Mazmur 50:2-5

50:2 From Zion, the most beautiful of all places, ¹ 

God comes in splendor. ² 

50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; ³ 

consuming fire goes ahead of him

and all around him a storm rages. ⁴ 

50:4 He summons the heavens above,

as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people. ⁵ 

50:5 He says: ⁶ 

“Assemble my covenant people before me, ⁷ 

those who ratified a covenant with me by sacrifice!” ⁸ 

[50:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”

[50:2]  ² tn Or “shines forth.”

[50:2]  sn Comes in splendor. The psalmist may allude ironically to Deut 33:2, where God “shines forth” from Sinai and comes to superintend Moses’ blessing of the tribes.

[50:3]  ³ tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”

[50:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”

[50:4]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”

[50:4]  sn The personified heavens and earth (see v. 1 as well) are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people (see Isa 1:2). Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

[50:5]  ⁶ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s summons to the defendant follows.

[50:5]  ⁷ tn Or “Gather to me my covenant people.” The Hebrew term חָסִיד (khasid, “covenant people”) elsewhere in the psalms is used in a positive sense of God’s loyal followers (see the note at Ps 4:3), but here, as the following line makes clear, the term has a neutral sense and simply refers to those who have outwardly sworn allegiance to God, not necessarily to those whose loyalty is genuine.

[50:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the cutters of my covenant according to sacrifice.” A sacrifice accompanied the covenant-making ceremony and formally ratified the agreement (see Exod 24:3-8).