Psalm 116
The full text of Psalm 116 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
'O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!'
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
'I am greatly afflicted';
11 I said in my alarm,
'All mankind are liars.'
12 What shall I render to the LORD
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
Translation notes (4)
- Psalm 116:10a The Hebrew he'emanti ki adabber is difficult, since ki may mean 'when', 'though', or 'therefore'. The Septuagint renders it 'I believed, therefore I spoke', and Paul quotes that Greek form in 2 Corinthians 4:13. The translation above takes ki as concessive: faith held firm even while the psalmist voiced his affliction.
- Psalm 116:11a The Hebrew kol-ha'adam kozev (כָּל־הָאָדָם כֹּזֵב) uses a participle of kazav, 'to lie' or 'to fail', a verb applied elsewhere to a stream that dries up (Isaiah 58:11); the charge may be unreliability rather than deliberate deceit. The psalmist speaks bechofzi, 'in my haste' or 'alarm', marking the words as a verdict uttered under distress.
- Psalm 116:13a Hebrew kos yeshu'ot (כּוֹס יְשׁוּעוֹת) is literally 'cup of salvations', an intensive plural. The image likely reflects the drink offering that accompanied a thanksgiving sacrifice (compare Numbers 28:7), so the psalmist raises the cup publicly as an act of grateful worship. This psalm belongs to the Hallel sung at Passover, which gave the cup lasting liturgical significance.
- Psalm 116:15a Yaqar (יָקָר), 'precious', can also mean 'costly' or 'weighty', as in Psalm 72:14, where the blood of the needy is precious in God's sight. The sense is not that the LORD delights in the death of his faithful but that he does not regard it lightly; their lives are of such value that he will not surrender them cheaply, a reading confirmed by the psalmist's deliverance in the following verse.
About this translation
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