115:14 May he increase your numbers,
yours and your children’s! 2
14:28 A king’s glory is 3 the abundance of people,
but the lack of subjects 4 is the ruin 5 of a ruler.
26:15 You have made the nation larger, 6 O Lord,
you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor, 7
you have extended all the borders of the land.
48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, 8
and your children 9 like its granules.
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence. 10
1 tn Heb “and the
2 tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.
3 tn The preposition serves as the beth essentiae – the glory is the abundant population, not in it.
4 tn Heb “people.” Cf. NLT “a dwindling nation.”
5 sn The word means “ruin; destruction,” but in this context it could be a metonymy of effect, the cause being an attack by more numerous people that will bring ruin to the ruler. The proverb is purely a practical and secular saying, unlike some of the faith teachings in salvation history passages.
6 tn Heb “you have added to the nation.” The last line of the verse suggests that geographical expansion is in view. “The nation” is Judah.
7 tn Or “brought honor to yourself.”
8 tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”
9 tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”
10 tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”