ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Psalms 149.2

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV
  1. Praise ye Jehovah. Sing unto Jehovah a new song, And his praise in the assembly of the saints.

2. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

  1. Let them praise his name in the dance: Let them sing praises unto him with timbrel and harp. 4. For Jehovah taketh pleasure in his people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalms 149:1-4, ASV)
WEB
  1. Praise Yahweh! Sing to Yahweh a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.

2. Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

  1. Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp! 4. For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation. (Psalms 149:1-4, WEB)
KJV
  1. Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Praise: Heb. Halleluiah

2. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

  1. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. in: or, with the pipe 4. For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalms 149:1-4, KJV)
YLT
  1. Praise ye Jah! Sing ye to Jehovah a new song, His praise in an assembly of saints.

2. Israel doth rejoice in his Maker, Sons of Zion do joy in their king.

  1. They praise His name in a dance, With timbrel and harp sing praise to Him. 4. For Jehovah is pleased with His people, He beautifieth the humble with salvation. (Psalms 149:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: the psalmist; the psalm carries no attribution
  • Audience: Israel gathered in worship; the Psalter is the congregation's book
  • Location: the sanctuary and its liturgy, rather than a narrative setting
  • Time period: the monarchy or later; individual psalms are difficult to date and the Psalter was compiled over centuries

Theological reading

Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

Two titles in one verse, and the pairing is the psalm's argument. God is Israel's maker, which is creation language applied to a people rather than to the world, and their king, which is covenant and political language.

Calling God Israel's maker rather than the world's is a deliberate narrowing. The nation is spoken of as a thing formed, which is the same move Isaiah makes in speaking of the one who formed Israel from the womb, and it grounds national identity in an act of God rather than in descent or achievement.

The psalm goes on to the difficult material of the two-edged sword and the executing of judgment on the nations, and the juxtaposition with dancing and tambourines is jarring by design. It belongs with the imprecatory strand and should be handled with the same care as Psalm 109.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

  • TBD
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Quoted in

Concepts:

People:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.