Psalms 136:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

And gave their land as an inheritance; For his loving kindness endures forever;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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לְנַחֲלָ֑ה

nachălâh

H5159

“to/for · inheritance”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 222× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 31:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5157 (in its usual sense)

TWOT: 1342a

possession, property, inheritance, heritage - property - portion, share - inheritance, portion

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
1 conjunction

Verb forms

וְנָתַ֣ן Qal · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 13 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Psalms 136:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 32:33–42 Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities of it with [their] borders, even the cities of the land round about.
Deuteronomy 3:12–17 This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead, and the cities of it, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites:
Joshua 12:1–7 Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward:
Joshua 13:1–21 Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years; and Yahweh said to him, You are old and well stricken in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.
Nehemiah 9:22–24 Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you did allot after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
Psalms 44:2–3 You drove out the nations with your hand, But you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, But you spread them abroad.
Psalms 78:55 He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Psalms 105:44 He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,

Psalms 135:12 And gave their land for a heritage, A heritage to Israel, his people.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 135 (Hebrew Psalm 136). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 136:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְנָתַ֣ן אַרְצָ֣ם לְנַחֲלָ֑ה כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ

And gave their land as an inheritance; For his loving kindness endures forever;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 135:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί δίδωμι ὁ γῆ αὐτός κληρονομία ὅτι εἰς ὁ αἰών ὁ ἔλεος αὐτός

and gave their land for an inheritance: for his mercy endures for ever:

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 136:21 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Psa 136:21 And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy [endureth] for ever:

Ver. 21. And gave] Psa 135:12 Jos 12:7, he paid them well for their pains, after that he had made use of their sword and service against those sinners against their own souls.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

21. (Psa 136:21) And gave their land as a heritage—for unto eternity (is) his mercy. As a heritage, literally for it. See above, on Psa 135:12.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And gave their land for an heritage,.... This was taken away from them and their subjects by the Lord, who has the disposing of kingdoms, and given to another people, for an inheritance;

for his mercy endureth for ever; while his justice is exercised on some, in a strict manner, with severity and rigour, his mercy is shown to others.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 21. And gave their land for an heritage. As Lord of the whole earth he transferred his estate from one tenant to another. The land did not become the property of the Israelites by their own sword and bow, but by a grant from the throne. This was the great end which all along had been aimed at from Egypt to Jordan. He who brought his people out also brought them in. He who had promised the land to the seed of Abraham also saw to it that the deed of gift did not remain a dead letter. Both our temporal and our spiritual estates come to us by royal charter. What God gives us is ours by the best of titles. Inheritance by God's gift is tenure which even Satan cannot dispute.

For his mercy endureth for ever. Faithful love endures without end, and secures its own end. "Thou wilt surely bring them in", said the prophet poet; and here we see the deed complete.

Till they reach the promised land

Mercy still the same must stand.

Ver. 21.

1. Our portion, a heritage.

2. Our title deed, a royal grant: "And gave."

3. Our praise, due to enduring mercy.

Psalms 136:22*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And gave their land for a Heritage. for (see Psa_135:12) For his mercy, etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

for his covenant faithfulness endures forever

The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated with an adjective. See how you translated this in Psalms 136:1. AT: "because he remains faithful to his covenant forever" (See: Abstract Nouns)

called us to mind

"thought about us"

helped us in our humiliation

The condition of feeling shame is spoken of as if it were a place that the Israelites had been in. This is a reference to the many times when the Israelites' enemies had defeated them in battle and shamed them. AT: "cared when we were shamed" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

inherit

Israel

servant

call

mind

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nachălâh (“inheritance”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “inheritance” (nachălâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Numbers 32:33–42, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וְנָתַ֣ן» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and J. A. Alexander on Psalms read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.