Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
24 How many living things you have made, O Lord![a]
You have exhibited great skill in making all of them;[b]
the earth is full of the living things you have made.
25 Over here is the deep, wide sea,[c]
which teems with innumerable swimming creatures,[d]
living things both small and large.
26 The ships travel there,
and over here swims the whale[e] you made to play in it.
27 All your creatures[f] wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis.[g]
28 You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food.[h]
29 When you ignore them, they panic.[i]
When you take away their life’s breath,
they die and return to dust.
30 When you send your life-giving breath, they are created,
and you replenish the surface of the ground.
31 May the splendor of the Lord endure.[j]
May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made.[k]
32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist.[l]
34 May my thoughts[m] be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
Footnotes
- Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.
- Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”
- Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”
- Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”
- Psalm 104:26 tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.
- Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.
- Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”
- Psalm 104:28 tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”
- Psalm 104:29 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
- Psalm 104:31 tn Heb “be forever.”
- Psalm 104:31 tn Or “rejoice in his works.”
- Psalm 104:33 tn Heb “in my duration.”
- Psalm 104:34 tn That is, the psalmist’s thoughts as expressed in his songs of praise.
35 May sinners disappear[a] from the earth,
and the wicked vanish.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord.
Footnotes
- Psalm 104:35 tn Or “be destroyed.”
7 “‘I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.[a] 8 Realize that it is coming and it will be done, declares the Sovereign Lord. It is the day I have spoken about.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 39:7 sn The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The Lord’s holiness is first and foremost his transcendent sovereignty as the ruler of the world. He is “set apart” from the world over which he rules. At the same time his holiness encompasses his moral authority, which derives from his royal position. As king he has the right to dictate to his subjects how they are to live; indeed, his very own character sets the standard for proper behavior. This expression is a common title for the Lord in the book of Isaiah.
21 “I will display my majesty[a] among the nations. All the nations will witness the judgment I have executed and the power I have exhibited[b] among them. 22 Then the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. 23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity,[c] for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword. 24 According to their uncleanness and rebellion I have dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.
25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore[d] the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among the nations and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile[e] any longer. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel,[f] declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 39:21 tn Or “my glory.”
- Ezekiel 39:21 tn Heb “my hand which I have placed.”
- Ezekiel 39:23 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.
- Ezekiel 39:25 tn Heb “cause to return.”
- Ezekiel 39:28 tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.
- Ezekiel 39:29 sn See Ezek 11:19 and 37:14.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray,[a] but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he[b] who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit[c] intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.
Footnotes
- Romans 8:26 tn Or “for we do not know what we ought to pray for.”
- Romans 8:27 sn He refers to God here; Paul has not specifically identified him for the sake of rhetorical power (for by leaving the subject slightly ambiguous, he draws his audience into seeing God’s hand in places where he is not explicitly mentioned).
- Romans 8:27 tn Grk “he,” or “it”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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