Psalms 48:1

Psalm 48 ¹ 

A song, a psalm by the Korahites.

48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise

in the city of our God, ²  his holy hill.

Psalms 96:4

96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. ³ 

Psalms 147:5

147:5 Our Lord is great and has awesome power; ⁴ 

there is no limit to his wisdom. ⁵ 

Job 5:9

5:9 He does ⁶  great and unsearchable ⁷  things,

marvelous things without ⁸  number; ⁹ 

Job 9:10

9:10 he does great and unsearchable things, ¹⁰ 

and wonderful things without number.

Revelation 15:3

15:3 They ¹¹  sang the song of Moses the servant ¹²  of God and the song of the Lamb: ¹³ 

“Great and astounding are your deeds,

Lord God, the All-Powerful! ¹⁴ 

Just ¹⁵  and true are your ways,

King over the nations! ¹⁶ 

¹ sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.

² sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).

³ tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

⁴ tn Heb “and great of strength.”

⁵ tn Heb “to his wisdom there is no counting.”

⁶ tn Heb “who does.” It is common for such doxologies to begin with participles; they follow the pattern of the psalms in this style. Because of the length of the sentence in Hebrew and the conventions of English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁷ tn The Hebrew has וְאֵין חֵקֶר (vÿ’en kheqer), literally, “and no investigation.” The use of the conjunction on the expression follows a form of the circumstantial clause construction, and so the entire expression describes the great works as “unsearchable.”

⁸ tn The preposition in עַד־אֵין (’ad ’en, “until there was no”) is stereotypical; it conveys the sense of having no number (see Job 9:10; Ps 40:13).

⁹ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 54) notes that the verse fits Eliphaz’s approach very well, for he has good understanding of the truth, but has difficulty in making the correct conclusions from it.

¹⁰ tn Only slight differences exist between this verse and 5:9 which employs the simple ו (vav) conjunction before אֵין (’eyn) in the first colon and omits the ו (vav) conjunction before נִפְלָאוֹת (nifla’ot, “wonderful things”) in the second colon.

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹² tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

¹³ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

¹⁴ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

¹⁵ tn Or “righteous,” although the context favors justice as the theme.

¹⁶ tc Certain mss (Ì⁴⁷ א*^,2 C 1006 1611 1841 pc) read “ages” (αἰώνων, aiwnwn) instead of “nations” (ἐθνῶν, eqnwn), which itself is supported by several mss (א¹ A 051 Ï). The ms evidence seems to be fairly balanced, though αἰώνων has somewhat better support. The replacement of “ages” with “nations” is possibly a scribal attempt to harmonize this verse with the use of “nations” in the following verse. On the other hand, the idea of “nations” fits well with v. 4 and it may be that “ages” is a scribal attempt to assimilate this text to 1 Tim 1:17: “the king of the ages” (βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων, basileu" twn aiwnwn). The decision is a difficult one since both scenarios deal well with the evidence, though the verbal parallel with 1 Tim 1:17 is exact while the parallel with v. 4 is not. The term “king” occurs 17 other times (most occurrences refer to earthly kings) in Revelation and it is not used with either “ages” or “nations” apart from this verse. Probably the reading “nations” should be considered original due to the influence of 1 Tim 1:17.