Psalm 10:16-18

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 10:16 tn Heb “the Lord is king forever and ever.”
2. Psalm 10:16 tn Or “the nations perish from his land.” The perfect verb form may express what is typical or it may express rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude that God’s deliverance is “as good as done.”sn The nations may be the underlying reality behind the psalmist’s references to the “wicked” in the earlier verses. This reference to the nations may have motivated the combining of Ps 10 with Ps 9 (see Ps 9:5, 15, 19).
3. Psalm 10:17 sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.
4. Psalm 10:17 tn Heb “desire.”
5. Psalm 10:17 tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”
6. Psalm 10:18 tn Heb “to judge (on behalf of),” or “by judging (on behalf of).”
7. Psalm 10:18 tn Heb “crushed.” See v. 10.
8. Psalm 10:18 tn Heb “he will not add again [i.e., “he will no longer”] to terrify, man from the earth.” The Hebrew term אֱנוֹשׁ (ʾenosh, “man”) refers here to the wicked nations (v. 16). By describing them as “from the earth,” the psalmist emphasizes their weakness before the sovereign, eternal king.