Discovery BoxPsalms 33:6-9 
Context33:6 By the Lord’s decree 1 the heavens were made;
by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created. 2
33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; 3
he puts the oceans 4 in storehouses.
33:8 Let the whole earth fear 5 the Lord!
Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!
33:9 For he spoke, and it 6 came into existence,
he issued the decree, 7 and it stood firm.
1 tn Heb “word.”
2 tn Heb “and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” The words “were created” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons; they are understood by ellipsis (note “were made” in the preceding line). The description is consistent with Gen 1:16, which indicates that God spoke the heavenly luminaries into existence.
3 tn Heb “[he] gathers like a pile the waters of the sea.” Some prefer to emend נֵד (ged, “heap, pile”; cf. NASB) to נֹד (nod, “bottle”; cf. NRSV; NIV “into jars”), but “pile” is used elsewhere to describe water that the
4 tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).
5 tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the
6 tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).
7 tn Heb “he commanded.”
