93:1 The Lord reigns!
He is robed in majesty,
the Lord is robed,
he wears strength around his waist. 2
Indeed, the world is established, it cannot be moved.
96:10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
The world is established, it cannot be moved.
He judges the nations fairly.”
8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, 3
planting time 4 and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night will not cease.”
38:8 “Who shut up 5 the sea with doors
when it burst forth, 6 coming out of the womb,
38:9 when I made 7 the storm clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band, 8
38:10 when I prescribed 9 its limits,
and set 10 in place its bolts and doors,
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come 11
and no farther, 12
here your proud waves will be confined’? 13
5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.
“You should tremble in awe before me! 14
I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea,
a permanent barrier that it can never cross.
Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail.
They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” 15
1 sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the
2 sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.
3 tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”
4 tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.
5 tn The MT has “and he shut up.” The Vulgate has “Who?” and so many commentaries and editions adopt this reading, if not from the Vulgate, then from the sense of the sequence in the text itself.
6 tn The line uses two expressions, first the temporal clause with גִּיחַ (giakh, “when it burst forth”) and then the finite verb יֵצֵא (yetse’, “go out”) to mark the concomitance of the two actions.
7 tn The temporal clause here uses the infinitive from שִׂים (sim, “to place; to put; to make”). It underscores the sovereign placing of things.
8 tn This noun is found only here. The verb is in Ezek 16:4, and a related noun is in Ezek 30:21.
9 tc The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ashiyt, “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” (2 Sam 5:24; Job 14:3; Dan 11:36).
10 tn Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.
11 tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.
12 tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).
13 tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.
14 tn Heb “Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in awe before me?” The rhetorical questions expect the answer explicit in the translation.
15 tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.