Mazmur 33:10

33:10 The Lord frustrates ¹  the decisions of the nations;

he nullifies the plans ²  of the peoples.

Mazmur 119:126

119:126 It is time for the Lord to act –

they break your law!

Mazmur 89:39

89:39 You have repudiated ³  your covenant with your servant; ⁴ 

you have thrown his crown to the ground. ⁵ 

Mazmur 55:9

55:9 Confuse them, ⁶  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ⁷ 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

Mazmur 89:34

89:34 I will not break ⁸  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ⁹ 

Mazmur 110:4

110:4 The Lord makes this promise on oath ¹⁰  and will not revoke it: ¹¹ 

“You are an eternal priest ¹²  after the pattern of ¹³  Melchizedek.” ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 112:10

112:10 When the wicked ¹⁵  see this, they will worry;

they will grind their teeth in frustration ¹⁶  and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 5:10

5:10 Condemn them, ¹⁸  O God!

May their own schemes be their downfall! ¹⁹ 

Drive them away ²⁰  because of their many acts of insurrection, ²¹ 

for they have rebelled against you.

[33:10]  ¹ tn Heb “breaks” or “destroys.” The Hebrew perfect verbal forms here and in the next line generalize about the Lord’s activity.

[33:10]  ² tn Heb “thoughts.”

[89:39]  ³ tn The Hebrew verb appears only here and in Lam 2:7.

[89:39]  ⁴ tn Heb “the covenant of your servant.”

[89:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “you dishonor [or “desecrate”] on the ground his crown.”

[55:9]  ⁶ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”

[89:34]  ⁸ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ⁹ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”

[110:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “swears, vows.”

[110:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “will not change his mind.” The negated Niphal imperfect of נָחַם (nakham) is a way of marking an announcement as an irrevocable decree. See 1 Sam 15:29; Ezek 24:14, as well as R. B. Chisholm, “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?” BSac 152 (1995): 387-99.

[110:4]  ¹² sn You are an eternal priest. The Davidic king exercised a non-Levitical priestly role. The king superintended Judah’s cultic ritual, had authority over the Levites, and sometimes led in formal worship. David himself instructed the Levites to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (1 Chr 15:11-15), joined the procession, offered sacrifices, wore a priestly ephod, and blessed the people (2 Sam 6:12-19). At the dedication of the temple Solomon led the ceremony, offering sacrifices and praying on behalf of the people (1 Kgs 8).

[110:4]  ¹³ tn The phrase עַל־דִּבְרָתִי (’al-divratiy) is a variant of עַל־דִּבְרָת (’al-divrat; the final yod [י] being an archaic genitival ending), which in turn is a variant of עַל דָּבַר (’al davar). Both phrases can mean “concerning” or “because of,” but neither of these nuances fits the use of עַל־דִּבְרָתִי in Ps 110:4. Here the phrase probably carries the sense “according to the manner of.” See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 81.

[110:4]  ¹⁴ sn The Davidic king’s priestly role is analogous to that of Melchizedek, who was both “king of Salem” (i.e., Jerusalem) and a “priest of God Most High” in the time of Abraham (Gen 14:18-20). Like Melchizedek, the Davidic king was a royal priest, distinct from the Aaronic line (see Heb 7). The analogy focuses on the king’s priestly role; the language need not imply that Melchizedek himself was “an eternal priest.”

[112:10]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).

[112:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.

[112:10]  ¹⁷ tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).

[5:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “declare/regard them as guilty.” Declaring the psalmist’s adversaries guilty is here metonymic for judging them or paying them back for their wrongdoing.

[5:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “may they fall from their plans.” The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation. The psalmist calls judgment down on the evildoers. Their plans will be their downfall in that God will judge them for their evil schemes.

[5:10]  ²⁰ tn Or “banish them.”

[5:10]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew noun used here, פֶּשַׁע (pesha’), refers to rebellious actions. The psalmist pictures his enemies as rebels against God (see the next line).