113:2 May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore!
113:3 From east to west 1
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
113:4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky. 2
113:5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne? 3
113:6 He bends down to look 4
at the sky and the earth.
113:7 He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile, 5
113:8 that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
113:9 He makes the barren woman of the family 6
a happy mother of children. 7
Praise the Lord!
1 tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.
2 tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
3 tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
4 tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
5 sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
6 tn Heb “of the house.”
7 tn Heb “sons.”