Psalm 10:11-13

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 10:11 tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.
2. Psalm 10:11 tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”
3. Psalm 10:12 sn Rise up, O Lord! The psalmist’s mood changes from lament to petition and confidence.
4. Psalm 10:12 tn Heb “lift up your hand.” Usually the expression “lifting the hand” refers to praying (Pss 28:2; 134:2) or making an oath (Ps 106:26), but here it probably refers to “striking a blow” (see 2 Sam 18:28; 20:21). Note v. 15, where the psalmist asks the Lord to “break the arm of the wicked.” A less likely option is that the psalmist is requesting that the Lord declare by oath his intention to intervene.
5. Psalm 10:13 tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.
6. Psalm 10:13 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?”
7. Psalm 10:13 tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.
8. Psalm 10:13 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.”