66:13 I will enter 1 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 animals 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! 2
I will declare what he has done for me.
66:17 I cried out to him for help 3
and praised him with my tongue. 4
66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 5
the Lord would not have listened.
66:19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
66:20 God deserves praise, 6
for 7 he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me! 8
1 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
2 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
3 tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
4 tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.
5 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
6 tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
7 tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
8 tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”