: (1) genitives of apposition: wickedness and violence are their food and drink (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT), or (2) genitives of source: they derive their livelihood from the evil they do (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 93).

[4:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “the wine of violence” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). This is a genitive of source, meaning that the wine they drink was plundered from their violent crime. The Hebrew is structured in an AB:BA chiasm: “For they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence they drink.” The word order in the translation is reversed for the sake of smoothness and readability.

[58:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “you fast for” (so NASB); NRSV “you fast only to quarrel.”

[58:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and for striking with a sinful fist.”