Psalm 66
The full text of Psalm 66 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.' Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
12 you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will perform my vows to you,
14 that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!
Translation notes (4)
- Psalm 66:6a The verse joins two crossings: the sea recalls the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-22), while nahar, 'river', points to the Jordan (Joshua 3:14-17). The shift to "we rejoiced" places the worshiping generation within those past events, a common move in Israel's liturgical memory (compare Deuteronomy 5:3).
- Psalm 66:11a The Hebrew metsudah (מְצוּדָה) can denote either a hunter's net or a stronghold used as a prison, so the image may be of prey trapped in a snare or of captives shut in a fortress; the Septuagint reads pagida, 'snare'. The word rendered 'crushing burden', mu'aqah, occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible and derives from a root meaning 'to press down'.
- Psalm 66:12a The Hebrew hirkavta enosh lero'shenu is literally 'you made man ride at our head', an image variously understood as conquerors driving over the fallen (compare Isaiah 51:23) or as subjection to human masters. The rendering 'over our heads' follows the Septuagint, which reads 'you set men upon our heads'.
- Psalm 66:15a The Hebrew mechim, 'fatlings', denotes animals specially fattened for choice sacrifice, a rare word occurring only a handful of times in the Masoretic Text. Qetoret, elsewhere ordinarily 'incense', here refers to the smoke rising from the burning rams themselves, an unusual extension of the term.
About this translation
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