Mazmur 94:1-11

Psalm 94 ¹ 

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor! ² 

94:2 Rise up, O judge of the earth!

Pay back the proud!

94:3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,

how long will the wicked celebrate? ³ 

94:4 They spew out threats ⁴  and speak defiantly;

all the evildoers boast. ⁵ 

94:5 O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you. ⁶ 

94:6 They kill the widow and the one residing outside his native land,

and they murder the fatherless. ⁷ 

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” ⁸ 

94:8 Take notice of this, ⁹  you ignorant people! ¹⁰ 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ¹¹ 

94:10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

94:11 The Lord knows that

peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt. ¹² 

[94:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 94. The psalmist asks God to judge the wicked and affirms his confidence in God’s justice.

[94:1]  ² tn Heb “shine forth” (see Pss 50:2; 80:1).

[94:3]  ³ tn Or “exult.”

[94:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “they gush forth [words].”

[94:4]  ⁵ tn The Hitpael of אָמַר (’amar) occurs only here (and perhaps in Isa 61:6).

[94:5]  ⁶ tn Or “your inheritance.”

[94:6]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 82:3; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[94:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[94:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[94:11]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are emptiness.” The psalmist thinks specifically of the “thoughts” expressed in v. 7.