Mazmur 65:9-13

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹ 

you make it rich and fertile ² 

with overflowing streams full of water. ³ 

You provide grain for them, ⁴ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁵ 

65:10 You saturate ⁶  its furrows,

and soak ⁷  its plowed ground. ⁸ 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ⁹ 

and make its crops grow. ¹⁰ 

65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, ¹¹ 

and you leave abundance in your wake. ¹² 

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ¹³ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ¹⁴ 

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Mazmur 72:16

72:16 May there be ¹⁵  an abundance ¹⁶  of grain in the earth;

on the tops ¹⁷  of the mountains may it ¹⁸  sway! ¹⁹ 

May its ²⁰  fruit trees ²¹  flourish ²²  like the forests of Lebanon! ²³ 

May its crops ²⁴  be as abundant ²⁵  as the grass of the earth! ²⁶ 

Mazmur 80:8-11

80:8 You uprooted a vine ²⁷  from Egypt;

you drove out nations and transplanted it.

80:9 You cleared the ground for it; ²⁸ 

it took root, ²⁹ 

and filled the land.

80:10 The mountains were covered by its shadow,

the highest cedars ³⁰  by its branches.

80:11 Its branches reached the Mediterranean Sea, ³¹ 

and its shoots the Euphrates River. ³² 

[65:9]  ¹ tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”

[65:9]  ² tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ³ tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).

[65:9]  ⁴ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.

[65:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

[65:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

[65:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

[65:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

[65:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

[65:11]  ¹² tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

[65:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ¹⁴ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[72:16]  ¹⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect. The translation assumes the subject is impersonal (rather than the king).

[72:16]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun פִסַּה (pissah; which appears here in the construct form) occurs only here in the OT. Perhaps the noun is related to the verbal root פָּשָׂה (pasah, “to spread,” see BDB 832 s.v.; the root appears as פָּסָה [pasah] in postbiblical Hebrew), which is used in postbiblical Hebrew of the rising sun’s rays spreading over the horizon and a tree’s branches spreading out (see Jastrow 1194 s.v. פסי, פָּסָה, פָּשָׂה). In Ps 72:16 a “spreading of grain” would refer to grain fields extending out over the land. C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:139) emend the form to סְפִיחַ (sÿfiakh, “second growth”).

[72:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “top” (singular).

[72:16]  ¹⁸ tn That is, the grain.

[72:16]  ¹⁹ tn According to the traditional accentuation of the MT, this verb belongs with what follows. See the translator’s note at the end of the verse for a discussion of the poetic parallelism and interpretation of the verse.

[72:16]  ²⁰ tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is unclear. It is unlikely that the antecedent is אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) because this noun is normally grammatically feminine. Perhaps רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “top [of the mountains]”) is the antecedent. Another option is to understand the pronoun as referring to the king, who would then be viewed as an instrument of divine agricultural blessing (see v. 6).

[72:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “fruit.”

[72:16]  ²² tc According to the traditional accentuation of the MT, this verb belongs with what follows. See the note on the word “earth” at the end of the verse for a discussion of the poetic parallelism and interpretation of the verse. The present translation takes it with the preceding words, “like Lebanon its fruit” and emends the verb form from וְיָצִיצוּ (vÿyatsitsu; Qal imperfect third masculine plural with prefixed vav, [ו]) to יָצִיץ (yatsits; Qal imperfect third masculine singular). The initial vav is eliminated as dittographic (note the vav on the ending of the preceding form פִּרְיוֹ, piryo, “its/his fruit”) and the vav at the end of the form is placed on the following emended form (see the note on the word “crops”), yielding וַעֲמִיר (va’amir, “and [its] crops”).

[72:16]  ²³ tn Heb “like Lebanon.”

[72:16]  ²⁴ tc The MT has “from the city.” The translation assumes an emendation to עֲמִיר (’amir, “crops”).

[72:16]  ²⁵ tn The translation assumes that the verb צוץ (“flourish”) goes with the preceding line. The words “be as abundant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[72:16]  ²⁶ tc The traditional accentuation and vocalization of the MT differ from the text assumed by the present translation. The MT reads as follows: “May there be an abundance of grain in the earth, / and on the tops of the mountains! / May its [or “his”?] fruit [trees?] rustle like [the trees of] Lebanon! / May they flourish from the city, like the grass of the earth!” If one follows the MT, then it would appear that the “fruit” of the third line is a metaphorical reference to the king’s people, who flow out from the cities to populate the land (see line 4). Elsewhere in the OT people are sometimes compared to grass that sprouts up from the land (see v. 7, as well as Isa 27:6; Pss 92:7; 103:15). The translation understands a different poetic structural arrangement and, assuming the emendations mentioned in earlier notes, interprets each line of the verse to be a prayer for agricultural abundance.

[80:8]  ²⁷ sn The vine is here a metaphor for Israel (see Ezek 17:6-10; Hos 10:1).

[80:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you cleared away before it.”

[80:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and it took root [with] its roots.”

[80:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “cedars of God.” The divine name אֵל (’al, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.

[80:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “to [the] sea.” The “sea” refers here to the Mediterranean Sea.

[80:11]  ³² tn Heb “to [the] river.” The “river” is the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia. Israel expanded both to the west and to the east.