Translations
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
YHWH examines the righteous, but His nephesh hates the wicked and the one who lusts after violence.
Yahweh tests the righteous, but His very being hates the wicked and all who lust after violence.
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked; His soul hates the lover of violence.
Footnotes
The verb yivhan derives from bachan (to test or assay metals in a refiner's fire)—the righteous are not destroyed by examination but purified, as gold is. Remarkably, Yahweh is here described as having a nephesh ('very being') that sane'ah (hates/abhors)—an intense anthropomorphism insisting that evil is not morally neutral before God but personally revolting to Him. Hamas (violence/brutality) carries the full weight of systemic wrongdoing; it is the very word used of the pre-Flood world (Gen. 6:11), connecting this psalm to the deepest patterns of human rebellion. F.O.G. preserves nephesh to maintain the visceral divine-personal dimension; F.O.G.M. renders it 'His very being' to maximise emotional impact.

