22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! 1
Let all the nations 2 worship you! 3
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)
67:2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;
all nations will know how you deliver your people. 8
72:19 His glorious name deserves praise 9 forevermore!
May his majestic splendor 10 fill the whole earth!
We agree! We agree! 11
86:9 All the nations, whom you created,
will come and worship you, 12 O Lord.
They will honor your name.
A psalm.
98:1 Sing to the Lord a new song, 14
for he performs 15 amazing deeds!
His right hand and his mighty arm
accomplish deliverance. 16
98:2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver; 17
in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.
98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. 18
All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. 19
11:9 They will no longer injure or destroy
on my entire royal mountain. 22
For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty,
just as the waters completely cover the sea. 23
14:9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name. 27
11:15 Then 28 the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ, 29
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and glorify 30 your name, because you alone are holy? 31
All nations 32 will come and worship before you
for your righteous acts 33 have been revealed.”
1 tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the
2 tn Heb “families of the nations.”
3 tn Heb “before you.”
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 Heb “to know in the earth your way, among all nations your deliverance.” The infinitive with -לְ (lamed) expresses purpose/result. When God demonstrates his favor to his people, all nations will recognize his character as a God who delivers. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) refers here to God’s characteristic behavior, more specifically, to the way he typically saves his people.
9 tn Heb “[be] blessed.”
10 tn Or “glory.”
11 tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response of agreement to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God.
12 tn Or “bow down before you.”
13 sn Psalm 98. The psalmist summons the whole earth to praise God because he reveals his justice and delivers Israel.
14 sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the world as its just king. See Ps 96:1.
15 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 1-3 are understood here as describing characteristic divine activities. Another option is to translate them as present perfects, “has performed…has accomplished deliverance, etc.” referring to completed actions that have continuing results.
16 tn Heb “his right hand delivers for him and his holy arm.” The right hand and arm symbolize his power as a warrior-king (see Isa 52:10). His arm is “holy” in the sense that it is in a category of its own; God’s power is incomparable.
17 tn Heb “makes known his deliverance.”
18 tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”
19 tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).
20 tn Some have seen a reference to the Trinity in the seraphs’ threefold declaration, “holy, holy, holy.” This proposal has no linguistic or contextual basis and should be dismissed as allegorical. Hebrew sometimes uses repetition for emphasis. (See IBHS 233-34 §12.5a; and GKC 431-32 §133.k.) By repeating the word “holy,” the seraphs emphasize the degree of the Lord’s holiness. For another example of threefold repetition for emphasis, see Ezek 21:27 (Heb. v. 32). (Perhaps Jer 22:29 provides another example.)
21 tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.
22 tn Heb “in all my holy mountain.” In the most basic sense the Lord’s “holy mountain” is the mountain from which he rules over his kingdom (see Ezek 28:14, 16). More specifically it probably refers to Mount Zion/Jerusalem or to the entire land of Israel (see Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; Isa 56:7; 57:13; Ezek 20:40; Ob 16; Zeph 3:11). If the Lord’s universal kingdom is in view in this context (see the note on “earth” at v. 4), then the phrase would probably be metonymic here, standing for God’s worldwide dominion (see the next line).
23 tn Heb “for the earth will be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The translation assumes that a universal kingdom is depicted here, but אֶרֶץ (’erets) could be translated “land” (see the note at v. 4). “Knowledge of the Lord” refers here to a recognition of the Lord’s sovereignty which results in a willingness to submit to his authority. See the note at v. 2.
24 sn Living waters will flow out from Jerusalem. Ezekiel sees this same phenomenon in conjunction with the inauguration of the messianic age (Ezek 47; cf. Rev 22:1-5; also John 7:38).
25 sn The eastern sea is a reference to the Dead Sea (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
26 sn The western sea is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
27 sn The expression the
28 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
29 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
30 tn Or “and praise.”
31 sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John’s language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing since it is the term ὅσιος (Josios) and not the more common NT term ἅγιος (Jagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (ὅσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX]) where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification) brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term ὅσιος in a context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).
32 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).
33 tn Or perhaps, “your sentences of condemnation.” On δικαίωμα (dikaiwma) in this context BDAG 249 s.v. 2. states, “righteous deed…δι᾿ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος (opp. παράπτωμα) Ro 5:18. – B 1:2 (cp. Wengst, Barnabas-brief 196, n.4); Rv 15:4 (here perh.= ‘sentence of condemnation’ [cp. Pla., Leg. 9, 864e; ins fr. Asia Minor: LBW 41, 2 [κατὰ] τὸ δι[καί]ωμα τὸ κυρω[θέν]= ‘acc. to the sentence which has become valid’]; difft. Wengst, s. above); 19:8.”