Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ¹  to the sky ²  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ³  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ⁴  for the Lord your God has assigned ⁵  them to all the people ⁶  of the world. ⁷ 

Job 25:3

25:3 Can his armies be numbered? ⁸ 

On whom does his light ⁹  not rise?

Job 25:5

25:5 If even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned, ¹⁰ 

Job 38:12-14

38:12 Have you ever in your life ¹¹  commanded the morning,

or made the dawn know ¹²  its place,

38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, ¹³ 

and shake the wicked out of it?

38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; ¹⁴ 

its features ¹⁵  are dyed ¹⁶  like a garment.

Psalms 8:3-4

8:3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,

and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, ¹⁷ 

8:4 Of what importance is the human race, ¹⁸  that you should notice ¹⁹  them?

Of what importance is mankind, ²⁰  that you should pay attention to them, ²¹ 

Psalms 19:1-6

Psalm 19 ²² 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; ²³ 

the sky displays his handiwork. ²⁴ 

19:2 Day after day it speaks out; ²⁵ 

night after night it reveals his greatness. ²⁶ 

19:3 There is no actual speech or word,

nor is its ²⁷  voice literally heard.

19:4 Yet its voice ²⁸  echoes ²⁹  throughout the earth;

its ³⁰  words carry ³¹  to the distant horizon. ³² 

In the sky ³³  he has pitched a tent for the sun. ³⁴ 

19:5 Like a bridegroom it emerges ³⁵  from its chamber; ³⁶ 

like a strong man it enjoys ³⁷  running its course. ³⁸ 

19:6 It emerges from the distant horizon, ³⁹ 

and goes from one end of the sky to the other; ⁴⁰ 

nothing can escape ⁴¹  its heat.

Psalms 74:16-17

74:16 You established the cycle of day and night; ⁴² 

you put the moon ⁴³  and sun in place. ⁴⁴ 

74:17 You set up all the boundaries ⁴⁵  of the earth;

you created the cycle of summer and winter. ⁴⁶ 

Psalms 104:19-20

104:19 He made the moon to mark the months, ⁴⁷ 

and the sun sets according to a regular schedule. ⁴⁸ 

104:20 You make it dark and night comes, ⁴⁹ 

during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

Psalms 119:91

119:91 Today they stand firm by your decrees,

for all things are your servants.

Psalms 136:7-9

136:7 to the one who made the great lights,

for his loyal love endures,

136:8 the sun to rule by day,

for his loyal love endures,

136:9 the moon and stars to rule by night,

for his loyal love endures,

Psalms 148:3

148:3 Praise him, O sun and moon!

Praise him, all you shiny stars! ⁵⁰ 

Psalms 148:6

148:6 He established them so they would endure; ⁵¹ 

he issued a decree that will not be revoked. ⁵² 

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ⁵³ 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ⁵⁴ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ⁵⁵ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Jeremiah 31:35

The Lord Guarantees Israel’s Continuance

31:35 The Lord has made a promise to Israel.

He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day

and the moon and stars to give light by night.

He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.

He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all. ⁵⁶ 

Jeremiah 33:20

33:20 “I, Lord, make the following promise: ⁵⁷  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ⁵⁸  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ⁵⁹  could break that covenant

Jeremiah 33:25

33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ⁶⁰  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth.

[4:19]  ¹ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:19]  ² tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:19]  ³ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

[4:19]  ⁴ tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

[4:19]  ⁵ tn Or “allotted.”

[4:19]  ⁶ tn Or “nations.”

[4:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”

[25:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is there a number to his troops?” The question is rhetorical: there is no number to them!

[25:3]  ⁹ tc In place of “light” here the LXX has “his ambush,” perhaps reading אֹרְבוֹ (’orÿvo) instead of אוֹרֵהוּ (’orehu, “his light”). But while that captures the idea of troops and warfare, the change should be rejected because the armies are linked with stars and light. The expression is poetic; the LXX interpretation tried to make it concrete.

[25:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “not pure in his eyes.”

[38:12]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew idiom is “have you from your days?” It means “never in your life” (see 1 Sam 25:28; 1 Kgs 1:6).

[38:12]  ¹² tn The verb is the Piel of יָדַע (yada’, “to know”) with a double accusative.

[38:13]  ¹³ sn The poetic image is that darkness or night is like a blanket that covers the earth, and at dawn it is taken by the edges and shaken out. Since the wicked function under the cover of night, they are included in the shaking when the dawn comes up.

[38:14]  ¹⁴ sn The verse needs to be understood in the context: as the light shines in the dawn, the features of the earth take on a recognizable shape or form. The language is phenomenological.

[38:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the objects or features on the earth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[38:14]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads “they stand up like a garment” (NASB, NIV) or “its features stand out like a garment” (ESV). The reference could be either to embroidered decoration on a garment or to the folds of a garment (REB: “until all things stand out like the folds of a cloak”; cf. J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 497, “the early light of day makes the earth appear as a beautiful garment, exquisite in design and glorious in color”). Since this is thought to be an odd statement, some suggest with Ehrlich that the text be changed to תִּצָּבַּע (titsabba’, “is dyed [like a garment]”). This reference would be to the colors appearing on the earth’s surface under daylight. The present translation follows the emendation.

