136:4 to the one who performs magnificent, amazing deeds all by himself,
for his loyal love endures,
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 The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).
5 tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”
6 tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).
7 tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”