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15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 [a]The heavens belong to the Lord,
    but he has given the earth to humanity.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
    those who sink into silence.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 115:16 The psalmist concludes with a short hymn of praise. In so doing, he reminds his people that they have been given the earth to enjoy and care for, while praising the Lord.
  2. Psalm 115:17 The psalmist stresses that the dead cannot praise the Lord; for, according to the idea of the ancients, in the netherworld the souls of the dead had a kind of shadowy existence with no activity or lofty emotion and could not offer praise to God. Silence: a euphemism for the grave (see Ps 94:17; see also notes on Pss 6:6 and 30:2).

15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven(A) and earth.

16 The highest heavens belong to the Lord,(B)
    but the earth he has given(C) to mankind.
17 It is not the dead(D) who praise the Lord,
    those who go down to the place of silence;

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