Psalms 95:3

95:3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to ¹  all gods.

Psalms 96:4

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

he is more awesome than all gods. ² 

Psalms 115:3-8

115:3 Our God is in heaven!

He does whatever he pleases! ³ 

115:4 Their ⁴  idols are made of silver and gold –

they are man-made. ⁵ 

115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

115:6 ears, but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell,

115:7 hands, but cannot touch,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot even clear their throats. ⁶ 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ⁷  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Psalms 135:5

135:5 Yes, ⁸  I know the Lord is great,

and our Lord is superior to all gods.

Exodus 18:11

18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ¹⁰  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 10:10

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.

[95:3]  ¹ tn Heb “above.”

[96:4]  ² tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

[115:3]  ³ sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).

[115:4]  ⁴ tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).

[115:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[115:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).

[115:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”

[135:5]  ⁸ tn Or “for.”

[18:11]  ⁹ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

[10:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”

[10:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”