Deliverdict

John Barach writes:

“I’ve been working on Psalm 5 and happened to read Van Gemeren’s treatment of it in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary today. In connection with verse 10 (‘Declare them guilty’), Van Gemeren writes:

“’ . . . the psalmist prays for their demise. The declaration of their ‘guilt’ also signifies the judgment of destruction. The phrase ‘declare them guilty’ (ha’asimem, ‘you destroy them,’ Dahood, Psalms, 1:35-36) calls on the Lord both to declare a guilty verdict and to judge them with an appropriate sentence (cf. Ps 34:21-22; Isa 24:6; Hos 5:14; 10:2)’ (90) . . .

“The word in question is the opposite of the word ‘justify’ or ‘vindicate.’ So what VG is saying here is that the condemnation, which is a declaration that these people are guilty, is not just a declaration but also an act. To declare them guilty is to destroy them. He as much as says that the form the guilty verdict takes is precisely the destruction of the enemy. He doesn’t, however, develop a catchy phrase to describe this, nor does he theologize on the basis of it. And besides, ‘destrucverdict’ doesn’t work at all.

“But isn’t he arguing, in the case of condemnation = destruction, for the flipside of what you’re arguing for in your ‘deliverdict’?”

To which my answer is: Yes.