Psalms 66:5-7

66:5 Come and witness ¹  God’s exploits! ² 

His acts on behalf of people are awesome! ³ 

66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; ⁴ 

they passed through the river on foot. ⁵ 

Let us rejoice in him there! ⁶ 

66:7 He rules ⁷  by his power forever;

he watches ⁸  the nations.

Stubborn rebels should not exalt ⁹  themselves. (Selah)

[66:5]  ¹ tn Or “see.”

[66:5]  ² tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).

[66:5]  ³ tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”

[66:6]  ⁴ sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).

[66:6]  ⁵ tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).

[66:6]  ⁶ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[66:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”

[66:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.

[66:7]  ⁹ tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -לְ (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.