Psalms 48:1

Psalm 48 ¹ 

A 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.

Psalms 86:8-10

86:8 None can compare to you among the gods, O Lord!

Your exploits are incomparable! ³ 

86:9 All the nations, whom you created,

will come and worship you, ⁴  O Lord.

They will honor your name.

86:10 For you are great and do amazing things.

You alone are God.

Psalms 89:6

89:6 For who in the skies can compare to the Lord?

Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings, ⁵ 

Psalms 95:3

95:3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to ⁶  all gods.

Psalms 96:4-5

96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. ⁷ 

96:5 For all the gods of the nations are worthless, ⁸ 

but the Lord made the sky.

Psalms 97:9

97:9 For you, O Lord, are the sovereign king ⁹  over the whole earth;

you are elevated high above all gods.

Deuteronomy 10:17

10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,

Isaiah 40:22

40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; ¹⁰ 

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. ¹¹ 

He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, ¹² 

and spreads it out ¹³  like a pitched tent. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 40:25

40:25 “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?”

says the Holy One. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 10:10-11

10:10 The Lord is the only true God.

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

When he shows his anger the earth shakes.

None of the nations can stand up to his fury.

10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:

‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.

They will disappear ¹⁶  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ¹⁷ 

Daniel 3:29

3:29 I hereby decree ¹⁸  that any people, nation, or language group that blasphemes ¹⁹  the god of Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego will be dismembered and his home reduced to rubble! For there exists no other god who can deliver in this way.”

Daniel 6:26-27

6:26 I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God;

he endures forever.

His kingdom will not be destroyed;

his authority is forever. ²⁰ 

6:27 He rescues and delivers

and performs signs and wonders

in the heavens and on the earth.

He has rescued Daniel from the power ²¹  of the lions!”

[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).

[86:8]  ³ tn Heb “and there are none like your acts.”

[86:9]  ⁴ tn Or “bow down before you.”

[89:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons of gods”; or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the Hebrew text, it is likely that the final mem (ם) is actually enclitic rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8. The phrase בְנֵי אֵלִים (vÿney ’elim, “sons of gods” or “sons of God”) occurs only here and in Ps 29:1. Since the “sons of gods/God” are here associated with “the assembly of the holy ones” and “council of the holy ones,” the heavenly assembly (comprised of so-called “angels” and other supernatural beings) appears to be in view. See Job 5:1; 15:15 and Zech 14:5, where these supernatural beings are referred to as “holy ones.” In Canaanite mythological texts the divine council of the high god El is called “the sons of El.” The OT apparently uses the Canaanite phrase, applying it to the supernatural beings that surround the Lord’s heavenly throne.

[95:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “above.”

[96:4]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

[96:5]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term אֱלִילִים (’elilim, “worthless”) sounds like אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “gods”). The sound play draws attention to the statement.

[97:9]  ⁹ tn Traditionally “Most High.”

[40:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[40:22]  ¹¹ tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:22]  ¹² tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).

[40:22]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.

[40:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”

[40:25]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[10:11]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[10:11]  ¹⁷ tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the Lord and idols in vv. 2-16. Holladay shows that the passage is a very carefully constructed chiasm (see accompanying study note) which argues that “these” at the end is the subject of the verb “will disappear” not the attributive adjective modifying heaven. He also makes a very good case that the verse is poetry and not prose as it is rendered in the majority of modern English versions.

[3:29]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “from me is placed an edict.”

[3:29]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “speaks negligence.”

[6:26]  ²⁰ tn Aram “until the end.”

[6:27]  ²¹ tn Aram “hand.”