Mazmur 73:18-20

73:18 Surely ¹  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ²  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ³ 

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ⁴ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁵  you will despise them. ⁶ 

Mazmur 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ⁷ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ⁸ 

[73:18]  ¹ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ² tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ³ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[73:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁵ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[92:7]  ⁷ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[92:7]  sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.