32:20 He said, “I will reject them, 4
I will see what will happen to them;
for they are a perverse generation,
children 5 who show no loyalty.
32:31 For our enemies’ 6 rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, 7
“and there is no other god besides me.
I kill and give life,
I smash and I heal,
and none can resist 8 my power.
18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, 9 my stronghold, 10 my deliverer.
My God is my rocky summit where 11 I take shelter, 12
my shield, the horn that saves me, 13 and my refuge. 14
71:3 Be my protector and refuge, 15
a stronghold where I can be safe! 16
For you are my high ridge 17 and my stronghold.
71:19 Your justice, O God, extends to the skies above; 18
you have done great things. 19
O God, who can compare to you? 20
86:8 None can compare to you among the gods, O Lord!
Your exploits are incomparable! 21
89:6 For who in the skies can compare to the Lord?
Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings, 22
89:8 O Lord, sovereign God! 23
Who is strong like you, O Lord?
Your faithfulness surrounds you.
40:18 To whom can you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
10:6 I said, 24
“There is no one like you, Lord. 25
You are great.
And you are renowned for your power. 26
1 tn Heb “Lord
2 tn Heb “your servant.” The pronoun is used in the translation to clarify that Moses is speaking of himself, since in contemporary English one does not usually refer to oneself in third person.
3 tn Heb “your strong hand” (so NIV), a symbol of God’s activity.
4 tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”
5 tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”
6 tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
7 tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the
8 tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).
9 sn My high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
10 sn My stronghold. David often found safety in such strongholds. See 1 Sam 22:4-5; 24:22; 2 Sam 5:9, 17; 23:14.
11 tn Or “in whom.”
12 sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
13 tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”
14 tn Or “my elevated place.” The parallel version of this psalm in 2 Sam 22:3 adds at this point, “my refuge, my savior, [you who] save me from violence.”
15 tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term מָעוֹן (ma’on, “dwelling place”) should probably be emended to מָעוֹז (ma’oz, “refuge”; see Ps 31:2).
16 tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ (lavo’ tamid tsivvita, “to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to לְבֵית מְצוּדוֹת (lÿvet mÿtsudot, “a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).
17 sn You are my high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
18 tn Heb “your justice, O God, [is] unto the height.” The Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “height”) is here a title for the sky/heavens.
19 tn Heb “you who have done great things.”
20 tn Or “Who is like you?”
21 tn Heb “and there are none like your acts.”
22 tn Heb “sons of gods”; or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the Hebrew text, it is likely that the final mem (ם) is actually enclitic rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8. The phrase בְנֵי אֵלִים (vÿney ’elim, “sons of gods” or “sons of God”) occurs only here and in Ps 29:1. Since the “sons of gods/God” are here associated with “the assembly of the holy ones” and “council of the holy ones,” the heavenly assembly (comprised of so-called “angels” and other supernatural beings) appears to be in view. See Job 5:1; 15:15 and Zech 14:5, where these supernatural beings are referred to as “holy ones.” In Canaanite mythological texts the divine council of the high god El is called “the sons of El.” The OT apparently uses the Canaanite phrase, applying it to the supernatural beings that surround the
23 tn Traditionally “God of hosts.” The title here pictures the
24 tn The words “I said” are not in the Hebrew text, but there appears to be a shift in speaker. Someone is now addressing the
25 tn The form that introduces this line has raised debate. The form מֵאֵין (me’en) normally means “without” and introduces a qualification of a term expressing desolation or “so that not” and introduces a negative result (cf. BDB 35 s.v. II אַיִן 6.b). Neither of these nuances fit either this verse or the occurrence in v. 7. BDB 35 s.v. II אַיִן 6.b.γ notes that some have explained this as a strengthened form of אַיִן (’ayin) which occurs in a similar phrase five other times (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 8:23). Though many including BDB question the validity of this solution it is probably better than the suggestion that BDB gives of repointing to מֵאַיִן (me’ayin, “whence”), which scarcely fits the context of v. 7, or the solution of HALOT 41 s.v. I אַיִן, which suggests that the מ (mem) is a double writing (dittograph) of the final consonant from the preceding word. That would assume that the scribe made the same error twice or was influenced the second time by the first erroneous writing.
26 tn Heb “Great is your name in power.”