Psalm 89
5
And the heavens shall celebrate thy wonders, Yahweh,
Even thy faithfulness in the muster of the hallows,
6
For who in the sky compareth to Yahweh,
Likeneth to Yahweh in1 the sons of God,
7
A god terrifying in the council of the hallows, abundantly,2
And feared over all around him?
8
Yahweh God of hosts, who is as that thee, strong Yah?
And thy faithfulness around thee?
Footnotes
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in. I.e., among. ↩
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A god terrifying in the council of the hallows, abundantly. Or, “a god causing abundant trembling in the council of the hallows,” or possibly, “a god terrifying in the abundant council of the hallows.” There is some question in my mind about whether rabah, “abundant,” should be attached to the terror of God, or his council. It falls oddly at the end of the verset, as reflected in my translation—far removed from el, “God,” which occurs at the very beginning. The NET reads the latter sense, glossing this as “the great [i.e., abundant] angelic assembly,” which does fit with scripture’s frequent depiction of the heavenly host as being without number. I suspect the ambiguity is intentional, to evoke both possible senses: rabah is doing double-duty to emphasize that despite the abundance of the angelic host, who outnumber God millions to one, a “single Yahweh” is all it takes to cause them abundant trembling. ↩