Psalm 105-106
New English Translation
Psalm 105[a]
105 Give thanks to the Lord.
Call on his name.
Make known his accomplishments among the nations.
2 Sing to him.
Make music to him.
Tell about all his miraculous deeds.
3 Boast about his holy name.
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Seek the Lord and the strength he gives.
Seek his presence continually.
5 Recall the miraculous deeds he performed,
his mighty acts and the judgments he decreed,[b]
6 O children[c] of Abraham,[d] God’s[e] servant,
you descendants[f] of Jacob, God’s[g] chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
he carries out judgment throughout the earth.[h]
8 He always remembers his covenantal decree,
the promise he made[i] to a thousand generations—
9 the promise[j] he made to Abraham,
the promise he made by oath to Isaac.
10 He gave it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as a lasting promise,[k]
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your inheritance.”
12 When they were few in number,
just a very few, and resident foreigners within it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
and from one kingdom to another.[l]
14 He let no one oppress them;
he disciplined kings for their sake,
15 saying,[m] “Don’t touch my chosen ones.[n]
Don’t harm my prophets.”
16 He called down a famine upon the earth;
he cut off all the food supply.[o]
17 He sent a man ahead of them[p]—
Joseph was sold as a servant.
18 The shackles hurt his feet;[q]
his neck was placed in an iron collar,[r]
19 until the time when his prediction[s] came true.
The Lord’s word[t] proved him right.[u]
20 The king authorized his release;[v]
the ruler of nations set him free.
21 He put him in charge of his palace,[w]
and made him manager of all his property,
22 giving him authority to imprison his officials[x]
and to teach his advisers.[y]
23 Israel moved to[z] Egypt;
Jacob lived for a time[aa] in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord[ab] made his people very fruitful,
and made them[ac] more numerous than their[ad] enemies.
25 He caused the Egyptians[ae] to hate his people,
and to mistreat[af] his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They executed his miraculous signs among them,[ag]
and his amazing deeds in the land of Ham.
28 He made it dark;[ah]
Moses and Aaron did not disobey his orders.[ai]
29 He turned the Egyptians’ water into blood,
and killed their fish.
30 Their land was overrun by frogs,
which even got into the rooms of their kings.
31 He ordered flies to come;[aj]
gnats invaded their whole territory.
32 He sent hail along with the rain;[ak]
there was lightning in their land.[al]
33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,
and broke the trees throughout their territory.
34 He ordered locusts to come,[am]
innumerable grasshoppers.
35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,
and devoured the crops of their fields.[an]
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power.[ao]
37 He brought his people[ap] out enriched[aq] with silver and gold;
none of his tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt was happy when they left,
for they were afraid of them.[ar]
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,[as]
and provided a fire to light up the night.
40 They asked for food,[at] and he sent quail;
he satisfied them with food from the sky.[au]
41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;
a river ran through dry regions.
42 Yes,[av] he remembered the sacred promise[aw]
he made to Abraham his servant.
43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;
his chosen ones shouted with joy.[ax]
44 He handed the territory of nations over to them,
and they took possession of what other peoples had produced,[ay]
45 so that they might keep his commands
and obey[az] his laws.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 106[ba]
106 Praise the Lord.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures.[bb]
2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts,
or relate all his praiseworthy deeds?[bc]
3 How blessed are those who promote justice,
and do what is right all the time.
4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.
Pay attention to me, when you deliver,
5 so I may see the prosperity[bd] of your chosen ones,
rejoice along with your nation,[be]
and boast along with the people who belong to you.[bf]
6 We have sinned like[bg] our ancestors;[bh]
we have done wrong, we have done evil.
7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds.
They failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,
and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea.[bi]
8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation,[bj]
that he might reveal his power.
9 He shouted at[bk] the Red Sea and it dried up;
he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.
10 He delivered them from the power[bl] of the one who hated them,
and rescued[bm] them from the power[bn] of the enemy.
11 The water covered their enemies;
not even one of them survived.[bo]
12 They believed his promises;[bp]
they sang praises to him.
13 They quickly forgot what he had done;[bq]
they did not wait for his instructions.[br]
14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving[bs] for meat;[bt]
they challenged God[bu] in the wastelands.
