Psalm 104-105
New English Translation
Psalm 104[a]
104 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are magnificent.[b]
You are robed in splendor and majesty.
2 He covers himself with light as if it were a garment.
He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain,
3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds.[c]
He makes the clouds his chariot,
and travels on the wings of the wind.[d]
4 He makes the winds his messengers,
and the flaming fire his attendant.[e]
5 He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be moved.
6 The watery deep covered it[f] like a garment;
the waters reached[g] above the mountains.[h]
7 Your shout made the waters retreat;
at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off—
8 as the mountains rose up,
and the valleys went down—
to the place you appointed for them.[i]
9 You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross,
so that they would not cover the earth again.[j]
10 He turns springs into streams;[k]
they flow between the mountains.
11 They provide water for all the animals in the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky live beside them;
they chirp among the bushes.[l]
13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace;[m]
the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow.[n]
14 He provides grass[o] for the cattle,
and crops for people to cultivate,[p]
so they can produce food from the ground,[q]
15 as well as wine that makes people glad,[r]
and olive oil to make their faces shine,[s]
as well as bread that sustains them.[t]
16 The trees of the Lord[u] receive all the rain they need,[v]
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted,
17 where the birds make nests,
near the evergreens in which the herons live.[w]
18 The wild goats live in the high mountains;[x]
the rock badgers find safety in the cliffs.
19 He made the moon to mark the months,[y]
and the sun sets according to a regular schedule.[z]
20 You make it dark and night comes,[aa]
during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.
21 The lions roar for prey,
seeking their food from God.[ab]
22 When the sun rises, they withdraw
and sleep[ac] in their dens.
23 People then go out to do their work,
and they labor until evening.[ad]
24 How many living things you have made, O Lord![ae]
You have exhibited great skill in making all of them;[af]
the earth is full of the living things you have made.
25 Over here is the deep, wide sea,[ag]
which teems with innumerable swimming creatures,[ah]
living things both small and large.
26 The ships travel there,
and over here swims the whale[ai] you made to play in it.
27 All your creatures[aj] wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis.[ak]
28 You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food.[al]
29 When you ignore them, they panic.[am]
When you take away their life’s breath,
they die and return to dust.
30 When you send your life-giving breath, they are created,
and you replenish the surface of the ground.
31 May the splendor of the Lord endure.[an]
May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made.[ao]
32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist.[ap]
34 May my thoughts[aq] be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
35 May sinners disappear[ar] from the earth,
and the wicked vanish.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 105[as]
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,[at]
6 O children[au] of Abraham,[av] God’s[aw] servant,
you descendants[ax] of Jacob, God’s[ay] chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
he carries out judgment throughout the earth.[az]
8 He always remembers his covenantal decree,
the promise he made[ba] to a thousand generations—
9 the promise[bb] 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,[bc]
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.[bd]
14 He let no one oppress them;
he disciplined kings for their sake,
15 saying,[be] “Don’t touch my chosen ones.[bf]
Don’t harm my prophets.”
16 He called down a famine upon the earth;
he cut off all the food supply.[bg]
17 He sent a man ahead of them[bh]—
Joseph was sold as a servant.
18 The shackles hurt his feet;[bi]
his neck was placed in an iron collar,[bj]
19 until the time when his prediction[bk] came true.
The Lord’s word[bl] proved him right.[bm]
20 The king authorized his release;[bn]
the ruler of nations set him free.
21 He put him in charge of his palace,[bo]
and made him manager of all his property,
22 giving him authority to imprison his officials[bp]
and to teach his advisers.[bq]
23 Israel moved to[br] Egypt;
Jacob lived for a time[bs] in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord[bt] made his people very fruitful,
and made them[bu] more numerous than their[bv] enemies.
25 He caused the Egyptians[bw] to hate his people,
and to mistreat[bx] his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They executed his miraculous signs among them,[by]
and his amazing deeds in the land of Ham.
28 He made it dark;[bz]
Moses and Aaron did not disobey his orders.[ca]
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;[cb]
gnats invaded their whole territory.
32 He sent hail along with the rain;[cc]
there was lightning in their land.[cd]
33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,
and broke the trees throughout their territory.
34 He ordered locusts to come,[ce]
innumerable grasshoppers.
