Mazmur 10:13

10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? ¹ 

He says to himself, ²  “You ³  will not hold me accountable.” ⁴ 

Mazmur 55:3

55:3 because of what the enemy says, ⁵ 

and because of how the wicked ⁶  pressure me, ⁷ 

for they hurl trouble ⁸  down upon me ⁹ 

and angrily attack me.

Mazmur 74:10

74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary hurl insults?

Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

[10:13]  ¹ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

[10:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

[10:13]  ⁴ 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.”

[55:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “because of [the] voice of [the] enemy.”

[55:3]  ⁶ tn The singular forms “enemy” and “wicked” are collective or representative, as the plural verb forms in the second half of the verse indicate.

[55:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “from before the pressure of the wicked.” Some suggest the meaning “screech” (note the parallel “voice”; cf. NEB “shrill clamour”; NRSV “clamor”) for the rare noun עָקָה (’aqah, “pressure”).

[55:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “wickedness,” but here the term refers to the destructive effects of their wicked acts.

[55:3]  ⁹ tc The verb form in the MT appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוֹט (mot, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in the Kethib (consonantal text) of Ps 140:10, where the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read. Here in Ps 55:3 it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). It is odd for “rain down” to be used with an abstract object like “wickedness,” but in Job 20:23 God “rains down” anger (unless one emends the text there; see BHS).