Discovery BoxPsalms 22:22-31
Context22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! 1
In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!
22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, 2 praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! 3
22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering 4 of the oppressed; 5
he did not ignore him; 6
when he cried out to him, he responded. 7
22:25 You are the reason I offer praise 8 in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers. 9
22:26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled! 10
Let those who seek his help praise the Lord!
May you 11 live forever!
22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! 12
Let all the nations 13 worship you! 14
and rules over the nations.
22:29 All of the thriving people 16 of the earth will join the celebration and worship; 17
all those who are descending into the grave 18 will bow before him,
including those who cannot preserve their lives. 19
22:30 A whole generation 20 will serve him;
they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. 21
22:31 They will come and tell about his saving deeds; 22
they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished. 23
[22:22] 1 tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).
[22:23] 2 tn Heb “[you] fearers of the
[22:24] 3 tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”
[22:24] 4 sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.
[22:24] 5 tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).
[22:25] 4 tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”
[22:25] 5 tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the
[22:26] 5 sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.
[22:26] 6 tn Heb “may your heart[s].”
[22:27] 6 tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the
[22:27] 7 tn Heb “families of the nations.”
[22:27] 8 tn Heb “before you.”
[22:28] 7 tn Heb “for to the
[22:29] 8 tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the
[22:29] 9 tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the
[22:29] 10 tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.
[22:29] 11 tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”
[22:30] 10 tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
[22:31] 10 tn Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה (tsidaqah) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.
[22:31] 11 tn Heb “to a people [to be] born that he has acted.” The words “they will tell” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
