Mazmur 22:27-30

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ¹ 

Let all the nations ²  worship you! ³ 

22:28 For the Lord is king ⁴ 

and rules over the nations.

22:29 All of the thriving people ⁵  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ⁶ 

all those who are descending into the grave ⁷  will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives. ⁸ 

22:30 A whole generation ⁹  will serve him;

they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 72:8-11

72:8 May he rule ¹¹  from sea to sea, ¹² 

and from the Euphrates River ¹³  to the ends of the earth!

72:9 Before him the coastlands ¹⁴  will bow down,

and his enemies will lick the dust. ¹⁵ 

72:10 The kings of Tarshish ¹⁶  and the coastlands will offer gifts;

the kings of Sheba ¹⁷  and Seba ¹⁸  will bring tribute.

72:11 All kings will bow down to him;

all nations will serve him.

[22:27]  ¹ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ² tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ³ tn Heb “before you.”

[22:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[22:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

[22:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

[22:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

[22:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”

[22:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “offspring.”

[22:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[72:8]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is a (shortened) jussive form, indicating this is a prayer of blessing.

[72:8]  ¹² sn From sea to sea. This may mean from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east. See Amos 8:12. The language of this and the following line also appears in Zech 9:10.

[72:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “the river,” a reference to the Euphrates.

[72:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “islands.” The term here refers metonymically to those people who dwell in these regions.

[72:9]  ¹⁵ sn As they bow down before him, it will appear that his enemies are licking the dust.

[72:10]  ¹⁶ sn Tarshish was a distant western port, the precise location of which is uncertain.

[72:10]  ¹⁷ sn Sheba was located in Arabia.

[72:10]  ¹⁸ sn Seba was located in Africa.