5:4 Certainly 1 you are not a God who approves of evil; 2
evil people 3 cannot dwell with you. 4
5:5 Arrogant people cannot stand in your presence; 5
you hate 6 all who behave wickedly. 7
38:14 I am like a man who cannot hear
and is incapable of arguing his defense. 8
39:9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth
because of what you have done. 9
46:5 God lives within it, 10 it cannot be moved. 11
God rescues it 12 at the break of dawn. 13
146:3 Do not trust in princes,
or in human beings, who cannot deliver! 14
1 tn Or “for.”
2 tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”
3 tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).
4 tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.
sn Only the godly are allowed to dwell with the Lord. Evil people are excluded. See Ps 15.
5 tn Heb “before your eyes.”
6 sn You hate. The
7 tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.”
8 tn Heb “and there is not in his mouth arguments.”
9 tn Heb “because you acted.” The psalmist has in mind God’s disciplinary measures (see vv. 10-13).
10 tn Heb “God [is] within her.” The feminine singular pronoun refers to the city mentioned in v. 4.
11 tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “it will not be upended.” Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense. The verb מוֹט (mot), translated “upended” here, is used in v. 2 of the mountains “tumbling” into the seas and in v. 6 of nations being “upended.” By way of contrast, Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place, is secure and immune from such turmoil and destruction.
12 tn Or “helps her.” The imperfect draws attention to the generalizing character of the statement.
13 tn Heb “at the turning of morning.” (For other uses of the expression see Exod 14:27 and Judg 19:26).
sn At the break of dawn. The “morning” is viewed metaphorically as a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Ps 30:5; Isa 17:14). There may be an allusion here to Exod 14:27 (where the Lord destroyed the Egyptians at the “break of dawn”) or, more likely, to the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege, when the people discovered the dead bodies of the Assyrian army in the morning (Isa 37:36).
14 tn Heb “in a son of man, to whom there is no deliverance.”