For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.
76:1 God has revealed himself in Judah; 2
in Israel his reputation 3 is great.
78:5 He established a rule 4 in Jacob;
he set up a law in Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to make his deeds known to their descendants, 5
103:7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts 6 to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
The Lord came from Sinai
and revealed himself 7 to Israel 8 from Seir.
He appeared in splendor 9 from Mount Paran,
and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. 10
With his right hand he gave a fiery law 11 to them.
33:3 Surely he loves the people; 12
all your holy ones 13 are in your power. 14
And they sit 15 at your feet,
each receiving 16 your words.
33:4 Moses delivered to us a law, 17
an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.
4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb 18 I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. 19
3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 28
1 sn Psalm 76. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior who destroys Israel’s enemies.
2 tn Or “God is known in Judah.”
3 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
4 tn The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (’edut) refers here to God’s command that the older generation teach their children about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history (see Exod 10:2; Deut 4:9; 6:20-25).
5 tn Heb “which he commanded our fathers to make them known to their sons.” The plural suffix “them” probably refers back to the
6 tn Heb “made known his ways.” God’s “ways” in this context are his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 18:30; 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 138:5; 145:17).
7 tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).
8 tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.
9 tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
10 tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.
11 tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.
12 tc Heb “peoples.” The apparent plural form is probably a misunderstood singular (perhaps with a pronominal suffix) with enclitic mem (ם). See HALOT 838 s.v. עַם B.2.
13 tc Heb “his holy ones.” The third person masculine singular suffix of the Hebrew MT is problematic in light of the second person masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדֶךָ (bÿyadekha, “your hands”). The LXX versions by Lucian and Origen read, therefore, “the holy ones.” The LXX version by Theodotion and the Vulgate, however, presuppose third masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדָיו (bÿyadayv, “his hands”), and thus retain “his holy ones.” The efforts to bring pronominal harmony into the line is commendable but unnecessary given the Hebrew tendency to be untroubled by such grammatical inconsistencies. However, the translation harmonizes the first pronoun with the second so that the referent (the Lord) is clear.
14 tn Heb “hands.” For the problem of the pronoun see note on the term “holy ones” earlier in this verse.
15 tn The Hebrew term תֻּכּוּ (tuku, probably Pual perfect of תָּכָה, takhah) is otherwise unknown. The present translation is based on the reference to feet and, apparently, receiving instruction in God’s words (cf. KJV, ASV). Other options are as follows: NIV “At your feet they all bow down” (cf. NCV, CEV); NLT “They follow in your steps” (cf. NAB, NASB); NRSV “they marched at your heels.”
16 tn The singular verbal form in the Hebrew text (lit. “he lifts up”) is understood in a distributive manner, focusing on the action of each individual within the group.
17 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) here should be understood more broadly as instruction.
18 sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).
19 tn Heb “which I commanded him in Horeb concerning all Israel, statutes and ordinances.”
20 tn Grk “much in every way.”
21 tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A D2 33 Ï) have γάρ (gar) after μέν (men), though some significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses lack the conjunction (B D* G Ψ 81 365 1506 2464* pc latt). A few
22 tn Grk “they were.”
23 tn The referent of λόγια (logia, “oracles”) has been variously understood: (1) BDAG 598 s.v. λόγιον takes the term to refer here to “God’s promises to the Jews”; (2) some have taken this to refer more narrowly to the national promises of messianic salvation given to Israel (so S. L. Johnson, Jr., “Studies in Romans: Part VII: The Jews and the Oracles of God,” BSac 130 [1973]: 245); (3) perhaps the most widespread interpretation sees the term as referring to the entire OT generally.
24 tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
25 tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”
26 tn Or “cultic service.”
27 tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”
28 sn Rom 3:15-17 is a quotation from Isa 59:7-8.