Psalms 66:12-20

66:12 You allowed men to ride over our heads;

we passed through fire and water,

but you brought us out into a wide open place. ¹ 

66:13 I will enter ²  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! ³ 

I will declare what he has done for me.

66:17 I cried out to him for help ⁴ 

and praised him with my tongue. ⁵ 

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ⁶ 

the Lord would not have listened.

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

66:20 God deserves praise, ⁷ 

for ⁸  he did not reject my prayer

or abandon his love for me! ⁹ 

[66:12]  ¹ tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (“saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (rÿvakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).

[66:13]  ² sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.

[66:16]  ³ tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”

[66:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”

[66:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.

[66:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[66:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”

[66:20]  ⁸ tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.

[66:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”