40:5 O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things;
you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us. 1
No one can thwart you! 2
I want to declare them and talk about them,
but they are too numerous to recount! 3
8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, 4
and delighting 5 in its people. 6
55:8 “Indeed, 7 my plans 8 are not like 9 your plans,
and my deeds 10 are not like 11 your deeds,
55:9 for just as the sky 12 is higher than the earth,
so my deeds 13 are superior to 14 your deeds
and my plans 15 superior to your plans.
1 tn Heb “many things you have done, you, O
2 tn Heb “there is none arrayed against you.” The precise meaning of the text is unclear, but the collocation עָרַךְ אֶל (’arakh ’el, “array against”) is used elsewhere of military (Judg 20:30; 1 Chr 19:17) or verbal opposition (Job 32:14).
3 tn Heb “I will declare and I will speak, they are too numerous to recount.” The present translation assumes that the cohortatives are used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “Should I try to declare [them] and speak [of them]…” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortatives are part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.) Another option is to take the cohortatives as a declaration of the psalmist’s resolve to announce the truth expressed in the next line. In this case one might translate: “I will declare and speak [the truth]: They are too numerous to recount.”
4 tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.
5 tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”
6 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
7 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).
8 tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).
9 tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.
10 tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).
11 tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.
12 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
13 tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).
14 tn Heb “are higher than.”
15 tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).
16 tn Heb “Oracle of the
17 tn Heb “I know the plans that I am planning for you, oracle of the
18 tn Or “the future you hope for”; Heb “a future and a hope.” This is a good example of hendiadys where two formally coordinated nouns (adjectives, verbs) convey a single idea where one of the terms functions as a qualifier of the other. For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 658-72. This example is discussed on p. 661.
19 tn There is a possible causative nuance in the Greek verb, but this is difficult to convey in the translation.
20 tn Grk “what is the plan of the divine secret.” Earlier the author had used οἰκονομία (oikonomia; here “plan”) to refer to his own “stewardship” (v. 2). But now he is speaking about the content of this secret, not his own activity in relation to it.
21 tn Or “for eternity,” or perhaps “from the Aeons.” Cf. 2:2, 7.
22 tn Or “by God.” It is possible that ἐν (en) plus the dative here indicates agency, that is, that God has performed the action of hiding the secret. However, this usage of the preposition ἐν is quite rare in the NT, and even though here it does follow a perfect passive verb as in the Classical idiom, it is more likely that a different nuance is intended.
23 tn Grk “that.” Verse 10 is a subordinate clause to the verb “enlighten” in v. 9.
24 tn Or “manifold wisdom,” “wisdom in its rich variety.”