15:5 He does not charge interest when he lends his money. 1
He does not take bribes to testify against the innocent. 2
The one who lives like this 3 will never be upended.
22:29 All of the thriving people 4 of the earth will join the celebration and worship; 5
all those who are descending into the grave 6 will bow before him,
including those who cannot preserve their lives. 7
90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, 8
or eighty, if one is especially strong. 9
But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. 10
Yes, 11 they pass quickly 12 and we fly away. 13
104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, 14
and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, 15
as well as food that sustains people’s lives. 16
1 sn He does not charge interest. Such an individual is truly generous, and not simply concerned with making a profit.
2 tn Heb “a bribe against the innocent he does not take.” For other texts condemning the practice of a judge or witness taking a bribe, see Exod 23:8; Deut 16:19; 27:25; 1 Sam 8:3; Ezek 22:12; Prov 17:23.
3 tn Heb “does these things.”
4 tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the
5 tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the
6 tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.
7 tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”
8 tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”
9 tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”
10 tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).
11 tn or “for.”
12 tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.
13 sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).
14 tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”
15 tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).
16 tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”