Psalm 66:8-20
New English Translation
8 Praise[a] our God, you nations.
Loudly proclaim his praise.[b]
9 He preserves our lives[c]
and does not allow our feet to slip.
10 For[d] you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
11 You led us into a trap;[e]
you caused us to suffer.[f]
12 You allowed men to ride over our heads;
we passed through fire and water,
but you brought us out into a wide open place.[g]
13 I will enter[h] your temple with burnt sacrifices;
I will fulfill the vows I made to you,
14 which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,
along with the smell of sacrificial rams.
I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)
16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God.[i]
I will declare what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him for help[j]
and praised him with my tongue.[k]
18 If I had harbored sin in my heart,[l]
the Lord would not have listened.
19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
20 God deserves praise,[m]
for[n] he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me.[o]
Footnotes
- Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ברך pi).
- Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
- Psalm 66:9 tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
- Psalm 66:10 tn Or “indeed.”
- Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
- Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (muʿaqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
- Psalm 66:12 tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (revayah, “saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (revakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).
- Psalm 66:13 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
- Psalm 66:16 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
- Psalm 66:17 tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
- Psalm 66:17 tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a Polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.
- Psalm 66:18 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
- Psalm 66:20 tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
- Psalm 66:20 tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
- Psalm 66:20 tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer, or his loyal love from with me.”
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