Psalm 105
New English Translation
Psalm 105[a]
105 Give thanks to the Lord.
Call on his name.
Make known his accomplishments among the nations.
2 Sing to him.
Make music to him.
Tell about all his miraculous deeds.
3 Boast about his holy name.
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Seek the Lord and the strength he gives.
Seek his presence continually.
5 Recall the miraculous deeds he performed,
his mighty acts and the judgments he decreed,[b]
6 O children[c] of Abraham,[d] God’s[e] servant,
you descendants[f] of Jacob, God’s[g] chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
he carries out judgment throughout the earth.[h]
8 He always remembers his covenantal decree,
the promise he made[i] to a thousand generations—
9 the promise[j] he made to Abraham,
the promise he made by oath to Isaac.
10 He gave it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as a lasting promise,[k]
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your inheritance.”
12 When they were few in number,
just a very few, and resident foreigners within it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
and from one kingdom to another.[l]
14 He let no one oppress them;
he disciplined kings for their sake,
15 saying,[m] “Don’t touch my chosen ones.[n]
Don’t harm my prophets.”
16 He called down a famine upon the earth;
he cut off all the food supply.[o]
17 He sent a man ahead of them[p]—
Joseph was sold as a servant.
18 The shackles hurt his feet;[q]
his neck was placed in an iron collar,[r]
19 until the time when his prediction[s] came true.
The Lord’s word[t] proved him right.[u]
20 The king authorized his release;[v]
the ruler of nations set him free.
21 He put him in charge of his palace,[w]
and made him manager of all his property,
22 giving him authority to imprison his officials[x]
and to teach his advisers.[y]
23 Israel moved to[z] Egypt;
Jacob lived for a time[aa] in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord[ab] made his people very fruitful,
and made them[ac] more numerous than their[ad] enemies.
25 He caused the Egyptians[ae] to hate his people,
and to mistreat[af] his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They executed his miraculous signs among them,[ag]
and his amazing deeds in the land of Ham.
28 He made it dark;[ah]
Moses and Aaron did not disobey his orders.[ai]
29 He turned the Egyptians’ water into blood,
and killed their fish.
30 Their land was overrun by frogs,
which even got into the rooms of their kings.
31 He ordered flies to come;[aj]
gnats invaded their whole territory.
32 He sent hail along with the rain;[ak]
there was lightning in their land.[al]
33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,
and broke the trees throughout their territory.
34 He ordered locusts to come,[am]
innumerable grasshoppers.
35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,
and devoured the crops of their fields.[an]
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power.[ao]
37 He brought his people[ap] out enriched[aq] with silver and gold;
none of his tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt was happy when they left,
for they were afraid of them.[ar]
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,[as]
and provided a fire to light up the night.
40 They asked for food,[at] and he sent quail;
he satisfied them with food from the sky.[au]
41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;
a river ran through dry regions.
42 Yes,[av] he remembered the sacred promise[aw]
he made to Abraham his servant.
43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;
his chosen ones shouted with joy.[ax]
44 He handed the territory of nations over to them,
and they took possession of what other peoples had produced,[ay]
45 so that they might keep his commands
and obey[az] his laws.
Praise the Lord.
Footnotes
- Psalm 105:1 sn Psalm 105. The psalmist summons Israel to praise God because he delivered his people from Egypt in fulfillment of his covenantal promises to Abraham. A parallel version of vv. 1-15 appears in 1 Chr 16:8-22.
- Psalm 105:5 tn Heb “and the judgments of his mouth.”
- Psalm 105:6 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
- Psalm 105:6 tc Some mss have “Israel,” which appears in the parallel version of this psalm in 1 Chr 16:13.
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “sons.”
- Psalm 105:6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:7 tn Heb “in all the earth [are] his judgments.”
- Psalm 105:8 tn Heb “[the] word he commanded.” The text refers here to God’s unconditional covenantal promise to Abraham and the patriarchs, as vv. 10-12 make clear.
- Psalm 105:9 tn Heb “which.”
- Psalm 105:10 tn Or “eternal covenant.”
- Psalm 105:13 tn Heb “and from a kingdom to another nation.”
- Psalm 105:15 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
- Psalm 105:15 tn Heb “anointed.”
- Psalm 105:16 tn Heb “and every staff of food he broke.” The psalmist refers to the famine that occurred in Joseph’s time (see v. 17 and Gen 41:53-57).
- Psalm 105:17 tn After the reference to the famine in v. 16, v. 17 flashes back to events that preceded the famine (see Gen 37).
- Psalm 105:18 tn Heb “they afflicted his feet with shackles.”
- Psalm 105:18 tn Heb “his neck came [into] iron.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with the suffix could mean simply “he” or “his life.” But the nuance “neck” makes good sense here (note the reference to his “feet” in the preceding line). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 38.
- Psalm 105:19 tn Heb “word,” probably referring to Joseph’s prediction about the fate of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker (see Gen 41:9-14).
- Psalm 105:19 tn This line may refer to Joseph’s prediction of the famine in response to Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph emphasized to Pharaoh that the interpretation of the dream came from God (see Gen 41:16, 25, 28, 32, 39).
- Psalm 105:19 tn Heb “refined him.”
- Psalm 105:20 tn Heb “[the] king sent and set him free.”
