Mazmur 22:28-30

22:28 For the Lord is king ¹ 

and rules over the nations.

22:29 All of the thriving people ²  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ³ 

all those who are descending into the grave ⁴  will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives. ⁵ 

22:30 A whole generation ⁶  will serve him;

they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. ⁷ 

[22:28]  ¹ tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[22:29]  ² 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.

[22:29]  ³ 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.

[22:29]  ⁴ 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.

[22:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”

[22:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “offspring.”

[22:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).