15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease.[bv]
16 In the camp they resented[bw] Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.[bx]
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed[by] the group led by Abiram.[bz]
18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked.[ca]
19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
20 They traded their majestic God[cb]
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They rejected[cc] the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty acts[cd] by the Red Sea.
23 He threatened[ce] to destroy them,
but[cf] Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him[cg]
and turned back his destructive anger.[ch]
24 They rejected the fruitful land;[ci]
they did not believe his promise.[cj]
25 They grumbled in their tents;[ck]
they did not obey[cl] the Lord.
26 So he made a solemn vow[cm]
that he would make them die[cn] in the wilderness,
27 make their descendants[co] die[cp] among the nations,
and scatter them among foreign lands.[cq]
28 They worshiped[cr] Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.[cs]
29 They made the Lord angry[ct] by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened,[cu]
and the plague subsided.
31 This was credited to Phinehas as a righteous act
for all generations to come.[cv]
32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[cw] because of them,
33 for they aroused[cx] his temper,[cy]
and he spoke rashly.[cz]
34 They did not destroy the nations,[da]
as the Lord had commanded them to do.
35 They mixed in with the nations
and learned their ways.[db]
36 They worshiped[dc] their idols,
which became a snare to them.[dd]
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.[de]
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
The land was polluted by bloodshed.[df]
39 They were defiled by their deeds,
and unfaithful in their actions.[dg]
40 So the Lord was angry with his people[dh]
and despised the people who belonged to him.[di]
41 He handed them over to[dj] the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them;
they were subject to their authority.[dk]
43 Many times he delivered[dl] them,
but they had a rebellious attitude,[dm]
and degraded themselves[dn] by their sin.
44 Yet he took notice of their distress,
when he heard their cry for help.
45 He remembered his covenant with them,
and relented[do] because of his great loyal love.
46 He caused all their conquerors[dp]
to have pity on them.
47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God.
Gather us from among the nations.
Then we will give thanks[dq] to your holy name,
and boast about your praiseworthy deeds.[dr]
48 The Lord God of Israel deserves praise,[ds]
in the future and forevermore.[dt]
Let all the people say, “We agree![du] Praise the Lord!”[dv]
Footnotes
- Psalm 105:1 sn Psalm 105. The psalmist summons Israel to praise God because he delivered his people from Egypt in fulfillment of his covenantal promises to Abraham. A parallel version of vv. 1-15 appears in 1 Chr 16:8-22.
- Psalm 105:5 tn Heb “and the judgments of his mouth.”
- Psalm 105:6 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
- Psalm 105:6 tc Some mss have “Israel,” which appears in the parallel version of this psalm in 1 Chr 16:13.
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “sons.”
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:7 tn Heb “in all the earth [are] his judgments.”
- Psalm 105:8 tn Heb “[the] word he commanded.” The text refers here to God’s unconditional covenantal promise to Abraham and the patriarchs, as vv. 10-12 make clear.
- Psalm 105:9 tn Heb “which.”
- Psalm 105:10 tn Or “eternal covenant.”
- Psalm 105:13 tn Heb “and from a kingdom to another nation.”
- Psalm 105:15 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
- Psalm 105:15 tn Heb “anointed.”
- Psalm 105:16 tn Heb “and every staff of food he broke.” The psalmist refers to the famine that occurred in Joseph’s time (see v. 17 and Gen 41:53-57).
- Psalm 105:17 tn After the reference to the famine in v. 16, v. 17 flashes back to events that preceded the famine (see Gen 37).
- Psalm 105:18 tn Heb “they afflicted his feet with shackles.”
- Psalm 105:18 tn Heb “his neck came [into] iron.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with the suffix could mean simply “he” or “his life.” But the nuance “neck” makes good sense here (note the reference to his “feet” in the preceding line). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 38.
- Psalm 105:19 tn Heb “word,” probably referring to Joseph’s prediction about the fate of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker (see Gen 41:9-14).
- Psalm 105:19 tn This line may refer to Joseph’s prediction of the famine in response to Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph emphasized to Pharaoh that the interpretation of the dream came from God (see Gen 41:16, 25, 28, 32, 39).
