Passage

Psalms 97.7

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness, And all the peoples have seen his glory.

7. Let all them be put to shame that serve graven images, That boast themselves of idols: Worship him, all ye gods.

Zion heard and was glad, And the daughters of Judah rejoiced, Because of thy judgments, O Jehovah. 9. For thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods. (Psalms 97:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.

7. Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!

Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of your judgments, Yahweh. 9. For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. (Psalms 97:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.

7. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD. 9. For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. (Psalms 97:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. Hills, like wax, melted before Jehovah, Before the Lord of all the earth. 6. The heavens declared His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His honour.

7. Ashamed are all servants of a graven image, Those boasting themselves in idols, Bow yourselves to him, all ye gods.

Zion hath heard and rejoiceth, And daughters of Judah are joyful, Because of Thy judgments, O Jehovah. 9. For Thou, Jehovah, [art] Most High over all the earth, Greatly Thou hast been exalted over all gods. (Psalms 97:5-9, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: an unnamed psalmist; the psalm has no title in the Hebrew text
Audience: worshipping Israel, with the whole earth summoned to rejoice (97:1)
Location: Israel, in the worship of the temple
Time period: not datable. The psalm belongs to the group that celebrates Jehovah as King (Psalms 93 and 95-99), several of which open "Jehovah reigneth" (93:1; 97:1; 99:1).

Theological reading

"Let all them be put to shame that serve graven images, That boast themselves of idols: Worship him, all ye gods." Jehovah has appeared in cloud, fire and lightning (97:2-5), and "The heavens declare his righteousness, And all the peoples have seen his glory" (97:6). The verse draws the consequence for idol worship.

Shame for idolaters. Those who "serve (Strong's H5647) graven images (H6459)" and "boast (H1984) themselves of idols (H457)" are put to shame (H954). The word for idols, elilim, sounds like elohim and carries the sense of worthless things. Psalm 96:5 uses the same wordplay: "For all the gods of the peoples are idols; But Jehovah made the heavens."

"Worship him, all ye gods." The command uses the ordinary verb for bowing down in worship (H7812). The "gods" (H430, elohim) may be the heavenly beings around God's throne or the gods of the nations; either way they are summoned to bow to the one King. The Greek Old Testament reads "Worship him, all his angels." The psalm states the point plainly two verses later: "thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods" (97:9).

Hebrews 1:6. "And let all the angels of God worship him" (Hebrews 1:6) stands close to the Greek of this verse and to the longer Greek text of Deuteronomy 32:43. In both Old Testament texts the one to be worshipped is Jehovah, and Hebrews applies the line to the Son. Jehovah's Witnesses translate the verb there as "do obeisance," since proskyneo can mean bowing before a human superior (Matthew 18:26). The Old Testament source shows which sense Hebrews intends: it is a summons to bow before Jehovah himself, and Hebrews follows it with "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Hebrews 1:8). See Jehovah's Witnesses vs the Christian God.

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
TBD
TBD
TBD

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

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.