Discovery BoxPsalms 89:26-37
Context89:26 He will call out to me,
‘You are my father, 1 my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ 2
89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, 3
the most exalted of the earth’s kings.
89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,
and my covenant with him is secure. 4
89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, 5
and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. 6
89:30 If his sons reject my law
and disobey my regulations,
89:31 if they break 7 my rules
and do not keep my commandments,
89:32 I will punish their rebellion by beating them with a club, 8
their sin by inflicting them with bruises. 9
89:33 But I will not remove 10 my loyal love from him,
nor be unfaithful to my promise. 11
89:34 I will not break 12 my covenant
or go back on what I promised. 13
89:35 Once and for all I have vowed by my own holiness,
I will never deceive 14 David.
89:36 His dynasty will last forever. 15
His throne will endure before me, like the sun, 16
89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, 17
his throne will endure like the skies.” 18 (Selah)
[89:26] 1 sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
[89:26] 2 tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”
[89:27] 3 sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.
[89:28] 4 tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”
[89:29] 5 tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”
[89:29] 6 tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”
[89:32] 8 tn Heb “I will punish with a club their rebellion.”
[89:32] 9 tn Heb “with blows their sin.”
[89:33] 10 tn Heb “break”; “make ineffectual.” Some prefer to emend אָפִיר (’afir; the Hiphil of פָּרַר, parar, “to break”) to אָסִיר (’asir; the Hiphil of סוּר, sur, “to turn aside”), a verb that appears in 2 Sam 7:15.
[89:33] 11 tn Heb “and I will not deal falsely with my faithfulness.”
[89:34] 13 tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”
[89:36] 15 tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”
[89:36] 16 tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”
[89:37] 17 tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”
[89:37] 18 tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.
