Discovery BoxPsalms 17:2 
Context17:2 Make a just decision on my behalf! 1
Decide what is right! 2
Psalms 25:20
Context25:20 Protect me 3 and deliver me!
Please do not let me be humiliated,
for I have taken shelter in you!
Psalms 69:28
Context69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! 4
Do not let their names be listed with the godly! 5
Psalms 99:3
Context99:3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!
He 6 is holy!
Psalms 107:32
Context107:32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people!
Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside! 7
Psalms 109:12
Context109:12 May no one show him kindness! 8
May no one have compassion 9 on his fatherless children!
Psalms 109:14
Context109:14 May his ancestors’ 10 sins be remembered by the Lord!
May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! 11
Psalms 119:122
Context119:122 Guarantee the welfare of your servant! 12
Do not let the arrogant oppress me!
Psalms 148:5
Context148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he gave the command and they came into existence.
1 tn Heb “From before you may my justice come out.” The prefixed verbal form יָצָא (yatsa’) could be taken as an imperfect, but following the imperatives in v. 1, it is better understood as a jussive of prayer.
2 tn Heb “May your eyes look at what is right.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as jussive. (See also the preceding note on the word “behalf.”)
3 tn Or “my life.”
4 tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”
sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.
5 tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”
sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.
6 tn The pronoun refers to the
7 tn Heb “in the seat of the elders.”
8 tn Heb “may there not be for him one who extends loyal love.”
9 tn Perhaps this refers to being generous (see Ps 37:21).
10 tn Or “fathers’ sins.”
11 tn Heb “not be wiped out.”
sn According to ancient Israelite theology and its doctrine of corporate solidarity and responsibility, children could be and often were punished for the sins of their parents. For a discussion of this issue see J. Kaminsky, Corporate Responsibility in the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSup). (Kaminsky, however, does not deal with Ps 109.)
12 tn Heb “be surety for your servant for good.”
