Psalm 10:1-18
ל [Laʹmedh]*
10 Why, O Jehovah, do you keep standing afar off?+[Why] do you keep yourself hid* in times of distress?+
2 In his haughtiness the wicked one hotly pursues the afflicted one;+They get caught by the ideas that they have thought up.+
3 For the wicked has praised himself over the selfish longing of his soul,+And the one making undue profit+ has blessed himself;נ [Nun]He has disrespected Jehovah.+
4 The wicked one according to his superciliousness* makes no search;+All his ideas are: “There is no God.”*+
5 His ways keep prospering* all the time.+Your judicial decisions are high up out of his range;+As for all those showing hostility to him, he puffs at them.+
6 He has said in his heart: “I shall not be made to totter;+For generation after generation [I shall be] one who is in no calamity.”+
פ [Peʼ]
7 His mouth is full of oaths and of deceptions and of oppression.+Under his tongue are trouble and what is hurtful.+
8 He sits in an ambush of settlements;*From concealed places he will kill someone innocent.+ע [ʽAʹyin]His eyes are on the lookout for someone unfortunate.*+
9 He keeps lying in wait in the concealed place like a lion in his covert.+He keeps lying in wait+ to carry off some afflicted one by force.He carries off the afflicted one by force when he draws his net shut.+
10 He is crushed, he bows down,And the army of dejected ones* has to fall into his strong [claws].+
11 He has said in his heart:+ “God has forgotten.+He has concealed his face.+He will certainly never see [it].”+
ק [Qohph]
12 Do arise,+ O Jehovah. O God,* lift up your hand.+Do not forget the afflicted ones.+
13 Why is it that the wicked one has disrespected God?*+He has said in his heart: “You will not require an accounting.”+
ר [Rehsh]
14 For you yourself have seen trouble and vexation.You keep looking on, to get [them] into your hand.+To you the unfortunate+ one, the fatherless boy, commits [himself].You yourself have become [his] helper.+
ש [Shin]
15 Break the arm of the wicked and bad one.+May you search after his wickedness [until] you find no more.+
16 Jehovah is King to time indefinite, even forever.+The nations have perished out of his earth.+
ת [Taw]
17 The desire of the meek ones you will certainly hear,+ O Jehovah.You will prepare their heart.+You will pay attention with your ear,+
18 To judge the fatherless boy and the crushed one,+That mortal man who is of the earth may no more cause trembling.*+
Footnotes
^ In LXXVg this psalm is combined with the preceding psalm to make one psalm of 39 vss. In M the alphabetic acrostic continues from Ps 9 through Ps 10, which begins with the 12th letter of the Heb. alphabet, Laʹmedh.
^ “Keep yourself hid,” in agreement with T.
^ Lit., “according to the height of his nose.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ.
^ “Prospering,” by a correction; M, “enduring.”
^ “Settlements,” M; by a slight change of vowel pointing, “green grass.”
^ “Someone unfortunate.” The meaning in M is uncertain. Some read this as “your military forces,” but this does not suit the context.
^ “The army of dejected ones.” The meaning in M is uncertain.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ, pl. of ʼElohʹah.
^ Or, “that mortal man may no more continue to move tremblingly out of the earth.”
