For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.
67:1 May God show us his favor 5 and bless us! 6
May he smile on us! 7 (Selah)
67:6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us!
67:7 May God bless us! 8
Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves. 9
115:12 The Lord takes notice of us, 10 he will bless 11 –
he will bless the family 12 of Israel,
he will bless the family of Aaron.
115:13 He will bless his loyal followers, 13
both young and old. 14
1 tn On the use of אִם (’im, “if”) here, see HALOT 60 s.v.
2 tn Heb “and act from [i.e., so as to prevent] harm so that I might not be in pain.”
3 tn Heb “and God brought about what he had asked.”
4 sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.
5 tn Or “have mercy on us.”
6 tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. Note the jussive form יָאֵר (ya’er) in the next line.
7 tn Heb “may he cause his face to shine with us.”
8 tn The prefixed verb forms in vv. 6b-7a are understood as jussives.
9 tn Heb “will fear him.” After the jussive of the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive is understood as indicating purpose/result. (Note how v. 3 anticipates the universal impact of God showing his people blessing.) Another option is to take the verb as a jussive and translate, “Let all the ends of the earth fear him.”
10 tn Or “remembers us.”
11 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).
12 tn Heb “house.”
13 tn Heb “the fearers of the
14 tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).