116:11 I rashly declared, 1
“All men are liars.”
5:6 You destroy 2 liars; 3
the Lord despises 4 violent and deceitful people. 5
58:3 The wicked turn aside from birth; 6
liars go astray as soon as they are born. 7
101:7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace. 8
Liars will not be welcome in my presence. 9
40:4 How blessed 10 is the one 11 who trusts in the Lord 12
and does not seek help from 13 the proud or from liars! 14
1 tn Heb “I said in my haste.”
2 tn The imperfect verbal form indicates God’s typical response to such individuals. Another option is to translate the verb as future (“You will destroy”); the psalmist may be envisioning a time of judgment when God will remove the wicked from the scene.
3 tn Heb “those who speak a lie.” In the OT a “lie” does not refer in a general philosophical sense to any statement that fails to correspond to reality. Instead it refers more specifically to a slanderous and/or deceitful statement that promotes one’s own selfish, sinful interests and/or exploits or harms those who are innocent. Note the emphasis on violence and deceit in the following line.
4 tn The imperfect verbal form highlights the
5 tn Heb “a man of bloodshed and deceit.” The singular אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) is used here in a collective or representative sense; thus the translation “people” is appropriate here. Note the plural forms in vv. 5-6a.
6 tn Heb “from the womb.”
7 tn Heb “speakers of a lie go astray from the womb.”
8 tn Heb “he will not live in the midst of my house, one who does deceit.”
9 tn Heb “one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.”
10 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
11 tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.
12 tn Heb “who has made the
13 tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”
14 tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”