Discovery BoxPsalms 22:28-31
Contextand rules over the nations.
22:29 All of the thriving people 2 of the earth will join the celebration and worship; 3
all those who are descending into the grave 4 will bow before him,
including those who cannot preserve their lives. 5
22:30 A whole generation 6 will serve him;
they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. 7
22:31 They will come and tell about his saving deeds; 8
they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished. 9
[22:28] 1 tn Heb “for to the
[22:29] 2 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] 3 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] 4 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] 5 tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”
[22:30] 4 tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
[22:31] 4 tn Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה (tsidaqah) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.
[22:31] 5 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.
