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Psalms 66:16
65:10 You saturate its furrows,

and soak its plowed ground.
With rain showers you soften its soil,
and make its crops grow.
65:11 You crown the year with your good
blessings,
and you leave abundance in your wake.
65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glis-
ten with moisture,
and the hills are clothed with joy.
65:13 The meadows are clothed with
sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
Psalm 6610
For the music director; a song, a psalm.
66:1 Shout out praise to God, all the earth!
66:2 Sing praises about the majesty of his
reputation!11
Give him the honor he deserves!12
66:3 Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your en-
emies cower in fear13 before you.
66:4 All the earth worships14 you
and sings praises to you!
They sing praises to your name!” (Selah)
66:5 Come and witness15 God’s exploits!16
His acts on behalf of people are awesome!17
66:6 He turned the sea into dry land;18
 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often
involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
 tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural
blessings.
 tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”
 tn Heb “drip.”
 tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who
see it.
10 sn Psalm 66. The psalmist praises God because he has
delivered his people from a crisis.
11 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for
God’s reputation.
12 tn Heb “make honorable his praise.”
13 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb
‫( ּ ָכ ַח ׁש‬kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the
verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see
also Ps 109:24).
14 tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4
are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Anoth-
er option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth
will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a
prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
15 tn Or “see.”
16 tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
17 tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It
is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what pre-
cedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of”
or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss
89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome
acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome
acts are superior to anything men can do.”
18 sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes
to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
they passed through the river on foot.19
Let us rejoice in him there!20
66:7 He rules21 by his power forever;
he watches22 the nations.
Stubborn rebels should not exalt23 them-
selves. (Selah)
66:8 Praise24 our God, you nations!
Loudly proclaim his praise!25
66:9 He preserves our lives26
and does not allow our feet to slip.
66:10 For27 you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
66:11 You led us into a trap;28
you caused us to suffer.29
66:12 You allowed men to ride over our
heads;
we passed through fire and water,
but you brought us out into a wide open
place.30
66:13 I will enter31 your temple with burnt
sacrifices;
I will fulfill the vows I made to you,
66:14 which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in
trouble.
66:15 I will offer up to you fattened ani-
mals as burnt sacrifices,
along with the smell of sacrificial rams.
I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)
66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal
to God!32
19 tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some under-
stand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River.
However, the Hebrew term ‫( נָהָ ר‬nahad) does not always refer
to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea cur-
rents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red
Sea crossing (cf. NEB).
20 tn The adverb ‫שם‬ ָ ׁ (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in
poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized
vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
21 tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”
22 tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomor-
phism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of
all that happens on earth.
23 tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle
‫ ַאל‬, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of
the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense
(“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. ‫רוּם‬
Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to
be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -‫ְל‬
(lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a re-
flexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action
is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.
24 tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the
source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ‫ ברך‬pi).
25 tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
26 tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
27 tn Or “indeed.”
28 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for
“net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
29 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun ‫מוּעָ ־‬
‫( קָ ה‬mu’aqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
30 tc The MT reads ‫“( ְר ָויָה‬saturation”) but this should be
emended to ‫( ְרו ָָחה‬rÿvakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”),
a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac,
Jerome, Targum).
31 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks
as the representative of the nation.
32 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”