19:10 They are of greater value 1 than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight 2 than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb.
40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; 3
I spoke about your reliability and deliverance;
I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. 4
42:4 I will remember and weep! 5
For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God,
shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival. 6
48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 7
a source of joy to the whole earth. 8
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 9
it is the city of the great king.
104:24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! 10
You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; 11
the earth is full of the living things you have made.
A song of ascents, 13 by David.
131:1 O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor do I have a haughty look. 14
I do not have great aspirations,
or concern myself with things that are beyond me. 15
1 tn Heb “more desirable.”
2 tn Heb “are sweeter.” God’s law is “sweet’ in the sense that, when obeyed, it brings a great reward (see v. 11b).
3 tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”
4 tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”
5 tn Heb “These things I will remember and I will pour out upon myself my soul.” “These things” are identified in the second half of the verse as those times when the psalmist worshiped in the
6 tc Heb “for I was passing by with the throng [?], I was walking with [?] them to the house of God; with a voice of a ringing shout and thanksgiving a multitude was observing a festival.” The Hebrew phrase בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם (bassakh ’eddaddem, “with the throng [?] I was walking with [?]”) is particularly problematic. The noun סָךְ (sakh) occurs only here. If it corresponds to הָמוֹן (hamon, “multitude”) then one can propose a meaning “throng.” The present translation assumes this reading (cf. NIV, NRSV). The form אֶדַּדֵּם (“I will walk with [?]”) is also very problematic. The form can be taken as a Hitpael from דָּדָה (dadah; this verb possibly appears in Isa 38:15), but the pronominal suffix is problematic. For this reason many emend the form to ם[י]אַדִּרִ (’adirim, “nobles”) or ם-רִ[י]אַדִ (’adirim, “great,” with enclitic mem [ם]). The present translation understands the latter and takes the adjective “great” as modifying “throng.” If one emends סָךְ (sakh, “throng [?]”) to סֹךְ (sokh, “shelter”; see the Qere of Ps 27:5), then ר[י]אַדִּ (’addir) could be taken as a divine epithet, “[in the shelter of] the majestic one,” a reading which may find support in the LXX and Syriac Peshitta.
7 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
8 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
9 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
10 tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O
11 tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”
12 sn Psalm 131. The psalmist affirms his humble dependence on the Lord and urges Israel to place its trust in God.
13 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
14 tn Heb “and my eyes are not lifted up.”
15 tn Heb “I do not walk in great things, and in things too marvelous for me.”