8:9 O Lord, our Lord, 1
how magnificent 2 is your reputation 3 throughout the earth! 4
For the music director, according to the gittith style; 6 a psalm of David.
8:1 O Lord, our Lord, 7
how magnificent 8 is your reputation 9 throughout the earth!
You reveal your majesty in the heavens above! 10
1 tn The plural form of the title emphasizes the
2 tn Or “awesome, majestic.”
3 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
4 sn Using the poetic device of inclusio, the psalmist ends the psalm the way he began it. The concluding refrain is identical to v. 1.
5 sn Psalm 8. In this hymn to the sovereign creator, the psalmist praises God’s majesty and marvels that God has given mankind dominion over the created order.
6 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הגתית is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or type of instrument.
7 tn The plural form of the title emphasizes the
8 tn Or “awesome”; or “majestic.”
9 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
10 tc Heb “which, give, your majesty on the heavens.” The verb form תְּנָה (tÿnah; an imperative?) is corrupt. The form should be emended to a second masculine singular perfect (נָתַתָּה, natatah) or imperfect (תִתֵן, titen) form. The introductory אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) can be taken as a relative pronoun (“you who”) or as a causal conjunction (“because”). One may literally translate, “you who [or “because you”] place your majesty upon the heavens.” For other uses of the phrase “place majesty upon” see Num 27:20 and 1 Chr 29:25.