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Psalm 10
Evangelical Heritage Version
Psalm 10
Evangelical Heritage Version
Psalm 10
Break the Arm of the Wicked Man
An Opening Appeal for Action
1 Why, Lord, do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide in times of distress?
A Portrait of the Wicked
2 Because of the pride of the wicked, the oppressed burn.[a]
They are caught in the schemes that the wicked plan.
3 Yes, the wicked man boasts about his heart’s desires.
He blesses the robber. He despises the Lord.[b]
4 With his nose in the air, the wicked does not seek God.
There is no room at all for God in his thoughts.
5 His ways are prosperous all the time.
He is haughty. Your judgments do not concern him.
He snorts at all of his foes.
6 He says in his heart, “I will not be shaken.
Through age after age I will have no trouble.”
7 Cursing fills his mouth, along with lies and threats.
Trouble and evil lie under his tongue.
8 He waits in ambush by the villages.
In hidden places he murders the innocent.
His eyes are spying on the helpless.
9 He lies in ambush. He hides like a lion in a thicket.
He lies in ambush to catch the oppressed.
He catches the oppressed by dragging them in his net.
10 The helpless are crushed. They sink down.
They fall under his strength.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten.
He hides his face. He never sees.”
An Appeal for Divine Justice
12 Rise up, O Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the oppressed.
13 Why does the wicked man despise God?
Why does he say in his heart,
“You do not seek justice”?
14 But you do see. You notice trouble and grief.
You take it into your own hands.
The helpless one abandons himself to you.
For the fatherless you are indeed a helper.
15 Break the arm of the wicked.
You pursue the wickedness of the evil man
until you find no more.[c]
Confidence in Divine Justice
16 The Lord is King forever and ever.
The nations will perish from his land.
17 Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted.
You strengthen their hearts,
and your ear pays attention,
18 to obtain justice for the fatherless and the crushed,
so that the worldly man[d] may no longer terrify.
Footnotes
- Psalm 10:2 Or in pride the wicked burns for [that is, he hotly pursues] the oppressed
- Psalm 10:3 With a different punctuation and reading of the Hebrew text the robber reviles the Lord
- Psalm 10:15 Or which he thought you would not find
- Psalm 10:18 Or mortal man
Psalm 10
1599 Geneva Bible
Psalm 10
1599 Geneva Bible
10 1 He complaineth of the fraud, rapine, tyranny, and all kinds of wrong, which worldly men use, assigning the cause thereof, that wicked men, being as it were drunken with worldly prosperity, and therefore setting apart all fear and reverence towards God, think they may do all things without controlling. 15 Therefore he calleth upon God to send some remedy against these desperate evils, 16 and at length comforteth himself with hope of deliverance.
1 Why standest thou far off, O Lord, and hidest thee in [a]due time, even in affliction?
2 The wicked with pride doth persecute the poor; let them be taken in the crafts that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked hath [b]made boast of his own heart’s desire, and the covetous blesseth himself, he contemneth the Lord.
4 The wicked is so proud, that he seeketh not for God: he thinketh always, There is no God.
5 His ways always prosper: thy judgments are high above his sight; therefore [c]defieth he all his enemies.
6 He saith in his heart, I shall [d]never be moved, [e]nor be in danger.
7 His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud; under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
8 [f]He lieth in wait in the villages; in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are bent against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly, even as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to spoil the poor; he doth spoil the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
10 He croucheth and boweth; therefore heaps of the [g]poor do fall by his might.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth away his face, and will never see.
12 [h]Arise, O Lord God, lift up thine hand; forget not the poor.
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he saith in his heart, Thou wilt not [i]regard.
14 Yet thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and wrong; that thou mayest [j]take it into thine hands; the poor committeth himself unto thee; for thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and malicious; search his wickedness, and thou shalt find [k]none.
16 The Lord is King forever and ever; the [l]heathen are destroyed forth of his land.
17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the poor; thou preparest their heart; thou bendest thine ear to them,
18 [m]To judge the fatherless and poor, that earthly man [n]cause to fear no more.
Footnotes
- Psalm 10:1 So soon as we enter into affliction, we think God should help us, but that is not always his due time.
- Psalm 10:3 The wicked man rejoiceth in his own lust, he boasteth when he hath that he would: he braggeth of his wit and wealth, and blesseth himself, and thus blasphemeth the Lord.
- Psalm 10:5 Or, snuffeth at.
- Psalm 10:6 Or, not be moved, because he was never in evil.
- Psalm 10:6 The evil shall not touch me, Isa. 28:15, or else he speaketh thus because he never felt evil.
- Psalm 10:8 He showeth that the wicked have many means to hide their cruelty, and therefore ought more to be feared.
- Psalm 10:10 By the hypocrisy of them that have authority, the poor are devoured.
- Psalm 10:12 He calleth to God for help, because wickedness is so far overgrown, that God must now help or never.
- Psalm 10:13 Therefore thou must needs punish this their blasphemy.
- Psalm 10:14 To judge between the right and the wrong.
- Psalm 10:15 For thou hast utterly destroyed him.
- Psalm 10:16 The hypocrites or such as live not after God’s Law, shall be destroyed.
- Psalm 10:18 God helpeth when man’s help ceaseth.
- Psalm 10:18 Or, destroy no more man upon the earth.
Psalm 10
New International Version
Psalm 10
New International Version
Psalm 10[a]
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,(C)
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts(D) about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.(E)
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.(F)
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by[b] him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”(G)
7 His mouth is full(H) of lies and threats;(I)
trouble and evil are under his tongue.(J)
8 He lies in wait(K) near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.(L)
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;(M)
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.(N)
10 His victims are crushed,(O) they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, “God will never notice;(P)
he covers his face and never sees.”(Q)
12 Arise,(R) Lord! Lift up your hand,(S) O God.
Do not forget the helpless.(T)
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?(U)
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?(V)
14 But you, God, see the trouble(W) of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;(X)
you are the helper(Y) of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;(Z)
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;(AA)
the nations(AB) will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;(AC)
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,(AD)
18 defending the fatherless(AE) and the oppressed,(AF)
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
Footnotes
- Psalm 10:1 Psalms 9 and 10 may originally have been a single acrostic poem in which alternating lines began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm.
- Psalm 10:5 See Septuagint; Hebrew / they are haughty, and your laws are far from
Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
1599 Geneva Bible (GNV) 
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.