Psalms 74:16-17

74:16 You established the cycle of day and night; ¹ 

you put the moon ²  and sun in place. ³ 

74:17 You set up all the boundaries ⁴  of the earth;

you created the cycle of summer and winter. ⁵ 

[74:16]  ¹ tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”

[74:16]  ² tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר (ma’or, “light”) refers here to the moon.

[74:16]  ³ tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”

[74:17]  ⁴ tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.

[74:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”