Mazmur 22:27

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ¹ 

Let all the nations ²  worship you! ³ 

Mazmur 67:1-4

Psalm 67 ⁴ 

For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.

67:1 May God show us his favor ⁵  and bless us! ⁶ 

May he smile on us! ⁷  (Selah)

67:2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;

all nations will know how you deliver your people. ⁸ 

67:3 Let the nations thank you, O God!

Let all the nations thank you! ⁹ 

67:4 Let foreigners ¹⁰  rejoice and celebrate!

For you execute justice among the nations,

and govern the people living on earth. ¹¹  (Selah)

Mazmur 72:17-19

72:17 May his fame endure! ¹² 

May his dynasty last as long as the sun remains in the sky! ¹³ 

May they use his name when they formulate their blessings! ¹⁴ 

May all nations consider him to be favored by God! ¹⁵ 

72:18 The Lord God, the God of Israel, deserves praise! ¹⁶ 

He alone accomplishes amazing things! ¹⁷ 

72:19 His glorious name deserves praise ¹⁸  forevermore!

May his majestic splendor ¹⁹  fill the whole earth!

We agree! We agree! ²⁰ 

Mazmur 98:2-3

98:2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver; ²¹ 

in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.

98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. ²² 

All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. ²³ 

Mazmur 117:1-2

Psalm 117 ²⁴ 

117:1 Praise the Lord, all you nations!

Applaud him, all you foreigners! ²⁵ 

117:2 For his loyal love towers ²⁶  over us,

and the Lord’s faithfulness endures.

Praise the Lord!

[22:27]  ¹ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ² tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ³ tn Heb “before you.”

[67:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.

[67:1]  ⁵ tn Or “have mercy on us.”

[67:1]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. Note the jussive form יָאֵר (ya’er) in the next line.

[67:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “may he cause his face to shine with us.”

[67:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “to know in the earth your way, among all nations your deliverance.” The infinitive with -לְ (lamed) expresses purpose/result. When God demonstrates his favor to his people, all nations will recognize his character as a God who delivers. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) refers here to God’s characteristic behavior, more specifically, to the way he typically saves his people.

[67:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “let the nations, all of them, thank you.” The prefixed verbal forms in vv. 3-4a are understood as jussives in this call to praise.

[67:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “peoples.”

[67:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for you judge nations fairly, and [as for the] peoples in the earth, you lead them.” The imperfects are translated with the present tense because the statement is understood as a generalization about God’s providential control of the world. Another option is to understand the statement as anticipating God’s future rule (“for you will rule…and govern”).

[72:17]  ¹² tn Heb “may his name [be] permanent.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect.

[72:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “before the sun may his name increase.” The Kethib (consonantal text) assumes יָנִין (yanin; a Hiphil of the verbal root נִין, nin) or יְנַיֵן (yÿnayen; a Piel form), while the Qere (marginal reading) assumes יִנּוֹן (yinnon; a Niphal form). The verb נִין occurs only here, though a derived noun, meaning “offspring,” appears elsewhere (see Isa 14:22). The verb appears to mean “propagate, increase” (BDB 630 s.v. נוּן, נִין) or “produce shoots, get descendants” (HALOT 696 s.v. נין). In this context this appears to be a prayer for a lasting dynasty that will keep the king’s name and memory alive.

[72:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “may they bless one another by him,” that is, use the king’s name in their blessing formulae because he is a prime example of one blessed by God (for examples of such blessing formulae, see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11). There is some debate on whether the Hitpael form of בָּרַךְ (barakh, “bless”) is reflexive-reciprocal (as assumed in the present translation) or passive. The Hitpael of בָּרַךְ occurs in five other passages, including the hotly debated Gen 22:18 and 26:4. In these two texts one could understand the verb form as passive and translate, “all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring,” or one could take the Hitpael as reflexive or reciprocal and translate, “all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings [i.e., on themselves or one another] by your offspring.” In the first instance Abraham’s (or Isaac’s) offspring are viewed as a channel of divine blessing. In the second instance they are viewed as a prime example of blessing that will appear as part of the nations’ blessing formulae, but not necessarily as a channel of blessing to the nations. In Deut 29:18 one reads: “When one hears the words of this covenant [or “oath”] and invokes a blessing on himself (Hitpael of בָּרַךְ) in his heart, saying: ‘I will have peace, even though I walk with a rebellious heart.’” In this case the Hitpael is clearly reflexive, as the phrases “in his heart” and “I will have peace” indicate. The Hitpael of בָּרַךְ appears twice in Isaiah 65:16: “The one who invokes a blessing on himself (see Deut 9:18) in the land will invoke that blessing by the God of truth; and the one who makes an oath in the land will make that oath by the God of truth.” A passive nuance does not fit here. The parallel line, which mentions making an oath, suggests that the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ refers here to invoking a blessing. Both pronouncements of blessing and oaths will appeal to God as the one who rewards and judges, respectively. Jer 4:2 states: “If you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ with truth, integrity, and honesty, then the nations will pronounce blessings by him and boast in him.” A passive nuance might work (“the nations will be blessed”), but the context refers to verbal pronouncements (swearing an oath, boasting), suggesting that the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ refers here to invoking a blessing. The logic of the verse seems to be as follows: If Israel conducts its affairs with integrity, the nation will be favored by the Lord, which will in turn attract the surrounding nations to Israel’s God. To summarize, while the evidence might leave the door open for a passive interpretation, there is no clear cut passive use. Usage favors a reflexive or reciprocal understanding of the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ. In Ps 72:17 the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ is followed by the prepositional phrase בוֹ (vo, “by him”). The verb could theoretically be taken as passive, “may all the nations be blessed through him” (cf. NIV, NRSV), because the preceding context describes the positive effects of this king’s rule on the inhabitants of the earth. But the parallel line, which employs the Piel of אָשַׁר (’ashar) in a factitive/declarative sense, “regard as happy, fortunate,” suggests a reflexive or reciprocal nuance for the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ here. If the nations regard the ideal king as a prime example of one who is fortunate or blessed, it is understandable that they would use his name in their pronouncements of blessing.

[72:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all the nations, may they regard him as happy.” The Piel is used here in a delocutive sense (“regard as”).

[72:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21; 41:13.

[72:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[the] one who does amazing things by himself.”

[72:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[be] blessed.”

[72:19]  ¹⁹ tn Or “glory.”

[72:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response of agreement to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God.

[98:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “makes known his deliverance.”

[98:3]  ²² tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

[98:3]  ²³ tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).

[117:1]  ²⁴ sn Psalm 117. The psalmist tells the nations to praise the Lord for his loyal love and faithfulness.

[117:1]  ²⁵ tn Or “peoples” (see Ps 108:3).

[117:2]  ²⁶ tn For this sense of the Hebrew verb גָּבַר (gavar), see Ps 103:11 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.