¹ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

² tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation here.

³ tn Or “the godly” (see Ps 5:12). The singular form is collective (see the plural “upright in heart” in v. 10), though it may reflect the personal focus of the psalmist in this context.

⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form expresses the psalmist’s prayer or wish.

⁵ tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 11:4; 26:2; 139:23.

⁶ tn Heb “and [the one who] tests hearts and kidneys, just God.” The translation inverts the word order to improve the English style. The heart and kidneys were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.

⁷ sn The deliverance of Israel. This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.

⁸ tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).

⁹ tn The verb form is jussive.

¹⁰ tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.

¹¹ tn This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.

¹² tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).

¹³ tn The verb form is jussive.

¹⁴ tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.

¹⁵ tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”

¹⁶ sn Psalm 95. The psalmist summons Israel to praise God as the creator of the world and the nation’s protector, but he also reminds the people not to rebel against God.

¹⁷ tn Heb “to the rocky summit of our deliverance.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “take notice of.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “I will walk about in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house.”

²⁰ tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”

²¹ 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.

²² 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.

²³ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

²⁴ tn The noun occurs only here and in Job 28:18 in the OT. See HALOT 646 s.v. I מֶשֶׁךְ which gives “leather pouch” as the meaning.

²⁵ tn The Hebrew noun אֲלֻמָּה (’alummah, “sheaf”) occurs only here and in Gen 37:7 in the OT.

sn Verse 6 expands the image of v. 5. See the note on the word “harvest” there.

²⁶ sn Psalm 141. The psalmist asks God to protect him from sin and from sinful men.