71:17 O God, you have taught me since I was young,
and I am still declaring 1 your amazing deeds.
71:18 Even when I am old and gray, 2
O God, do not abandon me,
until I tell the next generation about your strength,
and those coming after me about your power. 3
71:19 Your justice, O God, extends to the skies above; 4
you have done great things. 5
O God, who can compare to you? 6
71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,
for those who want to harm me 7 will be embarrassed and ashamed. 8
1 tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”
2 tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”
3 tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.
4 tn Heb “your justice, O God, [is] unto the height.” The Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “height”) is here a title for the sky/heavens.
sn Extends to the skies above. Similar statements are made in Pss 36:5 and 57:10.
5 tn Heb “you who have done great things.”
6 tn Or “Who is like you?”
7 tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
8 tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.