Ps. 50.18 (hate and love)

“When you saw / a thief, / you were delighted / with him – and your lot / was with adulterers.” While the wicked ‘hate’ God’s instruction, they ‘delight’ in the thief. And while they “cast his words behind them”, they throw “their lot with adulterers.”  We should point out two things: both the ‘thief’ and the ‘adulterers’ are specific transgressors of the Decalogue.  This only intensifies the problematic nature of the wicked. Like Israel worshiping the golden calf, these ‘wicked’ are breaking the covenant precisely at the moment it is being delivered/renewed. Indeed their very being is dually oriented to this rupture: they despise what they should love; and love what they should despise.  As to the nature of the transgression, the first (the thief) points to exploitation; the second (adultery) points to the rupture of the family unit. Both of them are geared toward a type of communal breakdown. Furthermore, by the fact that it only takes a “seeing” of the thief to arouse the wicked’s delight, we see how prone they are to wickedness; by merely seeing their (evil) desires are aroused.