Psalm 10:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

NIV: He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims;

NASB: He sits in the lurking places of the villages; He kills the innocent in the secret places; His eyes surreptitiously watch for the unfortunate.

CSB: He waits in ambush near settlements; he kills the innocent in secret places. His eyes are on the lookout for the helpless;

NLT: They lurk in ambush in the villages, waiting to murder innocent people. They are always searching for helpless victims.

KJV: He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

NKJV: He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the secret places he murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.

What an indictment David levels against the wicked man here! Earlier verses depicted a wicked man preying on the poor and weak for his own gain (Psalm 10:2–3). This verse continues that sense of predatory evil. The wicked man makes deliberate effort to surprise and attack; hiding until he finds someone to murder, watching carefully to prey on someone weak enough to easily overcome. The depravity of this action is highlighted through the term rendered "helpless" in translations such as the ESV. The Hebrew root word hē'lekāh refers to someone to be pitied, often one who is poor. In poetic language, such a person is a "poor wretch."

The wicked man is like the proverbial robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. They ambushed a man, robbed him, stripped him, beat him, and left him half dead (Luke 10:30). Crimes against the poor were especially common in Bible times. Robbers were known to hide from their intended victims until they could safely pounce upon them, rob them, and harm them. The wicked man David writes about here not only robbed his victims but also murdered them. He violated the Lord's commands: "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13), "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15), and "You shall not covet …" (Exodus 20:17).

Psalm 10:1–11 asks why God seems to ignore the character and deeds of wicked people. The wicked are described as haughty oppressors of the poor and helpless. They are arrogant, greedy, insulters of God. They don't believe He exists, so they feel free to take advantage of poor and helpless victims.

This song opens with a common question humanity asks in hard times: "where are you, God?" There follows a description of wicked people and their deeds and motives. Evil people feel free to be depraved and arrogant, assuming there is no God to judge them. Like predators, these wicked people ambush helpless people. Despite their wrong assumptions, God keeps His promises. He will judge the wicked and defend His people. Helpless people can trust God to make matters right. Someday, He will rid the earth of all sin and suffering. His justice will prevail, and His people will never again experience persecution.

According to some scholars, Psalms 9 and 10 might have been composed together, possibly even as one psalm. No title is affixed to Psalm 10, and it seems to continue the acrostic pattern of Psalm 9, starting each section with a successive letter from the Hebrew alphabet. The Septuagint and the Vulgate place the two psalms as one. However, the mood shifts from one psalm to the other. Psalm 9 focuses on judgment to come; Psalm 10 focuses on the presence of widespread injustice. Whether literally composed together, or separately, they deal with related issues using profoundly different tones.

The book of Psalms is composed of individual songs, hymns, or poems, each of which is a ''Psalm'' in and of itself. These works contain a wide variety of themes. Some Psalms focus on praising and worshipping God. Others cry out in anguish over the pain of life. Still other Psalms look forward to the coming of the Messiah. While some Psalms are related, each has its own historical and biblical context.