- Psalm 105:19 tn Heb “refined him.”
- Psalm 105:20 tn Heb “[the] king sent and set him free.”
- Psalm 105:21 tn Heb “he made him master of his house.”
- Psalm 105:22 tn Heb “to bind his officials by his will.”
- Psalm 105:22 tn Heb “and his elders he taught wisdom.”
- Psalm 105:23 tn Heb “entered.”
- Psalm 105:23 tn Heb “lived as a resident foreigner.”
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “him,” referring to “his people.”
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “his,” referring to “his people.”
- Psalm 105:25 tn Heb “their heart.”
- Psalm 105:25 tn Or “to deal deceptively.” The Hitpael of נָכַל (nakhal) occurs only here and in Gen 37:18, where it is used of Joseph’s brothers “plotting” to kill him.
- Psalm 105:27 tn Apparently the pronoun refers to “his servants” (i.e., the Israelites, see v. 25).
- Psalm 105:28 tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).
- Psalm 105:28 tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.
- Psalm 105:31 tn Heb “he spoke and flies came.”
- Psalm 105:32 tn Heb “he gave their rains hail.”
- Psalm 105:32 tn Heb “fire of flames [was] in their land.”
- Psalm 105:34 tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”
- Psalm 105:35 tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”
- Psalm 105:36 tn Heb “the beginning of all their strength,” that is, reproductive power (see Ps 78:51).sn Verses 28-36 recall the plagues in a different order than the one presented in Exodus: v. 28 (plague 9), v. 29 (plague 1), v. 30 (plague 2), v. 31a (plague 4), v. 31b (plague 3), vv. 32-33 (plague 7), vv. 34-35 (plague 8), v. 36 (plague 10). No reference is made in Ps 105 to plagues 5 and 6.
- Psalm 105:37 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Lord’s people) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:37 tn The word “enriched” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
- Psalm 105:38 tn Heb “for fear of them had fallen upon them.”
- Psalm 105:39 tn Or “curtain.”
- Psalm 105:40 tn Heb “he [i.e., his people] asked.” The singular form should probably be emended to a plural שָׁאֲלוּ (shaʾalu, “they asked”), the ו (vav) having fallen off by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the following form).
- Psalm 105:40 tn Or “bread of heaven.” The reference is to manna (see Exod 16:4, 13-15).
- Psalm 105:42 tn Or “for.”
- Psalm 105:42 tn Heb “his holy word.”
- Psalm 105:43 tn Heb “and he led his people out with joy, with a ringing cry, his chosen ones.”
- Psalm 105:44 tn Heb “and the [product of the] work of peoples they possessed.”
- Psalm 105:45 tn Heb “guard.”
- Psalm 106:1 sn Psalm 106. The psalmist recalls Israel’s long history of rebellion against God, despite his mighty saving deeds on their behalf.
- Psalm 106:1 tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”
- Psalm 106:2 tn Heb “[or] cause to be heard all his praise.”
- Psalm 106:5 tn Heb “good.”
- Psalm 106:5 tn Heb “in order that [I may] rejoice with the rejoicing of your nation.”
- Psalm 106:5 tn Heb “with your inheritance.”
- Psalm 106:6 tn Heb “with.”
- Psalm 106:6 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 7).
- Psalm 106:7 tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in vv. 9, 22). “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See the note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.sn They rebelled. The psalmist recalls the people’s complaint recorded in Exod 14:12.
- Psalm 106:8 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
- Psalm 106:9 tn Or “rebuked.”
- Psalm 106:10 tn Heb “hand.”
- Psalm 106:10 tn Or “redeemed.”
- Psalm 106:10 tn Heb “hand.”
- Psalm 106:11 tn Heb “remained.”
- Psalm 106:12 tn Heb “his words.”
- Psalm 106:13 tn Heb “his works.”
- Psalm 106:13 tn Heb “his counsel.”
- Psalm 106:14 sn They had an insatiable craving. This is described in Num 11:4-35.
- Psalm 106:14 tn Heb “they craved [with] a craving.”
- Psalm 106:14 tn Heb “they tested God.”
- Psalm 106:15 tn Heb “and he sent leanness into their being.”sn Disease. See Num 11:33-34, where this plague is described.
