Discovery BoxPsalms 106:1-37
Context106:1 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures! 2
106:2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts,
or relate all his praiseworthy deeds? 3
106:3 How blessed are those who promote justice,
and do what is right all the time!
106:4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people!
Pay attention to me, when you deliver,
106:5 so I may see the prosperity 4 of your chosen ones,
rejoice along with your nation, 5
and boast along with the people who belong to you. 6
106:6 We have sinned like 7 our ancestors; 8
we have done wrong, we have done evil.
106:7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds,
they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,
and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. 9
106:8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation, 10
that he might reveal his power.
106:9 He shouted at 11 the Red Sea and it dried up;
he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.
106:10 He delivered them from the power 12 of the one who hated them,
and rescued 13 them from the power 14 of the enemy.
106:11 The water covered their enemies;
not even one of them survived. 15
106:12 They believed his promises; 16
they sang praises to him.
106:13 They quickly forgot what he had done; 17
they did not wait for his instructions. 18
106:14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving 19 for meat; 20
they challenged God 21 in the desert.
106:15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease. 22
106:16 In the camp they resented 23 Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest. 24
106:17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed 25 the group led by Abiram. 26
106:18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked. 27
106:19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
106:20 They traded their majestic God 28
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
106:21 They rejected 29 the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
106:22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty 30 acts by the Red Sea.
106:23 He threatened 31 to destroy them,
but 32 Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him 33
and turned back his destructive anger. 34
106:24 They rejected the fruitful land; 35
they did not believe his promise. 36
106:25 They grumbled in their tents; 37
they did not obey 38 the Lord.
106:26 So he made a solemn vow 39
that he would make them die 40 in the desert,
106:27 make their descendants 41 die 42 among the nations,
and scatter them among foreign lands. 43
106:28 They worshiped 44 Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 45
106:29 They made the Lord angry 46 by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, 47
and the plague subsided.
106:31 This brought him a reward,
an eternal gift. 48
106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered 49 because of them,
106:33 for they aroused 50 his temper, 51
and he spoke rashly. 52
106:34 They did not destroy the nations, 53
as the Lord had commanded them to do.
106:35 They mixed in with the nations
and learned their ways. 54
106:36 They worshiped 55 their idols,
which became a snare to them. 56
106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 57
[106:1] 1 sn Psalm 106. The psalmist recalls Israel’s long history of rebellion against God, despite his mighty saving deeds on their behalf.
[106:1] 2 tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”
[106:2] 3 tn Heb “[or] cause to be heard all his praise.”
[106:5] 5 tn Heb “in order that [I may] rejoice with the rejoicing of your nation.”
[106:5] 6 tn Heb “with your inheritance.”
[106:6] 8 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 7).
[106:7] 9 tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in vv. 9, 22). “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See the note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.
[106:8] 10 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
[106:11] 15 tn Heb “remained.”
[106:12] 16 tn Heb “his words.”
[106:13] 17 tn Heb “his works.”
[106:13] 18 tn Heb “his counsel.”
[106:14] 19 sn They had an insatiable craving. This is described in Num 11:4-35.
[106:14] 20 tn Heb “they craved [with] a craving.”
[106:14] 21 tn Heb “they tested God.”
[106:15] 22 tn Heb “and he sent leanness into their being.”
[106:16] 24 tn Heb “the holy one of the
[106:17] 26 tn Or “the assembly of Abiram.”
[106:18] 27 sn Verses 16-18 describe the events of Num 16:1-40.
[106:20] 28 tn Heb “their glory.” According to an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, the text originally read “his glory” or “my glory.” In Jer 2:11 the
[106:22] 30 tn Or “awe-inspiring.”
[106:23] 31 tn Heb “and he said.”
[106:23] 32 tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”
[106:23] 33 tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”
[106:23] 34 tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”
[106:24] 35 tn Heb “a land of delight” (see also Jer 3:19; Zech 7:14).
[106:24] 36 tn Heb “his word.”
[106:25] 37 sn They grumbled in their tents. See Deut 1:27.
[106:25] 38 tn Heb “did not listen to the voice of.”
[106:26] 39 tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).
[106:26] 40 tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”
[106:27] 41 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
[106:27] 42 tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).
[106:27] 43 tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[106:28] 44 tn Heb “joined themselves to.”
[106:28] 45 tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).
[106:29] 46 tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew
[106:30] 47 sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.
[106:31] 48 tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.
[106:32] 49 tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”
[106:33] 50 tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.
[106:33] 51 tn Heb “his spirit.”
[106:33] 52 tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[106:34] 53 tn That is, the nations of Canaan.
[106:35] 54 tn Heb “their deeds.”
[106:36] 56 sn Became a snare. See Exod 23:33; Judg 2:3.
[106:37] 57 tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.
