¹ tn The verse gives the other side of the coin now, the fact that the wicked prosper.

¹ sn The verbs “guilty” and “innocent” are actually the verbs “I am wicked,” and “I am righteous.”

¹ sn The proverb makes a simple observation on life: The righteous detest the wicked, and the wicked detest the lifestyle of the righteous. Each is troublesome to the beliefs and the activities of the other.

¹ tc The MT reads “the tillage (נִר, nir) of the wicked.” The LXX, other versions, and some Hebrew manuscripts read “the lamp (נֵר, ner) of the wicked” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). Both are difficult in the context.

³ tn The expression מָלְאוּ רָע (mal^eʾu raʿ, “to be full of calamity/evil”) means (1) the wicked do much evil or (2) the wicked experience much calamity (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

³ sn What the wicked say has a disastrous effect on society, endangering, weakening, demoralizing, and perverting with malicious and slanderous words. Wicked leaders, in particular, can bring destruction on a city by their evil counsel.

⁵ tn The syntax of this line is ambiguous. The translation takes “the mouth of the wicked” as the nominative subject and “violence” as the accusative direct object; however, the subject might be “violence,” hence: “violence covers the mouth of the wicked.”

³ sn To say the wicked’s name will rot means that the name will be obliterated from memory (Exod 17:14; Deut 25:19), leaving only a bad memory for a while.

² tn The term “wicked” (רַע, raʿ) means “bad, harmful, painful.” Rather than referring to the abstract concept of “wickedness” in general, the term probably refers to wicked people because of the parallelism with “those speaking perversity.”

² tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical; the idea is, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

⁵ tn Heb “the wicked [one] and the lover of violence.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form רְשָׁעִים (r^eshaʿim, “wicked [ones]”) in vv. 2 and 6.

² sn You hate. The Lord “hates” the wicked in the sense that he despises their wicked character and deeds and actively opposes and judges them for their wickedness. See Ps 11:5.

² tn Heb “And where is the tent, the dwellings of the wicked.” The word “dwellings of the wicked” is in apposition to “tent.” A relative pronoun must be supplied in the translation.

² tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical, the idea being, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

³ tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”

² tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”

¹ sn The “crushed reed” and “dim wick” symbolize the weak and oppressed who are on the verge of extinction.

⁴ sn Wicked, self-serving people find destructive speech appealing. They should be rebuked and not tolerated (Lev 19:17).

⁵ tc The LXX reads “the souls of the wicked perish untimely.” The MT makes sense as it stands.

² sn The righteous say what is pleasing, acceptable, or delightful, but the wicked say perverse and destructive things.