Psalm 65:1-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 65:1 sn Psalm 65. The psalmist praises God because he forgives sin and blesses his people with an abundant harvest.
2. Psalm 65:1 tn Heb “for you, silence, praise.” Many prefer to emend the noun דֻּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”) to a participle דּוֹמִיָּה (domiyyah), from the root דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”), understood here in the sense of “wait.”
3. Psalm 65:2 tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”
4. Psalm 65:2 tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”
5. Psalm 65:3 tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”
6. Psalm 65:3 tn Or “make atonement for.”
7. Psalm 65:4 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
8. Psalm 65:4 tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”
9. Psalm 65:4 tn Or “temple.”
10. Psalm 65:5 tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”
11. Psalm 65:5 tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”sn All the ends of the earth trust in you. This idealistic portrayal of universal worship is typical hymnic hyperbole, though it does anticipate eschatological reality.
12. Psalm 65:5 tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (r^ekhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.