Psalms 73

Translator Notes

1. The Masoretic text reads le-Yisrael ('to Israel'). Many scholars emend to la-yashar ('to the upright') based on the parallel with levvar levav ('pure of heart'). Both readings are theologically coherent: the MT emphasizes God's goodness to the covenant people, while the emendation emphasizes God's goodness to the morally upright.

Translator Notes

1. The verb shuppekhu ('were poured out') is striking — it describes liquid being spilled, steps dissolving like water. The near-apostasy is depicted not as rebellion but as erosion: the ground beneath the psalmist's convictions was washing away.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word hollelim ('arrogant, boastful') comes from halal in its negative sense — 'to be foolish, to boast.' These are not merely wicked people but people who flaunt their wickedness. Their arrogance is part of what makes them unbearable to the psalmist.
2. Register departure: shalom rendered as 'well-being' rather than default 'peace' because the psalmist observes the prosperity/comfort of the wicked — their material and physical wholeness, not peace in the relational or political sense.

Translator Notes

1. The word chartsubot ('bonds, pangs, fetters') is debated. Some read it as 'pangs' (they suffer no pain), others as 'bonds' (nothing binds or constrains them). The following phrase uvari ulam ('and fat/healthy is their body') supports the reading that these are people whose physical condition betrays no suffering. They are visibly prosperous — their ease is written on their bodies.

Translator Notes

1. The parallel between enosh ('mortal man' — emphasizing frailty) and adam ('humankind') creates a comprehensive statement: the wicked are exempt from the suffering that defines human existence. This is what makes them so maddening to the psalmist.

Translator Notes

1. The word chamas ('violence, wrongdoing') is the same word used in Genesis 6:11 to describe the pre-flood world that provoked God's destruction. Its use here foreshadows the eventual judgment described later in the psalm.

Translator Notes

1. The image is grotesque: eyes protruding from fat faces — physical excess mirroring moral excess. The phrase avru maskiyyot levav ('the imaginations of the heart overflow, pass beyond') suggests that their desires know no limit — they have everything and still want more. The word maskiyyot can mean 'images, pictures, imaginings' — their hearts generate endless schemes.

Translator Notes

1. The verb yamiku is difficult — it may mean 'they mock, they scoff' or 'they dissolve, they melt' (i.e., they make others dissolve with fear). The phrase mi-marom yedabberu ('they speak from on high') captures their arrogance: they speak as if from a throne, as if they are above everyone, as if their position exempts them from accountability.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase shattu vashamayim pihem ('they set their mouths in the heavens') is an image of cosmic arrogance — mouths positioned against the sky itself, speaking as rivals to God. This is not mere rudeness but theological rebellion.

Translator Notes

1. This difficult verse seems to describe the wicked's followers — ordinary people who observe their prosperity and are drawn to them. The 'waters of abundance' (mei male) likely means the wicked drink deeply of success, draining the cup of prosperity dry. The verse captures the social effect of visible wickedness: it attracts a following.

Translator Notes

1. The title Elyon ('Most High') emphasizes God's supreme position — and the irony is sharp: the very God whose exalted position should guarantee oversight is the one whose knowledge they deny. The higher God is, the less He sees — that is their theology.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase shalvei olam can mean 'perpetually at ease' or 'at ease in the world.' Either reading conveys the same frustration: the wicked enjoy uninterrupted, seemingly permanent tranquility.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase 'washed my hands in innocence' echoes Psalm 26:6 and the ritual handwashing of innocence (cf. Deuteronomy 21:6). The psalmist has maintained both inner purity (heart) and outer conduct (hands) — and concludes it was worthless.

Translator Notes

1. The contrast with verses 4-5 is deliberate: the wicked have no pain (verse 4) and are not stricken like others (verse 5), but the psalmist is nagua ('stricken, plagued') kol hayyom ('all day long') and receives tokhachah ('punishment, correction') labbeqarot ('every morning'). Morning, which should bring fresh mercy, brings only fresh suffering.

Translator Notes

1. The verb bagadti ('I would have betrayed, dealt treacherously') is a strong word — it is used for marital infidelity, treaty violations, and religious apostasy. The psalmist understands that publicizing his crisis of faith would be a form of violence against the believing community.

Translator Notes

1. The word amal ('labor, trouble, toil') is the same word used in verse 5 for the suffering the wicked avoid. Now the psalmist's attempt to comprehend the problem is itself amal — even thinking about it is exhausting. The problem resists rational solution.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The plural miqdeshei ('sanctuaries') may refer to the temple complex with its multiple courts, or it may be a plural of majesty. The key point is that the resolution comes not from philosophical reasoning but from worship — from entering God's presence.

Translator Notes

1. The word chalaqot ('slippery places') connects to the wisdom tradition's warnings about the 'slippery path' (Proverbs 5:6, Jeremiah 23:12). The wicked's prosperity was always precarious — the psalmist simply could not see it until he entered the sanctuary.

Translator Notes

1. The word ke-raga ('like a moment, in an instant') emphasizes the speed of their collapse. The prosperity that seemed permanent vanishes instantaneously. The triple emphasis — shammah ('horror, desolation'), safu ('they are swept away'), tammu ('they are finished, consumed') — leaves nothing standing.

Translator Notes

1. The image of God awakening is anthropomorphic — God does not literally sleep — but it captures the psalmist's perception: the period of the wicked's prosperity felt like God was asleep, and their judgment will feel like God waking up. The same language appears in Psalm 44:24 ('Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?').

Translator Notes

1. The verb yitchammets ('was embittered, was soured') comes from chamets ('to be sour, to leaven') — the same root as vinegar. The psalmist's heart had gone sour with envy. The kilyot ('kidneys, innermost parts') were considered the seat of deep emotions and conscience in Hebrew anthropology. The psalmist's entire inner life had been corroded by the problem.

Translator Notes

1. This verse is the psalm's act of repentance. The crisis of faith described in verses 2-16 is now diagnosed as a failure of perception — not a failure of God. The psalmist takes responsibility for his near-apostasy by calling it what it was: stupidity.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase 'You hold my right hand' reverses the image of verse 2 (feet slipping). The hand that was grasping at nothing is now held by God. This is one of the Psalter's most powerful statements of grace — God's grip is stronger than the psalmist's doubt.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The phrase achar kavod has been translated as 'afterward to glory,' 'after glory,' 'according to glory,' and 'with honor afterward.' The ambiguity may be intentional — the psalmist is reaching beyond what he can clearly articulate, groping toward a hope that the Hebrew Bible's theology of death has not yet fully developed.

Translator Notes

1. The verb chafats ('to desire, to delight in, to take pleasure in') is a strong word — it describes deep, passionate wanting. The psalmist is not saying he lacks earthly desires; he is saying that compared to God, no earthly desire registers. This is not asceticism but adoration.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The parallel between failing flesh and enduring God creates a contrast between what is temporary and what is permanent. The psalmist does not deny mortality; he transcends it by anchoring his identity in something that cannot decay.

Translator Notes

1. The verb hitsmattah ('You have destroyed, cut off, silenced') is from tsamat, meaning to put an end to something decisively. The language of sexual unfaithfulness (zoneh) for spiritual apostasy is characteristic of Hosea and Ezekiel but appears here in the Psalms as well.

Translator Notes

1. The closing phrase echoes Psalm 71:17-18 — the psalmist will declare God's works to the next generation. The crisis of faith has not destroyed his witness; it has deepened it. He now has something to testify about that he did not have before: how God held him when his feet were slipping.