Old/New Testament
Psalm 66[a]
For the music director, a song, a psalm.
66 Shout out praise to God, all the earth!
2 Sing praises about the majesty of his reputation.[b]
Give him the honor he deserves![c]
3 Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear[d] before you.
4 All the earth worships[e] you
and sings praises to you.
They sing praises to your name.” (Selah)
5 Come and witness[f] God’s exploits![g]
His acts on behalf of people are awesome.[h]
6 He turned the sea into dry land;[i]
they passed through the river on foot.[j]
Let us rejoice in him there.[k]
7 He rules[l] by his power forever;
he watches[m] the nations.
Stubborn rebels should not exalt[n] themselves. (Selah)
8 Praise[o] our God, you nations.
Loudly proclaim his praise.[p]
9 He preserves our lives[q]
and does not allow our feet to slip.
10 For[r] you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
11 You led us into a trap;[s]
you caused us to suffer.[t]
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.[u]
13 I will enter[v] your temple with burnt sacrifices;
I will fulfill the vows I made to you,
14 which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
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)
16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God.[w]
I will declare what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him for help[x]
and praised him with my tongue.[y]
18 If I had harbored sin in my heart,[z]
the Lord would not have listened.
19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
20 God deserves praise,[aa]
for[ab] he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me.[ac]
Psalm 67[ad]
For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.
67 May God show us his favor[ae] and bless us.[af]
May he smile on us.[ag] (Selah)
2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;
all nations will know how you deliver your people.[ah]
3 Let the nations thank you, O God.
Let all the nations thank you.[ai]
4 Let foreigners[aj] rejoice and celebrate.
For you execute justice among the nations,
and govern the people living on earth.[ak] (Selah)
5 Let the nations thank you, O God.
Let all the nations thank you.[al]
6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us.
7 May God bless us.[am]
Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves.[an]
Footnotes
- Psalm 66:1 sn Psalm 66. The psalmist praises God because he has delivered his people from a crisis.
- Psalm 66:2 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
- Psalm 66:2 tn Heb “make honorable his praise.”
- Psalm 66:3 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).
- Psalm 66:4 tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
- Psalm 66:5 tn Or “see.”
- Psalm 66:5 tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
- Psalm 66:5 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.”
- Psalm 66:6 sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
- Psalm 66:6 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).
- Psalm 66:6 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.).
- Psalm 66:7 tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”
- Psalm 66:7 tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.
- Psalm 66:7 tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ʾal). 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 ל (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.
- Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ברך pi).
- Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
- Psalm 66:9 tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
- Psalm 66:10 tn Or “indeed.”
- Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
- Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (muʿaqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
- Psalm 66:12 tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (revayah, “saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (revakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).
- Psalm 66:13 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
- Psalm 66:16 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
- Psalm 66:17 tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
- Psalm 66:17 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.
- Psalm 66:18 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
- Psalm 66:20 tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
- Psalm 66:20 tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
- Psalm 66:20 tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer, or his loyal love from with me.”
- Psalm 67:1 sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.
- Psalm 67:1 tn Or “have mercy on us.”
- Psalm 67:1 tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. Note the jussive form יָאֵר (yaʾer) in the next line.
- Psalm 67:1 tn Heb “may he cause his face to shine with us.”
- Psalm 67:2 tn Heb “to know in the earth your way, among all nations your deliverance.” The infinitive with ל (lamed) expresses purpose/result. When God demonstrates his favor to his people, all nations will recognize his character as a God who delivers. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) refers here to God’s characteristic behavior, more specifically, to the way he typically saves his people.
- Psalm 67:3 tn Heb “let the nations, all of them, thank you.” The prefixed verbal forms in vv. 3-4a are understood as jussives in this call to praise.
- Psalm 67:4 tn Or “peoples.”
- Psalm 67:4 tn Heb “for you judge nations fairly, and [as for the] peoples in the earth, you lead them.” The imperfects are translated with the present tense because the statement is understood as a generalization about God’s providential control of the world. Another option is to understand the statement as anticipating God’s future rule (“for you will rule…and govern”).
- Psalm 67:5 tn Heb “let the nations, all of them, thank you.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 5 are understood as jussives in this call to praise.
- Psalm 67:7 tn The prefixed verb forms in vv. 6b-7a are understood as jussives.
- Psalm 67:7 tn Heb “will fear him.” After the jussive of the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive is understood as indicating purpose/result. (Note how v. 3 anticipates the universal impact of God showing his people blessing.) Another option is to take the verb as a jussive and translate, “Let all the ends of the earth fear him.”
The Believer’s Relationship to the Law
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters[a] (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person[b] as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her[c] husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.[d] 3 So then,[e] if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her[f] husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 So, my brothers and sisters,[g] you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.[h] 5 For when we were in the flesh,[i] the sinful desires,[j] aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body[k] to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died[l] to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[m]
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I[n] would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else[o] if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”[p] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires.[q] For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 10 and I died. So[r] I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death![s] 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[t] 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.[u] 15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want—instead, I do what I hate.[v] 16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.[w] 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.[x] 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be[y] to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then,[z] I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but[aa] with my flesh I serve[ab] the law of sin.
Footnotes
- Romans 7:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
- Romans 7:1 sn Here person refers to a human being.
- Romans 7:2 tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
- Romans 7:2 tn Grk “husband.”sn Paul’s example of the married woman and the law of the marriage illustrates that death frees a person from obligation to the law. Thus, in spiritual terms, a person who has died to what controlled us (v. 6) has been released from the law to serve God in the new life produced by the Spirit.
- Romans 7:3 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
- Romans 7:3 tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
- Romans 7:4 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
- Romans 7:4 tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”
- Romans 7:5 tn That is, before we were in Christ.
- Romans 7:5 tn Or “sinful passions.”
- Romans 7:5 tn Grk “our members”; the words “of our body” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.
- Romans 7:6 tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apothanontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
- Romans 7:6 tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
- Romans 7:7 sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).
- Romans 7:7 tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”
- Romans 7:7 sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.
- Romans 7:8 tn Or “covetousness.”
- Romans 7:10 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate the result of the statement in the previous verse. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.
- Romans 7:10 tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life—this was for death.”
- Romans 7:11 tn Or “and through it killed me.”
- Romans 7:14 tn Grk “under sin.”
- Romans 7:15 tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”
- Romans 7:16 tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”
- Romans 7:18 tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”
- Romans 7:25 tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 M sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א1 [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506), the reading of NA28. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucharistō tō theō) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א1 Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 M lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.
- Romans 7:25 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
- Romans 7:25 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.
- Romans 7:25 tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.