Psalms 104:14-17

104:14 He provides grass ¹  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ² 

so they can produce food from the ground, ³ 

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ⁴ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ⁵ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ⁶ 

104:16 The trees of the Lord ⁷  receive all the rain they need, ⁸ 

the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,

104:17 where the birds make nests,

near the evergreens in which the herons live. ⁹ 

[104:14]  ¹ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ² tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ³ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

[104:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

[104:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

[104:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

[104:16]  ⁷ sn The trees of the Lord are the cedars of Lebanon (see the next line), which are viewed as special because of their great size and grandeur. The Lebanon forest was viewed elsewhere in the OT as the “garden of God” (see Ezek 31:8).

[104:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).

[104:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “[the] heron [in the] evergreens [is] its home.”