14:3 Everyone rejects God; 1
they are all morally corrupt. 2
None of them does what is right, 3
not even one!
34:10 Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
38:11 Because of my condition, 4 even my friends and acquaintances keep their distance; 5
my neighbors stand far away. 6
41:9 Even my close friend 7 whom I trusted,
he who shared meals with me, has turned against me. 8
44:17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you 9
or violated your covenant with us. 10
53:3 Everyone rejects God; 11
they are all morally corrupt. 12
None of them does what is right, 13
not even one!
55:18 He will rescue 14 me and protect me from those who attack me, 15
even though 16 they greatly outnumber me. 17
73:10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat,
and even suck up the water of the sea. 18
90:2 Even before the mountains came into existence, 19
or you brought the world into being, 20
you were the eternal God. 21
92:14 They bear fruit even when they are old;
they are filled with vitality and have many leaves. 22
95:9 where your ancestors challenged my authority, 23
and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.
101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. 24
I hate doing evil; 25
I will have no part of it. 26
129:6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops
which withers before one can even pull it up, 27
139:2 You know when I sit down and when I get up;
even from far away you understand my motives.
1 tn Heb “everyone turns aside.”
2 tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”
3 tn Heb “there is none that does good.”
4 tn Or “wound,” or “illness.”
5 tn Heb “stand [aloof].”
6 tn Heb “and the ones near me off at a distance stand.”
7 tn Heb “man of my peace.” The phrase here refers to one’s trusted friend (see Jer 38:22; Obad 7).
8 tn Heb “has made a heel great against me.” The precise meaning of this phrase, which appears only here, is uncertain.
sn The language of this verse is applied to Judas Iscariot in John 13:18.
9 tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.
10 tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”
11 tn Heb “all of it turns away.” Ps 14:1 has הָכֹּל (hakkol) instead of כֻּלּוֹ, and סָר (sar, “turn aside”) instead of סָג (sag, “turn away”).
12 tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”
13 tn Heb “there is none that does good.”
14 tn The perfect verbal form is here used rhetorically to indicate that the action is certain to take place (the so-called perfect of certitude).
15 tn Heb “he will redeem in peace my life from [those who] draw near to me.”
16 tn Or “for.”
17 tn Heb “among many they are against me.” For other examples of the preposition עִמָּד (’immad) used in the sense of “at, against,” see HALOT 842 s.v.; BDB 767 s.v.; IBHS 219 §11.2.14b.
18 tc Heb “therefore his people return [so Qere (marginal reading); Kethib (consonantal text) has “he brings back”] to here, and waters of abundance are sucked up by them.” The traditional Hebrew text (MT) defies explanation. The present translation reflects M. Dahood’s proposed emendations (Psalms [AB], 2:190) and reads the Hebrew text as follows: לָכֵן יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם וּמֵי מָלֵא יָמֹצּוּ לָמוֹ (“therefore they are filled with food, and waters of abundance they suck up for themselves”). The reading יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם (yisvÿ’um lekhem, “they are filled with food”) assumes (1) an emendation of יָשׁיּב עַמּוֹ (yashyyv, “he will bring back his people”) to יִשְׂבְעוּם (yisvÿ’um, “they will be filled”; a Qal imperfect third masculine plural form from שָׂבַע [sava’] with enclitic mem [ם]), and (2) an emendation of הֲלֹם (halom, “to here”) to לֶחֶם (“food”). The expression “be filled/fill with food” appears elsewhere at least ten times (see Ps 132:15, for example). In the second line the Niphal form יִמָּצוּ (yimmatsu, derived from מָצָה, matsah, “drain”) is emended to a Qal form יָמֹצּוּ (yamotsu), derived from מָצַץ (matsats, “to suck”). In Isa 66:11 the verbs שָׂבַע (sava’; proposed in Ps 73:10a) and מָצַץ (proposed in Ps 73:10b) are parallel. The point of the emended text is this: Because they are seemingly sovereign (v. 9), they become greedy and grab up everything they need and more.
19 tn Heb “were born.”
20 tn Heb “and you gave birth to the earth and world.” The Polel verbal form in the Hebrew text pictures God giving birth to the world. The LXX and some other ancient textual witnesses assume a polal (passive) verbal form here. In this case the earth becomes the subject of the verb and the verb is understood as third feminine singular rather than second masculine singular.
21 tn Heb “and from everlasting to everlasting you [are] God.” Instead of אֵל (’el, “God”) the LXX reads אַל (’al, “not”) and joins the negative particle to the following verse, making the verb תָּשֵׁב (tashev) a jussive. In this case v. 3a reads as a prayer, “do not turn man back to a low place.” However, taking תָּשֵׁב as a jussive is problematic in light of the following following wayyiqtol form וַתֹּאמֶר (vato’mer, “and you said/say”).
22 tn Heb “they are juicy and fresh.”
23 tn Heb “where your fathers tested me.”
24 tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”
25 tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew
26 tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”
27 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁלַף (shalaf) normally means “to draw [a sword]” or “to pull.” BDB 1025 s.v. suggests the meaning “to shoot up” here, but it is more likely that the verb here means “to pluck; to pull up,” a nuance attested for this word in later Hebrew and Aramaic (see Jastrow 1587 s.v. שָׁלַף).