Discovery BoxPsalms 31:12 
Context31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; 1
I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. 2
Psalms 10:4
Context10:4 The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks,
“God won’t hold me accountable; he doesn’t care.” 3
Psalms 41:6
Context41:6 When someone comes to visit, 4 he pretends to be friendly; 5
he thinks of ways to defame me, 6
and when he leaves he slanders me. 7
1 tn Heb “I am forgotten, like a dead man, from [the] heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the center of one’s thoughts.
2 tn Heb “I am like a broken jar.” One throws away a broken jar without a second thought because it is considered worthless and useless.
3 tn Heb “the wicked [one], according to the height of his nose, he does not seek, there is no God, all his thoughts.” The phrase “height of his nose” probably refers to an arrogant or snooty attitude; it likely pictures one with his nose turned upward toward the sky in pride. One could take the “wicked” as the subject of the negated verb “seek,” in which case the point is that the wicked do not “seek” God. The translation assumes that this statement, along with “there is no God,” is what the wicked man thinks to himself. In this case God is the subject of the verb “seek,” and the point is that God will not hold the wicked man accountable for his actions. Verse 13 strongly favors this interpretation. The statement “there is no God” is not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that he is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see v. 11).
4 tn Heb “to see.”
5 tn Heb “he speaks deceitfully.”
6 tn Heb “his heart gathers sin to itself.”
7 tn Heb “he goes outside and speaks.”