- Psalm 105:21 tn Heb “he made him master of his house.”
- Psalm 105:22 tn Heb “to bind his officials by his will.”
- Psalm 105:22 tn Heb “and his elders he taught wisdom.”
- Psalm 105:23 tn Heb “entered.”
- Psalm 105:23 tn Heb “lived as a resident foreigner.”
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “him,” referring to “his people.”
- Psalm 105:24 tn Heb “his,” referring to “his people.”
- Psalm 105:25 tn Heb “their heart.”
- Psalm 105:25 tn Or “to deal deceptively.” The Hitpael of נָכַל (nakhal) occurs only here and in Gen 37:18, where it is used of Joseph’s brothers “plotting” to kill him.
- Psalm 105:27 tn Apparently the pronoun refers to “his servants” (i.e., the Israelites, see v. 25).
- Psalm 105:28 tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).
- Psalm 105:28 tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.
- Psalm 105:31 tn Heb “he spoke and flies came.”
- Psalm 105:32 tn Heb “he gave their rains hail.”
- Psalm 105:32 tn Heb “fire of flames [was] in their land.”
- Psalm 105:34 tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”
- Psalm 105:35 tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”
- Psalm 105:36 tn Heb “the beginning of all their strength,” that is, reproductive power (see Ps 78:51).sn Verses 28-36 recall the plagues in a different order than the one presented in Exodus: v. 28 (plague 9), v. 29 (plague 1), v. 30 (plague 2), v. 31a (plague 4), v. 31b (plague 3), vv. 32-33 (plague 7), vv. 34-35 (plague 8), v. 36 (plague 10). No reference is made in Ps 105 to plagues 5 and 6.
- Psalm 105:37 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Lord’s people) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
- Psalm 105:37 tn The word “enriched” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
- Psalm 105:38 tn Heb “for fear of them had fallen upon them.”
- Psalm 105:39 tn Or “curtain.”
- Psalm 105:40 tn Heb “he [i.e., his people] asked.” The singular form should probably be emended to a plural שָׁאֲלוּ (shaʾalu, “they asked”), the ו (vav) having fallen off by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the following form).
- Psalm 105:40 tn Or “bread of heaven.” The reference is to manna (see Exod 16:4, 13-15).
- Psalm 105:42 tn Or “for.”
- Psalm 105:42 tn Heb “his holy word.”
- Psalm 105:43 tn Heb “and he led his people out with joy, with a ringing cry, his chosen ones.”
- Psalm 105:44 tn Heb “and the [product of the] work of peoples they possessed.”
- Psalm 105:45 tn Heb “guard.”
Psalm 105
GOD’S WORD Translation
105 Give thanks to the Lord.
Call on him.
Make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him.
Make music to praise him.
Meditate on all the miracles he has performed.
3 Brag about his holy name.
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Search for the Lord and his strength.
Always seek his presence.
5 Remember the miracles he performed,
the amazing things he did, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 you descendants of his servant Abraham,
you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His judgments are pronounced throughout the earth.
8 He always remembers his promise,[a]
the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the promise that he made to Abraham,
and his sworn oath to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it as a law for Jacob,
as an everlasting promise to Israel,
11 by saying, “I will give you the land of Canaan.
It is your share of the inheritance.”
12 While the people of Israel were few in number,
a small group of foreigners living in that land,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He didn’t permit anyone to oppress them.
He warned kings about them:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones
or harm my prophets.”
16 He brought famine to the land.
He took away their food supply.
17 He sent a man ahead of them.
He sent Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with shackles,
and cut into his neck with an iron collar.
19 The Lord’s promise tested him through fiery trials
until his prediction came true.
20 The king sent someone to release him.
The ruler of nations set him free.
21 He made Joseph the master of his palace
and the ruler of all his possessions.
22 Joseph trained the king’s officers the way he wanted
and taught his respected leaders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came to Egypt.
Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord made his people grow rapidly in number
and stronger than their enemies.
25 He changed their minds so that they hated his people,
and they dealt treacherously with his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses, and he sent Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They displayed his miraculous signs among them
and did amazing things in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made ⌞their land⌟ dark.
They did not rebel against his orders.
29 He turned their water into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 He made their land swarm with frogs,
even in the kings’ bedrooms.
31 He spoke, and swarms of flies and gnats
infested their whole territory.
32 He gave them hail and lightning
instead of rain throughout their land.
33 He struck their grapevines and fig trees
and smashed the trees in their territory.
34 He spoke, and countless locusts and grasshoppers came.
35 They devoured all the plants in the land.
They devoured the crops in the fields.
36 He killed all the firstborn sons,
the first ones born in the land when their fathers were young.
37 He brought Israel out with silver and gold,
and no one among his tribes stumbled.
38 The Egyptians were terrified of Israel,
so they were glad when Israel left.
39 He spread out a cloud as a protective covering
and a fire to light up the night.
40 The Israelites asked, and he brought them quail
and filled them with bread from heaven.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed
and flowed like a river through the dry places.
42 He remembered his holy promise to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with a song of joy.
44 He gave them the lands of ⌞other⌟ nations,
and they inherited what others had worked for
45 so that they would obey his laws
and follow his teachings.
Hallelujah!
Footnotes
- 105:8 Or “covenant.”
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