The providential care of the LORD for his people is expressed in bodily terms: his eyes and his ears are toward them (verse 15), that is, “The LORD watches over” them and “listens to their cries” (Good News Translation) for help. In some languages it is possible to keep closer to the Hebrew figurative language than Good News Translation has done; for example, “The LORD puts his eyes on good people” and “he has two ears to hear their cries.”

The LORD’s hostility toward evildoers is expressed in the same fashion: his face is against them. The result of God’s hostility is that they will die and be forgotten by everyone (see the same ideas in 9.5-6; 109.15b). The expressive verb cut off is the one used in 12.3. The remembrance of them means the memory that others have of them, the knowledge and awareness that they had ever existed. And from the earth means the people of the world will forget them completely.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .