³ sn The proverb does not explain whether God will turn evil back on him directly or whether people will begin to treat him as he treated others.

³ tn The word רַע (raʿ, “evil, wicked”) is a genitive of source or subjective genitive, meaning the plans that the wicked devise—“wicked plans.”

² tn The form צֹפוֹת (tsofot, “watching”) is a feminine plural participle agreeing with “eyes.” God’s watching eyes comfort good people but convict evil.

² sn The contrast here is between “evil” (= pain and calamity) and “peace” (= social wholeness and well-being); see, e.g., Pss 34:14; 37:37.

² sn The word עִקְּשֵׁי (ʿiqq^eshe, “crooked; twisted; perverted”) describes the wicked as having “twisted minds.” Their mentality is turned toward evil things.

¹ sn The contrast is between being rescued or delivered (נָצַל, natsal) and being captured (לָכַד, lakhad). Righteousness is freeing; [evil] desires are enslaving.

¹ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (saneʾ) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

¹ tn The noun in this relative clause is an accusative of specification: The evil people are twisted with respect to their paths/conduct.

¹ tn Heb “for a mouth of evil and a mouth of deceit against me they open, they speak with me [with] a tongue of falsehood.”

³ tn Heb “those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 56:2.

¹ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

¹ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 56:2.

¹ tn Heb “let not a foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the evil ones cause me to wander as a fugitive.”

¹ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

¹ tn Heb “many [are the] pains of evil [one].” The singular form is representative here; the typical evildoer, representative of the larger group of wicked people, is in view.

³ tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 54:5; 56:2.

² sn The figure is an implied metaphor. Plowing suggests the idea of deliberately preparing (or cultivating) life for evil. This describes those who are fundamentally wicked.

² tn Heb “was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so he [i.e., the Lord] killed him [i.e., Er].”

² tn Heb “apart from his sin which he caused Judah to commit, by doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

¹ tn The MT reads, “Why do you act according to these things which I am hearing—evil things—from all these people?”