CHAPTER 12

                 ¹And you shall say on that day:

                     I acclaim You, O LORD, though You raged against me,

                         Your wrath has withdrawn and You comforted me.

                 ²Look, God is my deliverance,

                     I trust and fear not.

                 For my strength and my power is Jah,

                     and He became my deliverance.

                 ³And you shall draw water joyously

                     from the springs of deliverance.

                         ⁴And you shall say on that day:

                             “Acclaim the LORD, call upon His name.

                 Make known His feats to the people,

                     proclaim that His name is exalted.

                 ⁵Hymn to the LORD for He has wrought proudly,

                     be it known through all the earth.

                 ⁶Shout loud, sing gladly, Zion’s dweller,

                     for great in your midst is Israel’s Holy One.”

CHAPTER 12 NOTES

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1. I acclaim You, O LORD. The language of this poem from the very beginning recalls the common formulas of the psalms of thanksgiving. The one important difference is that the thanksgiving psalms are usually recited by, or on behalf of, an individual—for example, after recovery from a grave illness—whereas in this poem the thanksgiving is collective or national. The editorial justification for inserting such a psalm at this point is that it comes immediately after the prophecy of national renewal and regeneration in chapter 11.

2. my power. This translation follows the scholarly consensus that zimrah means “power” or “might” and is a homonym for the more common word that means “song” or “hymn.” It must be said, however, that in thanksgiving psalms the root z-m-r, which appears quite frequently, always has the sense of song. This entire line is a verbatim quotation from the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:2), which is appropriate because the earlier text is one of the great poetic celebrations of national triumph through God’s aid.

3. the springs of deliverance. Water sources are always precious in this arid region, as we are reminded in Exodus by the bringing forth of water from the rock for the thirsty people. However, this vivid poetic coinage—“the springs of deliverance”—is original to this text.

5. be it known through all the earth. This is a recurrent theme in biblical literature: God’s powerful intervention in history on behalf of the people of Israel is a manifestation of His supreme dominion over all things, and the peoples of all the earth take note of it.