‘Break the arm of the unrighteous, and as for the evil man,

Seek out his wickedness. You find none.'

In unarmed combat the breaking of the arm rendered the opponent powerless. Thus YHWH is exhorted to render the unrighteous powerless, and search out the evil man's wickedness so that He can call it to account. And He will in fact be so successful in removing it that when He looks for wickedness He will find none. Compare Psalms 37:17; Job 38:15.

‘Seek out his wickedness. You find none.' Literally ‘when You seek to call to account his wickedness you shall not find', because it has been removed. All wickedness will have been done away (compare Psalms 17:3). Yahweh had seen everything after all.

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