¹ sn The picture of the Lord looking down from heaven draws attention to his sovereignty over the world.

² tn Heb “upon the sons of man.”

³ tn Or “acts wisely.” The Hiphil is exhibitive.

⁴ sn Anyone who is wise and seeks God refers to the person who seeks to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him.

⁵ sn The picture of the Lord looking down from heaven draws attention to his sovereignty over the world.

⁶ tn Heb “upon the sons of man.”

⁷ tn Or “acts wisely.” The Hiphil is exhibitive.

⁸ tn That is, who seeks to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him.

⁹ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

¹¹ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”