¹ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.

² tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).

³ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

⁴ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

⁵ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

⁶ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

⁷ tn Heb “heard.”

⁸ tn The verb form is plural (i.e., “do not all of you be”); the psalmist addresses the whole group.

⁹ tn Heb “like a horse, like a mule without understanding.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “with a bridle and bit, its [?] to hold, not to come near to you.” The meaning of the Hebrew noun עֲדִי (’adiy) is uncertain. Normally the word refers to “jewelry,” so some suggest the meaning “trappings” here (cf. NASB). Some emend the form to לְחֵיהֶם (lÿkhehem, “their jawbones”) but it is difficult to see how the present Hebrew text, even if corrupt, could have derived from this proposed original reading. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 265) takes the form from an Arabic root and translates “whose gallop.” Cf. also NRSV “whose temper must be curbed.”

¹¹ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Ps 38:19).

¹² tn Heb “rejoice.”

¹³ tn Heb “[do not let] those who hate me without cause pinch [i.e., wink] an eye.” The negative particle is understood in the second line by ellipsis (see the preceding line). In the Book of Proverbs “winking an eye” is associated with deceit and trickery (see 6:13; 10:10; 16:30).

¹⁴ tn Heb “in their heart[s].”

¹⁵ tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.

¹⁶ tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

¹⁷ tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

¹⁸ tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8. Ps 14:4 adds כֹּל (kol, “all of”) before “workers of wickedness.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-6).

²⁰ sn Your dove. The psalmist compares weak and vulnerable Israel to a helpless dove.

²¹ tn Heb “do not forget forever.”

²² tn Heb “a generation that did not make firm its heart and whose spirit was not faithful with God.” The expression “make firm the heart” means “to be committed, devoted” (see 1 Sam 7:3).

²³ tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.

²⁴ tn Heb “which do not know you.” Here the Hebrew term “know” means “acknowledge the authority of.”

²⁵ sn The kingdoms that do not pray to you. The people of these kingdoms pray to other gods, not the Lord, because they do not recognize his authority over them.

²⁶ tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”

²⁷ sn Psalm 115. The psalmist affirms that Israel’s God is superior to pagan idols and urges Israel to place their confidence in him.

²⁸ tn Or “give glory.”

²⁹ sn The psalmist asks the Lord to demonstrate his loyal love and faithfulness, not simply so Israel may benefit, but primarily so that the Lord will receive honor among the nations, who will recognize, contrary to their present view (see v. 2), that Israel’s God is committed to his people.

³⁰ tn Heb “do not grant the desires of the wicked.”

³¹ tn Heb “his.” The singular is used in a representative sense (see v. 1).

³² tn Heb “his plot do not promote, they rise up.” The translation understands the final verb as being an unmarked temporal clause. Another option is to revocalize the verb as a Hiphil and take the verb with the next verse, “those who surround me lift up [their] head,” which could refer to their proud attitude as they anticipate victory (see Ps 27:6).

³³ tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”

³⁴ tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”

³⁵ sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.