NET | Psalm 94

Psalm 94 [ a ]

94  O     Lord   , the God who avenges!
O God who avenges, reveal your splendor. [ b ]
2  Rise up, O judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud.
3  O     Lord   , how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked celebrate? [ c ]
4  They spew out threats [ d ] and speak defiantly;
all the evildoers boast. [ e ]
5  O     Lord   , they crush your people;
they oppress the nation that belongs to you. [ f ]
6  They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,
and they murder the fatherless. [ g ]
7  Then they say, “The   Lord   does not see this;
the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” [ h ]
8  Take notice of this, [ i ] you ignorant people. [ j ]
You fools, when will you ever understand?
9  Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?
Does the one who forms the human eye not see? [ k ]
10  Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?
He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!
11  The   Lord   knows that peoples’ thoughts
are morally bankrupt. [ l ]
12  How blessed is the one [ m ] whom you instruct, O   Lord   ,
the one whom you teach from your law,
13  in order to protect him from times of trouble, [ n ]
until the wicked are destroyed. [ o ]
14  Certainly [ p ] the   Lord   does not forsake his people;
he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him. [ q ]
15  For justice will prevail, [ r ]
and all the morally upright [ s ] will be vindicated. [ t ]
16  Who will rise up to defend me [ u ] against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? [ v ]
17  If the   Lord   had not helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. [ w ]
18  If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your loyal love, O   Lord   , supports me.
19  When worries threaten to overwhelm me, [ x ]
your soothing touch makes me happy. [ y ]
20  Cruel rulers [ z ] are not your allies,
those who make oppressive laws. [ aa ]
21  They conspire against [ ab ] the blameless, [ ac ]
and condemn to death the innocent. [ ad ]
22  But the   Lord   will protect me, [ ae ]
and my God will shelter me. [ af ]
23  He will pay them back for their sin. [ ag ]
He will destroy them because of [ ah ] their evil;
the   Lord   our God will destroy them.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 94:1 sn Psalm 94 . The psalmist asks God to judge the wicked and affirms his confidence in God’s justice.
  2. Psalm 94:1 tn Heb “shine forth” (see Pss 50:2 ;   80:1 ).
  3. Psalm 94:3 tn Or “exult.”
  4. Psalm 94:4 tn Heb “they gush forth [words].”
  5. Psalm 94:4 tn The Hitpael of אָמַר ( ʾamar ) occurs only here (and perhaps in Isa 61:6 ).
  6. Psalm 94:5 tn Or “your inheritance.”
  7. Psalm 94:6 tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם ( yatom ) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9 ). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14 ;   68:5 ;   82:3 ;   146:9 ; as well as Job 6:27 ;   22:9 ;   24:3 ,   9 ;   29:12 ;   31:17 ,   21 ).
  8. Psalm 94:7 tn Heb “does not understand.”
  9. Psalm 94:8 tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.
  10. Psalm 94:8 tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”
  11. Psalm 94:9 tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”
  12. Psalm 94:11 tn Heb “the   Lord   knows the thoughts of man, that they are emptiness.” The psalmist thinks specifically of the “thoughts” expressed in v. 7 .
  13. Psalm 94:12 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2 .
  14. Psalm 94:13 tn Heb “to give him rest from the days of trouble.”
  15. Psalm 94:13 tn Heb “until a pit is dug for the wicked.”
  16. Psalm 94:14 tn Or “for.”
  17. Psalm 94:14 tn Or “his inheritance.”
  18. Psalm 94:15 tn Heb “for judgment will return to justice.”
  19. Psalm 94:15 tn Heb “all the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the   Lord   and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10 ;   11:2 ;   32:11 ;   36:10 ;   64:10 ;   97:11 ).
  20. Psalm 94:15 tn Heb “and after it [are] the pure of heart.”
  21. Psalm 94:16 tn Heb “for me.”
  22. Psalm 94:16 sn Who will stand up for me…? The questions anticipate the answer, “No one except God” (see v. 17 ).
  23. Psalm 94:17 tn Heb “If the   Lord   [were] not my help, quickly my life would have dwelt in silence.” The psalmist, perhaps speaking as the nation’s representative, recalls God’s past intervention. For other examples of conditional sentences with the term לוּלֵי ( lule , “if not”) in the protasis and a perfect verbal form in the apodosis, see Pss 119:92 and 124:2-5 .
  24. Psalm 94:19 tn Heb “when my worries are many within me.”
  25. Psalm 94:19 tn Heb “your comforts cause my soul to delight.”
  26. Psalm 94:20 tn Heb “a throne of destruction.” “Throne” stands here by metonymy for rulers who occupy thrones.
  27. Psalm 94:20 tn Heb “Is a throne of destruction united to you, one that forms trouble upon a statute?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course not!” The translation, while not preserving the interrogative form of the statement, reflects its rhetorical force.
  28. Psalm 94:21 tn Or “attack.”
  29. Psalm 94:21 tn Heb “the life of the blameless.”
  30. Psalm 94:21 tn Heb “and the blood of the innocent they declare guilty.”
  31. Psalm 94:22 tn Heb “and the   Lord   has become my elevated place.” The prefixed verbal form with vav ( ו ) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.
  32. Psalm 94:22 tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”
  33. Psalm 94:23 tn The prefixed verbal form with vav ( ו ) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.
  34. Psalm 94:23 tn Or “in.”