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He says to himself,[a]
“I will never[b] be shaken,
because I experience no calamity.”[c]
His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words;[d]
his tongue injures and destroys.[e]
He waits in ambush near the villages;[f]
in hidden places he kills the innocent.
His eyes look for some unfortunate victim.[g]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 10:6 tn Heb “he says in his heart/mind.”
  2. Psalm 10:6 tn Heb “not . . . for a generation and a generation.” The traditional accentuation of the MT understands the words “for a generation and a generation” with the following line.
  3. Psalm 10:6 tn Heb “who, not in calamity.” If אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher) is taken as a relative pronoun here, then one could translate, “[I] who [am] not in calamity.” Some emend אֲשֶׁר to אֹשֶׁר (ʾosher, “happiness”; see HALOT 99 s.v. אֹשֶׁר); one might then translate, “[I live in] happiness, not in calamity.” The present translation assumes that אֲשֶׁר functions here as a causal conjunction, “because, for.” For this use of אֲשֶׁר, see BDB 83 s.v. אֲשֶׁר 8.c (where the present text is not cited).
  4. Psalm 10:7 tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”
  5. Psalm 10:7 tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.
  6. Psalm 10:8 tn Heb “he sits in the ambush of the villages.”
  7. Psalm 10:8 tn Heb “his eyes for an unfortunate person lie hidden.” The language may picture a lion (see v. 9) peering out from its hiding place in anticipation that an unsuspecting victim will soon come strolling along.

He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
    He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”(A)

His mouth is full(B) of lies and threats;(C)
    trouble and evil are under his tongue.(D)
He lies in wait(E) near the villages;
    from ambush he murders the innocent.(F)
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;

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