Passage

Psalms 36.5

Book: Psalms · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: He hath ceased to be wise and to do good. 4. He deviseth iniquity upon his bed; He setteth himself in a way that is not good; He abhorreth not evil."

"5. Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens; Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the skies."

"6. Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast. 7. How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings." (Psalms 36:3-7, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. 4. He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil."

"5. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies."

"6. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal. 7. How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings." (Psalms 36:3-7, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good. 4. He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil. ^{mischief: or, vanity}"

"5. Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds."

"6. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. ^{the: Heb. the mountains of God} 7. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. ^{excellent: Heb. precious}" (Psalms 36:3-7, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"3. The words of his mouth [are] iniquity and deceit, He ceased to act prudently, to do good. 4. Iniquity he deviseth on his bed, He stationeth himself on a way not good, Evil he doth not refuse.'"

"5. O Jehovah, in the heavens [is] Thy kindness, Thy faithfulness [is] unto the clouds."

"6. Thy righteousness [is] as mountains of God, Thy judgments [are] a great deep. Man and beast Thou savest, O Jehovah. 7. How precious [is] Thy kindness, O God, And the sons of men In the shadow of Thy wings do trust." (Psalms 36:3-7, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: David
Audience: Israel in corporate worship; reader as worshipper
Location: Jerusalem temple liturgy tradition
Time period: Davidic monarchy (c. 1010-970 BC)

Theological reading

Psalm 36:5 is one of the most cosmically scaled emunah-doxologies in the Psalter. After describing the moral collapse of the wicked (vv. 1-4), David pivots to YHWH's hesed and emunah, picturing them as reaching from earth to the heavens and the skies. The vertical-cosmic scale matters: the believer's confidence is in attributes that exceed the bounds of the visible creation. The parallelism of [[H2617 - hesed|hesed]] (covenant loyalty) and [[H0530 - emunah|emunah]] (faithfulness) names the twin pillars of God's covenantal character, the loyal love and the trustworthy reliability that together ground the believer's refuge (v. 7). The verse appears in the Te Deum liturgical tradition.

Key words

H0530 - emunah, emunah
H2617 - hesed, hesed

Quoted in

H0530 - emunah

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.