Discovery BoxPsalms 15:5 
Context15:5 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.
Psalms 31:13
Context31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, 4
the terrifying news that comes from every direction. 5
When they plot together against me,
they figure out how they can take my life.
Psalms 51:4
Context51:4 Against you – you above all 6 – I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So 7 you are just when you confront me; 8
you are right when you condemn me. 9
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 “the report of many.”
5 tn Heb “the terror from all around.”
6 tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”
7 tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.
8 tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).
9 tn Heb “when you judge.”