35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,
and devoured the crops of their fields.[cf]
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power.[cg]
37 He brought his people[ch] out enriched[ci] with silver and gold;
none of his tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt was happy when they left,
for they were afraid of them.[cj]
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,[ck]
and provided a fire to light up the night.
40 They asked for food,[cl] and he sent quail;
he satisfied them with food from the sky.[cm]
41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;
a river ran through dry regions.
42 Yes,[cn] he remembered the sacred promise[co]
he made to Abraham his servant.
43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;
his chosen ones shouted with joy.[cp]
44 He handed the territory of nations over to them,
and they took possession of what other peoples had produced,[cq]
45 so that they might keep his commands
and obey[cr] his laws.
Praise the Lord.
Footnotes
- Psalm 104:1 sn Psalm 104. The psalmist praises God as the ruler of the world who sustains all life.
- Psalm 104:1 tn Heb “very great.”
- Psalm 104:3 tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.
- Psalm 104:3 sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.
- Psalm 104:4 tc Heb “and his attendants a flaming fire.” The lack of agreement between the singular “fire” and plural “attendants” has prompted various emendations. Some read “fire and flame.” The present translation assumes an emendation from מְשָׁרְתָיו (mesharetayv, “his attendants”) to מְשָׁרְתוֹ (meshareto, “his attendant”), a reading supported by one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q93.sn In Ugaritic mythology Yam’s messengers appear as flaming fire before the assembly of the gods. See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 42.
- Psalm 104:6 tc Heb “you covered it.” The masculine suffix is problematic if the grammatically feminine noun “earth” is the antecedent. For this reason some emend the form from כִּסִּיתוֹ (kissito) to a feminine verb with feminine suffix, כִּסַּתָּה (kissattah, “[the watery deep] covered it [i.e., the earth]”), a reading assumed by the present translation.
- Psalm 104:6 tn Heb “stood.”
- Psalm 104:6 sn Verse 6 refers to the condition described in Gen 1:2 (note the use of the Hebrew term תְּהוֹם [tehom, “watery deep”] in both texts).
- Psalm 104:8 tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”sn Verses 7-8 poetically depict Gen 1:9-10.
- Psalm 104:9 tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”
- Psalm 104:10 tn Heb “[the] one who sends springs into streams.” Another option is to translate, “he sends streams [i.e., streams that originate from springs] into the valleys” (cf. NIV).
- Psalm 104:12 tn Heb “among the thick foliage they give a sound.”
- Psalm 104:13 tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”
- Psalm 104:13 tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).
- Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”
- Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).
- Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”
- Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”
- Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).
- Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”
- Psalm 104:16 sn The trees of the Lord are the cedars of Lebanon (see the next line), which are viewed as special because of their great size and grandeur. The Lebanon forest was viewed elsewhere in the OT as the “garden of God” (see Ezek 31:8).
- Psalm 104:16 tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).
- Psalm 104:17 tn Heb “[the] heron [in the] evergreens [is] its home.”sn The cedars and evergreens of the Lebanon forest are frequently associated (see, for example, 2 Chr 2:8; Isa 14:8; 37:24; Ezek 31:8).
- Psalm 104:18 tn Heb “the high mountains [are] for the goats.”
- Psalm 104:19 tn Heb “he made [the] moon for appointed times.” The phrase “appointed times” probably refers to the months of the Hebrew lunar calendar.
- Psalm 104:19 tn Heb more metaphorically, “knows its setting.”
- Psalm 104:20 tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”
- Psalm 104:21 sn The lions’ roaring is viewed as a request for food from God.
- Psalm 104:22 tn Heb “lie down.”
- Psalm 104:23 tn Heb “man goes out to his work, and to his labor until evening.”
- Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.
- Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”
- Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”
- Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”
- Psalm 104:26 tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.
- Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.
- Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”
- Psalm 104:28 tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”
- Psalm 104:29 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
- Psalm 104:31 tn Heb “be forever.”
- Psalm 104:31 tn Or “rejoice in his works.”
- Psalm 104:33 tn Heb “in my duration.”
- Psalm 104:34 tn That is, the psalmist’s thoughts as expressed in his songs of praise.
- Psalm 104:35 tn Or “be destroyed.”
- 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.”
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