The house of God … the territory that he possesses refers here to the created universe. The territory that he possesses is literally “the place of his possession.” It does not necessarily refer to land. (The Greek word for “possession” is the word of disputed meaning in verse 17, translated “getting” by Revised Standard Version.) The point of the verse is simple: God dwells in the universe he created and it is enormous, as the next verse emphasizes.

The two lines of this verse are very similar in meaning, and for translators who will not render this as poetry, the lines may be combined as follows:

• People of Israel, the universe that God has created and lives in is huge.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.