Psalms 72:18

72:18 The Lord God, the God of Israel, deserves praise! ¹ 

He alone accomplishes amazing things! ² 

Psalms 86:10

86:10 For you are great and do amazing things.

You alone are God.

Exodus 15:11

15:11 Who is like you, ³  O Lord, among the gods? ⁴ 

Who is like you? – majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, ⁵  working wonders?

Job 5:9

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

marvelous things without ⁸  number; ⁹ 

Revelation 15:3

15:3 They ¹⁰  sang the song of Moses the servant ¹¹  of God and the song of the Lamb: ¹² 

“Great and astounding are your deeds,

Lord God, the All-Powerful! ¹³ 

Just ¹⁴  and true are your ways,

King over the nations! ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21; 41:13.

² tn Heb “[the] one who does amazing things by himself.”

³ tn The question is of course rhetorical; it is a way of affirming that no one is comparable to God. See C. J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament, 22, 66-67, and 94-97.

⁴ sn Verses 11-17 will now focus on Yahweh as the incomparable one who was able to save Israel from their foes and afterward lead them to the promised land.

⁵ tn S. R. Driver suggests “praiseworthy acts” as the translation (Exodus, 137).

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 Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹¹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

¹² tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

¹³ 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.”

¹⁴ tn Or “righteous,” although the context favors justice as the theme.

¹⁵ 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.