- Psalm 106:16 tn Or “envied.”
- Psalm 106:16 tn Heb “the holy one of the Lord.”
- Psalm 106:17 tn Or “covered.”
- Psalm 106:17 tn Or “the assembly of Abiram.”
- Psalm 106:18 sn Verses 16-18 describe the events of Num 16:1-40.
- Psalm 106:20 tn Heb “their glory.” According to an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, the text originally read “his glory” or “my glory.” In Jer 2:11 the Lord states that his people (Israel) exchanged “their glory” (a reference to the Lord) for worthless idols.
- Psalm 106:21 tn Heb “forgot.”
- Psalm 106:22 tn Or “awe-inspiring acts.”
- Psalm 106:23 tn Heb “and he said.”
- Psalm 106:23 tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”
- Psalm 106:23 tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”
- Psalm 106:23 tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”sn Verses 19-23 describe the events of Exod 32:1-35.
- Psalm 106:24 tn Heb “a land of delight” (see also Jer 3:19; Zech 7:14).
- Psalm 106:24 tn Heb “his word.”
- Psalm 106:25 sn They grumbled in their tents. See Deut 1:27.
- Psalm 106:25 tn Heb “did not listen to the voice of.”
- Psalm 106:26 tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).
- Psalm 106:26 tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”
- Psalm 106:27 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
- Psalm 106:27 tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).
- Psalm 106:27 tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
- Psalm 106:28 tn Heb “joined themselves to.”sn They worshiped Baal of Peor. See Num 25:3, 5. Baal of Peor was a local manifestation of the Canaanite deity Baal located at Peor.
- Psalm 106:28 tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).
- Psalm 106:29 tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew mss. Perhaps it was accidentally left off, an original וַיַּכְעִיסוּהוּ (vayyakhʿisuhu) being misread as וַיַּכְעִיסוּ (vayyakhʿisu). In the translation the referent of the pronominal suffix (the Lord) has been specified for clarity to avoid confusion with Baal of Peor (mentioned in the previous verse).
- Psalm 106:30 sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.
- Psalm 106:31 tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsedaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God credits Abram’s faith as righteousness.
- Psalm 106:32 tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”
- Psalm 106:33 tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.
- Psalm 106:33 tn Heb “his spirit.”
- Psalm 106:33 tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.sn Verses 32-33 allude to the events of Num 20:1-13.
- Psalm 106:34 tn That is, the nations of Canaan.
- Psalm 106:35 tn Heb “their deeds.”
- Psalm 106:36 tn Or “served.”
- Psalm 106:36 sn Became a snare. See Exod 23:33; Judg 2:3.
- Psalm 106:37 tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.
- Psalm 106:38 sn Num 35:33-34 explains that bloodshed defiles a land.
- Psalm 106:39 tn Heb “and they committed adultery in their actions.” This means that they were unfaithful to the Lord (see Ps 73:27).
- Psalm 106:40 tn Heb “the anger of the Lord burned against his people.”
- Psalm 106:40 tn Heb “his inheritance.”
- Psalm 106:41 tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”
- Psalm 106:42 tn Heb “they were subdued under their hand.”
- Psalm 106:43 tn The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“he would deliver”).
- Psalm 106:43 tn Heb “but they rebelled in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite or imperfect, in which case it is customary, describing repeated action in past time (“they would have a rebellious attitude”).
- Psalm 106:43 tn Heb “they sank down.” The Hebrew verb מָכַךְ (makhakh, “to lower; to sink”) occurs only here in the Qal.
- Psalm 106:45 tn The Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) refers here to God relenting from a punishment already underway.
- Psalm 106:46 tn Or “captors.”
- Psalm 106:47 tn Heb “to give thanks.” The infinitive construct indicates result after the imperative.
- Psalm 106:47 tn Heb “to boast in your praise.”
- Psalm 106:48 tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21.
- Psalm 106:48 tn Heb “from everlasting to everlasting.”
- Psalm 106:48 tn Heb “surely” (אָמֵן,ʾamen), traditionally transliterated “amen.”
- Psalm 106:48 sn The final verse (v. 48) is a conclusion to this fourth “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the first, second and third “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 41:13; 72:18-19; 89:52, respectively).
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