Mazmur 39:6
Konteks39:6 Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. 1
Surely they accumulate worthless wealth
without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” 2
Mazmur 49:17-19
Konteks49:17 For he will take nothing with him when he dies;
his wealth will not follow him down into the grave. 3
49:18 He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive:
“May men praise you, for you have done well!”
49:19 But he will join his ancestors; 4
they will never again see the light of day. 5
Mazmur 52:5-7
Konteks52:5 Yet 6 God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. 7
He will scoop you up 8 and remove you from your home; 9
he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
52:6 When the godly see this, they will be filled with awe,
and will mock the evildoer, saying: 10
52:7 “Look, here is the man who would not make 11 God his protector!
He trusted in his great wealth
and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” 12
[39:6] 1 tn Heb “surely, as an image man walks about.” The preposition prefixed to “image” indicates identity here.
[39:6] sn People go through life (Heb “man walks about”). “Walking” is here used as a metaphor for living. The point is that human beings are here today, gone tomorrow. They have no lasting substance and are comparable to mere images or ghosts.
[39:6] 2 tc Heb “Surely [in] vain they strive, he accumulates and does not know who gathers them.” The MT as it stands is syntactically awkward. The verb forms switch from singular (“walks about”) to plural (“they strive”) and then back to singular (“accumulates and does not know”), even though the subject (generic “man”) remains the same. Furthermore there is no object for the verb “accumulates” and no plural antecedent for the plural pronoun (“them”) attached to “gathers.” These problems can be removed if one emends the text from הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן (hevel yehemaun, “[in] vain they strive”) to הֶבְלֵי הָמוֹן (hevley hamon, “vain things of wealth”). This assumes a misdivision in the MT and a virtual dittography of vav (ו) between the mem and nun of המון. The present translation follows this emendation.
[49:17] 3 tn Heb “his glory will not go down after him.”
[49:19] 4 tn Verses 18-19a are one long sentence in the Hebrew text, which reads: “Though he blesses his soul in his life, [saying], ‘And let them praise you, for you do well for yourself,’ it [that is, his soul] will go to the generation of his fathers.” This has been divided into two sentences in the translation for clarity, in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.
[49:19] 5 tn Heb “light.” The words “of day” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[52:5] 6 tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.
[52:5] 7 tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”
[52:5] 8 tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.
[52:5] 9 tn Heb “from [your] tent.”
[52:6] 10 tn Heb “and the godly will see and will fear and at him will laugh.”
[52:7] 11 tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”
[52:7] 12 tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).
