Psalms 10:13

Why does the wicked man reject God? ¹  He says to himself, ²  “You ³  will not hold me accountable.” ⁴ 

Ge 9:5; Ge 42:22; Nu 11:20; 2Sa 12:9,10; 2Ch 24:22; Ps 74:10,18; Lu 10:16; Lu 11:50,51; 1Th 4:8

¹ tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.

² tn Heb “he says in his heart” (see vv. 6, 11). Another option is to understand an ellipsis of the interrogative particle here (cf. the preceding line), “Why does he say in his heart?”

³ tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.

⁴ tn Heb “you will not seek.” The verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as generalizing about what is typical and translate, “you do not hold [people] accountable.”