[8:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “when I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and stars which you established.” The verb “[and] see” is understood by ellipsis in the second half of the verse.

[8:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “What is man[kind]?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh, “man”) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race.

[8:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “remember him.”

[8:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.

[8:4]  ²¹ tn The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.

[19:1]  ²² sn Psalm 19. The psalmist praises God for his self-revelation in the heavens and in the Mosaic law. The psalmist concludes with a prayer, asking the Lord to keep him from sinning and to approve of his thoughts and words.

[19:1]  ²³ sn God’s glory refers here to his royal majesty and power.

[19:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the work of his hands the sky declares.” The participles emphasize the ongoing testimony of the heavens/sky.

[19:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it gushes forth a word.” The “sky” (see v. 1b) is the subject of the verb. Though not literally speaking (see v. 3), it clearly reveals God’s royal majesty. The sun’s splendor and its movement across the sky is in view (see vv. 4-6).

[19:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it [i.e., the sky] declares knowledge,” i.e., knowledge about God’s royal majesty and power (see v. 1). This apparently refers to the splendor and movements of the stars. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 2, like the participles in the preceding verse, combine with the temporal phrases (“day after day” and “night after night”) to emphasize the ongoing testimony of the sky.

[19:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their.” The antecedent of the plural pronoun is “heavens” (v. 1).

[19:4]  ²⁸ tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.

[19:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”

[19:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).

[19:4]  ³¹ tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.

[19:4]  ³² tn Heb “to the end of the world.”

[19:4]  ³³ tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).

[19:4]  ³⁴ sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.

[19:5]  ³⁵ tn The participle expresses the repeated or regular nature of the action.

[19:5]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew noun חֻפָּה (khufah, “chamber”) occurs elsewhere only in Isa 4:5 and Joel 2:16 (where it refers to the bedroom of a bride and groom).

[19:5]  ³⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the regularity of the action.

[19:5]  ³⁸ tn Heb “[on] a path.”

[19:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “from the end of the heavens [is] its going forth.”

[19:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and its circuit [is] to their ends.”

[19:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “is hidden from.”

[74:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”

[74:16]  ⁴³ tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר (ma’or, “light”) refers here to the moon.

[74:16]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”

[74:17]  ⁴⁵ tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.

[74:17]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”

[104:19]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “he made [the] moon for appointed times.” The phrase “appointed times” probably refers to the months of the Hebrew lunar calendar.

[104:19]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb more metaphorically, “knows its setting.”

[104:20]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”

[148:3]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “stars of light.”

[148:6]  ⁵¹ tn Or “forever and ever.”

[148:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “and it will not pass away.”

[40:26]  ⁵³ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ⁵⁴ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[31:35]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for this title. In the Hebrew text the verse reads: “Thus says the Lord who provides the sun for light by day, the fixed ordering of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar, whose name is Yahweh of armies, ‘…’” The hymnic introduction to the quote which does not begin until v. 36 has been broken down to avoid a long awkward sentence in English. The word “said” has been translated “made a promise” to reflect the nature of the content in vv. 36-37. The first two lines of the Hebrew poetry are a case of complex or supplementary ellipsis where the complete idea of “providing/establishing the fixed laws” is divided between the two lines (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 110-13). The necessity for recombining the ellipsis is obvious from reference to the fixed ordering in the next verse. (Some commentators prefer to delete the word as an erroneous glossing of the word in the following line (see, e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 277, n. y).

[33:20]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” However, the Lord is speaking so the first person introduction has again been adopted. The content of the verse shows that it is a promise to David (vv. 21-22) and the Levites based on a contrary to fact condition (v. 20). See further the translator’s note at the end of the next verse for explanation of the English structure adopted here.

[33:20]  ⁵⁸ tn The word יוֹמָם (yomam) is normally an adverb meaning “daytime, by day, daily.” However, here and in v. 25 and in Jer 15:9 it means “day, daytime” (cf. BDB 401 s.v. יוֹמָם 1).

[33:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “you.” The pronoun is plural as in 32:36, 43; 33:10.

[33:25]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” See the translator’s note at the beginning of v. 20 for the style adopted here. Here the promise is in v. 26 following the contrary to fact condition in v. 25. The Hebrew text of vv. 25-26 reads: “Thus says the Lord, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night [and] the laws/statutes of heaven and earth, also I could reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant from taking from his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham…” The syntax of the original is a little awkward because it involves the verbs “establish” and “reject” governing two objects, the first governing two similar objects “my covenant” and “the regulations” and the second governing two dissimilar objects “the seed of Jacob” and “my servant David from taking [so as not to take].” The translation has sought to remove these awkward syntactical constructions and also break down the long complex original sentence in such a way as to retain its original intent, i.e., the guarantee of the continuance of the seed of Jacob and of the rule of a line of David’s descendants over them based on the fixed order of God’s creation decrees.