Psalms 29:9

29:9 The Lord’s shout bends ¹  the large trees ² 

and strips ³  the leaves from the forests. ⁴ 

Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ⁵ 

Psalms 66:13-16

66:13 I will enter ⁶  your temple with burnt sacrifices;

I will fulfill the vows I made to you,

66:14 which my lips uttered

and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.

66:15 I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,

along with the smell of sacrificial rams.

I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)

66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! ⁷ 

I will declare what he has done for me.

Psalms 116:18-19

116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people,

116:19 in the courts of the Lord’s temple,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 118:19-20

118:19 Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple! ⁸ 

I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

118:20 This is the Lord’s gate –

the godly enter through it.

Psalms 134:2

134:2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary

and praise the Lord!

[29:9]  ¹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

[29:9]  ² tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the Lord’s shout gives birth to deer” is absurd. In light of the parallelism (note “forests” in the next line) and v. 5, it is preferable to emend אַיָּלוֹת (’ayyalot, “deer”) to אֵילוֹת (’elot, “large trees”) understanding the latter as an alternate form of the usual plural form אַיָּלִים (’ayyalim).

[29:9]  ³ tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[29:9]  ⁴ tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).

[29:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”

[66:13]  ⁶ sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.

[66:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”

[118:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the Lord’s temple are referred to here, as v. 20 makes clear. They are called “gates of justice” because they are the entrance to the just king’s palace. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.