Discovery BoxPsalms 48:1-2
ContextA song, a psalm by the Korahites.
48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise
in the city of our God, 2 his holy hill.
48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 3
a source of joy to the whole earth. 4
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 5
it is the city of the great king.
Psalms 78:68-69
Context78:68 He chose the tribe of Judah,
and Mount Zion, which he loves.
78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; 6
as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. 7
Psalms 132:13-14
Context132:13 Certainly 8 the Lord has chosen Zion;
he decided to make it his home. 9
132:14 He said, 10 “This will be my resting place forever;
I will live here, for I have chosen it. 11
[48:1] 1 sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.
[48:1] 2 sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).
[48:2] 3 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
[48:2] 4 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
[48:2] 5 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
[78:69] 6 tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.
[78:69] 7 tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”
[132:13] 9 tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”
[132:14] 10 tn The words “he said” are added in the translation to clarify that what follows are the
