This verse is the second response of praise addressed to Yahweh, and it concludes the second part of the song. (See verses 6 and 16b-17.) Who is like thee is a rhetorical question, meaning “No other god is like you, LORD” (Translator’s Old Testament). O LORD is vocative as in verse 6. Among the gods refers to other deities as though they existed. The word for gods is the plural form of ʾel, used in verse 2 for “my God.” The form is ʾelim, not ʾelohim. Translators may combine the clause Who is like thee and the phrase among the gods as in Contemporary English Version, “no other gods compare with you” or “Who among the gods is like you?” (Good News Translation).

Who is like thee in the second line repeats the same words for poetic effect. Majestic is the same word used in verse 6 for “glorious,” meaning “magnificent,” “awesome,” or even “causing fear.” The word for holiness normally has the basic meaning of being separate from what is common or profane. (See the comment at 3.5.) In reference to God it is normally that quality that makes God different from humans. In this context, however, it seems to be comparing the LORD, Yahweh, with all the other gods, as in the first line of the verse. In other words, Yahweh is more majestic in holiness than the other gods. The Septuagint supports this interpretation by reading “feared among the holy ones” instead of “majestic in holiness,” meaning that Yahweh is even feared by the other gods. Although this would bring the second line more into parallel relation with the first line, it is not what the Hebrew text really says.

Holiness is difficult to translate because it is used in so many different contexts in the Old Testament. Here the emphasis is not so much on “taboo” or lack of sinfulness, but on God’s separateness from humans and, in this verse, from all other gods. So majestic in holiness may be understood as “wonderful in your power” or “awesome in what you can do.” In bringing out the comparison with the gods in line one, it is even possible to translate this second line as “Who is like you? You are more powerful than they are.” Translators should avoid any term suggesting “taboo,” or even “clean,” “pure,” or “white.”

Terrible in glorious deeds is still part of the second question. Terrible is a participle meaning “one who is feared.” In glorious deeds is one word meaning “in praiseworthy [things].” So Revised English Bible has “worthy of awe and praise.” One may also express this as “You will be feared and praised” or “They [unknown agents] will fear [or, be in awe of] you and praise you.” Doing wonders, literally “doer of [something] extraordinary,” may be translated as “worker of wonders” (New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible), “you perform miracles” (Translator’s Old Testament), or “You perform marvelous acts.” (The word peleʾ is discussed at 3.20.) Good News Translation makes this third line into a third rhetorical question: “Who can work miracles and mighty acts like yours?”

Alternative translation models for this verse are:

Who among the gods are like you, O LORD?
None of them can compare with you,
for you are so powerful and far above them all.
All people will be afraid of you and will praise you,
for you perform such marvelous acts.

O LORD, no other gods can compare with you.
You are more powerful than them all!
They are in awe of you and will praise you,
for you perform marvelous acts!

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .