Psalms 50:9-13

50:9 I do not need to take ¹  a bull from your household

or goats from your sheepfolds.

50:10 For every wild animal in the forest belongs to me,

as well as the cattle that graze on a thousand hills. ² 

50:11 I keep track of ³  every bird in the hills,

and the insects ⁴  of the field are mine.

50:12 Even if I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and all it contains belong to me.

50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls?

Do I drink the blood of goats? ⁵ 

[50:9]  ¹ tn Or “I will not take.”

[50:10]  ² tn Heb “[the] animals on a thousand hills.” The words “that graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The term בְּהֵמוֹה (bÿhemot, “animal”) refers here to cattle (see Ps 104:14).

[50:11]  ³ tn Heb “I know.”

[50:11]  ⁴ tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in Ps 80:13, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.

[50:13]  ⁵ tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”