Psalm 68
The full text of Psalm 68 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. A psalm of David. A song.
1 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
2 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire,
so the wicked shall perish before God!
3 But the righteous shall be glad;
they shall exult before God;
they shall be jubilant with joy!
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the LORD;
exult before him!
5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
6 God settles the solitary in a home;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
7 O God, when you went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness, Selah
8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad;
you restored your inheritance when it languished;
10 your flock found a dwelling in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.
11 The Lord gives the word;
the women who announce the news are a great host:
12 "The kings of the armies—they flee, they flee!"
The women at home divide the spoil—
13 though you men lie among the sheepfolds—
the wings of a dove covered with silver,
its pinions with shimmering gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings there,
let snow fall on Zalmon.
15 O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;
O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
16 Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,
at the mount that God desired for his abode,
yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?
17 The chariots of God are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands;
the Lord is among them; Sinai is in the sanctuary.
18 You ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.
19 Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation. Selah
20 Our God is a God of salvation,
and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.
21 But God will strike the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.
22 The Lord said,
"I will bring them back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
23 that you may strike your feet in their blood,
that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe."
24 Your procession is seen, O God,
the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—
25 the singers in front, the musicians last,
between them virgins playing tambourines:
26 "Bless God in the great congregation,
the LORD, O you who are of Israel's fountain!"
27 There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,
the princes of Judah in their throng,
the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
28 Summon your power, O God,
the power, O God, that you have worked for us.
29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem
kings shall bear gifts to you.
30 Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds,
the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.
Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute;
scatter the peoples who delight in war.
31 Nobles shall come from Egypt;
Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.
32 O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;
sing praises to the Lord, Selah
33 to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens;
behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.
34 Ascribe power to God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
and whose power is in the skies.
35 Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!
Translation notes (9)
- Psalm 68:4a The Hebrew word ba'aravot means "through the steppes/deserts" or "upon the clouds" (compare with the Ugaritic phrase rkb 'rpt, meaning "Cloud-rider").
- Psalm 68:6a The Hebrew bakkosharot (בַּכּוֹשָׁרוֹת), rendered here as 'to prosperity', occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible; the Septuagint took it as en andreia, 'with courage', and some relate it to a root meaning singing. The closing contrast sets sorerim, 'the rebellious', in tsechichah, 'a parched land', a word likewise rare, over against the prisoners God brings out.
- Psalm 68:11a Hebrew hamevasserot (הַמְבַשְּׂרוֹת), 'the women bringing news', is a feminine plural participle, indicating female heralds who proclaim victory. The image reflects the custom of women greeting a triumphant army with song, as Miriam did at the sea (Exodus 15:20-21) and as the women did after David slew the Philistine (1 Samuel 18:6-7).
- Psalm 68:13a This verse is extremely difficult to translate; it possibly refers to an image on plundered treasure, or it could be a metaphor for Israel's renewed beauty.
- Psalm 68:14a Tsalmon (צַלְמוֹן), a name apparently derived from a root meaning 'dark' or 'shaded', designates a mountain otherwise known only from Judges 9:48, near Shechem. The image is famously obscure; the likeliest sense is that the fleeing kings, or their abandoned arms, whitened the dark mountain like a sudden snowfall.
- Psalm 68:18a The Hebrew reads laqachta mattanot ba'adam, literally 'you received gifts among men'. When Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4:8 he has 'gave gifts to men', a reading also found in the Targum and the Syriac Peshitta, which understood the conqueror as distributing the spoils of his victory. The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint both retain 'received'.
- Psalm 68:22a Bashan, the high plateau east of the Jordan, and metsulot yam, 'the depths of the sea', mark opposite extremes of height and depth from which no fugitive escapes God. Mitchell Dahood connected Bashan with the Ugaritic bathnu, 'serpent', reading the pair as mythic monsters of land and sea, though the geographic interpretation remains the more widely held view.
- Psalm 68:30a The Hebrew chayyat qaneh (חַיַּת קָנֶה), literally 'beast of the reed', is widely understood as a figure for Egypt, evoking the hippopotamus or crocodile of the Nile marshes; the mention of Egypt and Cush in the following verse supports this identification. The verse's Hebrew is notoriously difficult, and the clause on tribute has been construed in several ways since antiquity.
- Psalm 68:31a The Hebrew chashmannim (חַשְׁמַנִּים), rendered here as 'Nobles', occurs only in this verse; the Septuagint understood it as presbeis, 'ambassadors', and some propose articles of tribute such as bronze wares. Cush designates the Nile region south of Egypt, ancient Nubia, so the pair depicts the farthest known southern powers submitting to God.
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