Psalms 22:29

All of the thriving people ¹  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ²  all those who are descending into the grave ³  will bow before him, including those who cannot preserve their lives. ⁴ 

Ps 45:12; Ps 49:6-9; Ps 72:10,11; Ps 73:7; Ps 78:31; Ps 113:7; Isa 10:16; Isa 26:19; Isa 29:4; Isa 45:23; Isa 60:3-5,16; Ho 13:9; Joh 3:36; Joh 11:25,26; Ro 14:10-12; Php 2:10; Re 20:12-15; Re 21:24

¹ tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

² tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

³ tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

⁴ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”