Mazmur 81:11-12

81:11 But my people did not obey me; ¹ 

Israel did not submit to me. ² 

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ³ 

they did what seemed right to them. ⁴ 

Mazmur 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁵  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁶ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁷ 

[81:11]  ¹ tn Heb “did not listen to my voice.”

[81:11]  ² tn The Hebrew expression אָבָה לִי (’avah liy) means “submit to me” (see Deut 13:8).

[81:12]  ³ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[109:17]  ⁵ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”