Psalms 29:9

The Lord’s shout bends ¹  the large trees ²  and strips ³  the leaves from the forests. ⁴  Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ⁵ 

The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"

The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

The voice of the LORD twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his Temple everyone shouts, "Glory!"

GOD's thunder sets the oak trees dancing A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches. We fall to our knees--we call out, "Glory!"

At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory.

The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, "Glory!"

The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everyone says, "Glory!"

The Lord’s shout bends ¹  the large trees ²  and strips ³  the leaves from the forests. ⁴  Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ⁵ 

¹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

² tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the Lord’s shout gives birth to deer” is absurd. In light of the parallelism (note “forests” in the next line) and v. 5, it is preferable to emend אַיָּלוֹת (’ayyalot, “deer”) to אֵילוֹת (’elot, “large trees”) understanding the latter as an alternate form of the usual plural form אַיָּלִים (’ayyalim).

³ tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

⁴ tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).

sn The Lord’s thunderous shout is accompanied by high winds which damage the trees of the forest.

⁵ tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”