Mazmur 105:23-45

105:23 Israel moved to ¹  Egypt;

Jacob lived for a time ²  in the land of Ham.

105:24 The Lord ³  made his people very fruitful,

and made them ⁴  more numerous than their ⁵  enemies.

105:25 He caused them ⁶  to hate his people,

and to mistreat ⁷  his servants.

105:26 He sent his servant Moses,

and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

105:27 They executed his miraculous signs among them, ⁸ 

and his amazing deeds in the land of Ham.

105:28 He made it dark; ⁹ 

they did not disobey his orders. ¹⁰ 

105:29 He turned their water into blood,

and killed their fish.

105:30 Their land was overrun by frogs,

which even got into the rooms of their kings.

105:31 He ordered flies to come; ¹¹ 

gnats invaded their whole territory.

105:32 He sent hail along with the rain; ¹² 

there was lightning in their land. ¹³ 

105:33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,

and broke the trees throughout their territory.

105:34 He ordered locusts to come, ¹⁴ 

innumerable grasshoppers.

105:35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,

and devoured the crops of their fields. ¹⁵ 

105:36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,

the firstfruits of their reproductive power. ¹⁶ 

105:37 He brought his people ¹⁷  out enriched ¹⁸  with silver and gold;

none of his tribes stumbled.

105:38 Egypt was happy when they left,

for they were afraid of them. ¹⁹ 

105:39 He spread out a cloud for a cover, ²⁰ 

and provided a fire to light up the night.

105:40 They asked for food, ²¹  and he sent quails;

he satisfied them with food from the sky. ²² 

105:41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;

a river ran through dry regions.

105:42 Yes, ²³  he remembered the sacred promise ²⁴ 

he made to Abraham his servant.

105:43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;

his chosen ones shouted with joy. ²⁵ 

105:44 He handed the territory of nations over to them,

and they took possession of what other peoples had produced, ²⁶ 

105:45 so that they might keep his commands

and obey ²⁷  his laws.

Praise the Lord!

[105:23]  ¹ tn Heb “entered.”

[105:23]  ² tn Heb “lived as a resident alien.”

[105:24]  ³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[105:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “him,” referring to “his people.”

[105:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “his,” referring to “his people.”

[105:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “their heart.”

[105:25]  ⁷ 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.

[105:27]  ⁸ tn Apparently the pronoun refers to “his servants” (i.e., the Israelites, see v. 25).

[105:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”

[105:28]  sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).

[105:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.

[105:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he spoke and flies came.”

[105:32]  ¹² tn Heb “he gave their rains hail.”

[105:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “fire of flames [was] in their land.”

[105:34]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”

[105:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”

[105:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the beginning of all their strength,” that is, reproductive power (see Ps 78:51).

[105:36]  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.

[105:37]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Lord’s people) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[105:37]  ¹⁸ tn The word “enriched” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[105:38]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for fear of them had fallen upon them.”

[105:39]  ²⁰ tn Or “curtain.”

[105:40]  ²¹ tn Heb “he [i.e., his people] asked.” The singular form should probably be emended to a plural שָׁאֲלוּ (sha’alu, “they asked”), the vav (ו) having fallen off by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the following form).

[105:40]  ²² tn Or “bread of heaven.” The reference is to manna (see Exod 16:4, 13-15).

[105:42]  ²³ tn Or “for.”

[105:42]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his holy word.”

[105:43]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he led his people out with joy, with a ringing cry, his chosen ones.”

[105:44]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the [product of the] work of peoples they possessed.”

[105:45]  ²⁷ tn Heb “guard.”