Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountains, at Mount Zion, where God has chosen to live, where the Lord himself will live forever?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever.
- KJV Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever.
- BSB Why do you gaze in envy, O mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain God chose for His dwelling, where the LORD will surely dwell forever.
- NKJV Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in; Yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever.
- NASB Why do you look with envy, you mountains of many peaks, At the mountain God has desired as His dwelling? Indeed, the Lord will dwell there forever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The great mountains look in envy at the mountain God chose to dwell in forever. It exalts God's chosen dwelling over all rivals.
Overview
David asks why the rugged mountains look enviously at the more modest hill God chose for His dwelling, where Yahweh will reside forever. God's choice, not natural grandeur, makes a place holy. This points to Zion as God's dwelling, ultimately fulfilled in Christ and the eternal city of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Deut 12:5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come.
- Ps 132:13–14For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation.
- Rev 21:2–3I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
- Heb 12:22–23But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
- Deut 12:11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.
- Isa 2:2It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
- 1 Kgs 9:3Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.
- Ps 114:6You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?
- Ps 87:1–2A Psalm by the sons of Korah; a Song. His foundation is in the holy mountains.
- Ps 114:4The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 68:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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