1 ([Hebrew: lamed]) Why, Jehovah, dost Thou stand far off? Why veilest [Thine eyes] in times of extremity? 2 Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted is burned away; They are taken in the plots which these have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of his soul's desire, And the rapacious man renounces, contemns, Jehovah. 4 The wicked, by (lit., according to) the uplifting of his nostrils, [says,] He will not inquire; There is no God, is all his thought.
5 His ways are stable at all times; High above [him] are Thy judgments, remote from before him; His adversaries--he snorts at them.
6 He says in his heart, I shall not be moved; To generation after generation, [I am he] who never falls into adversity. 7 Of cursing his mouth is full, and deceits, and oppression; Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He couches in the hiding-places of the villages; In secret he slays the innocent; His eyes watch the helpless.
9 He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his lair; He lies in wait to seize the afflicted; He seizes the afflicted, dragging him in his net.
10 He crouches, he bows down, And there falls into his strong [claws] the helpless. 11 He says in his heart, God forgets; He hides His face, He will not ever see it.
12 ([Hebrew: qof]) Rise! Jehovah, God! lift up Thy hand! Forget not the afflicted. 13 Wherefore does the wicked blaspheme God, [And] say in his heart, Thou wilt not inquire?
14 ([Hebrew: resh]) Thou hast seen, for Thou, Thou dost behold mischief and trouble, to take it into Thy hand; To Thee the helpless leaves himself; The orphan, Thou, Thou hast been his Helper.
15 ([Hebrew: shin]) Break the arm of the wicked; As for the evil man, inquire for his wickedness [till] Thou find none. 16 Jehovah is King for ever and aye; The nations are perished out of the land.
17 ([Hebrew: tav]) The desire of the meek Thou hast heard, Jehovah; Thou wilt prepare their heart, wilt make Thine ear attentive 18 To do judgment for the orphan and downtrodden; Terrible no more shall the man of the earth be.
Psalms ix. and x. are alike in their imperfectly acrostic structure, the occurrence of certain phrases--_e.g._, the very uncommon expression for "times of trouble" (ix. 9; x. 1), "Arise, O Lord" (ix. 19; x. 12)--and the references to the nations' judgment. But the differences are so great that the hypothesis of their original unity is hard to accept. As already remarked, the enemies are different. The tone of the one psalm is jubilant thanksgiving for victory won and judgment effected; that of the other is passionate portraiture of a rampant foe and cries for a judgment yet unmanifested. They are a pair, though why the psalmist should have bound together two songs of which the unlikenesses are at least as great as the likenesses it is not easy to discover. The circumstances of his day may have brought the cruelty of domestic robbers close upon the heels of foreign foes, as is often the case, but that is mere conjecture.