Psalms 52:7

“Look, here is the man who would not make ¹  God his protector! He trusted in his great wealth and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” ² 

Job 31:24,25; Ps 49:6-20; Ps 62:9,10; Ps 73:7-11,18-20; Ps 146:3-5; Ec 8:8; Isa 14:16,17; Jer 17:5; Ho 12:7,8; Joh 19:5; 1Ti 6:17

¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”

² tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).