TheBibleNet: Psalm 15

Psalms:

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Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

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Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles

Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language

Psalm 15

Is this the shortest of them all? Surprisingly, no, it isn't.

15:1 MIZMOR LE DAVID YHVH MI YAGUR BE AHALECHA MI YISHKON BE HAR KADSHECHA

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהֹוָה מִי יָגוּר בְּאָהֳלֶךָ מִי יִשְׁכֹּן בְּהַר קָדְשֶׁךָ

KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm of David.) LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

BN (BibleNet translation): A Psalm to David. YHVH, who shall inhabit your tabernacle? Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?

Title, or title and verse? Should this be split into 2 verses?

15:2 HOLECH TAMIM U PO'EL TSEDEK VE DOVER EMET BI LEVAVO

הוֹלֵךְ תָּמִים וּפֹעֵל צֶדֶק וְדֹבֵר אֱמֶת בִּלְבָבוֹ

KJ: He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

BN: He who walks an upright path, and makes justice manifest in his actions, and speaks the truth in his heart.

PO'EL: The most active of all active verbs - it is the term used to define and describe all verbs, because verbs are actions, and PO'EL means "action" - click here. So this is about doing, and meaning it - Kavanah is the other term regularly employed for this.

15:3 LO RAGAL AL LESHONO LO ASAH LE RE'EHU RA'AH VE CHERPAH LO NAS'A AL KEROVO

לֹא רָגַל עַל לְשֹׁנוֹ לֹא עָשָׂה לְרֵעֵהוּ רָעָה וְחֶרְפָּה לֹא נָשָׂא עַל קְרֹבוֹ

KJ: He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

BN: He who does not kick with his tongue, who does not act wickedly towards his neighbour, nor turn matters into grudges with his kinsmen.

RAGAL: A Regel is a foot, or the whole leg. Since one cannot literally kick with the tongue, this is obviously an idiom. But a REGEL is also a "rule", and famously the confusion between legs and rules can be found in the tale of Rabbi Hillel, who was asked by one of his merchant followers to tell him how to be a good Jew "be regel echad", because he didn't have time both to study and to manage his affairs. Hillel's answer, for the information, was Leviticus 19:18 - if you can find the time, look it up for yourself while standing on one leg: it's a very simple rule and remarkably easy to follow, though serious students might like to research the two very different explanations that Hillel gave of it, one entirely positive, the other reverse-negative.

RE'EHU RA'AH: Sound-games as well as word-games. Reysh-Ayin-Heh in both cases - usually the latter comes without the final Heh, but see Genesis 19:19, or 44:4, where it is feminine plural. Many others.

RE'EHU...KEROVO: Two words of very similar meaning. The first is connected with sheep and pasturing, and a shepherd is a RO'EH (YHVH too, very famously, in Psalm 23); but a "close companion" would also be a RO'EH, or a RO'AH perhaps, if you were dating - though Proverbs 18:24 does make a very clear distinction. KAROV means "near", so a family-member who lives miles away, or someone from a different family who lives next-door.

15:4 NIVZEH BE EYNAV NIM'AS VE ET YIR'EY YHVH YECHABED NISHBA LEHARA VE LO YAMIR

נִבְזֶה בְּעֵינָיו נִמְאָס וְאֶת יִרְאֵי יְהוָה יְכַבֵּד נִשְׁבַּע לְהָרַע וְלֹא יָמִר

KJ: In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

BN: He who despises one who rejects YHVH, and honours those who fear YHVH. {N} He who stands by his own pledges, refusing to change them, even to his own detriment.

NIVZEH: As Esav "despised" his birthright, in Genesis 25:34.

NIM'AS: In modern Ivrit "Nim'as li" is the slang expression most used when a person is "fed up with" or even "sick to death of" something. The root is MA'AS, which has the sense of things "melting" or "flowing away", so it is not obvious how this came to be used for "rejected"; but accepted as "rejected" it is, in Leviticus 26:15 and 43, in Numbers 11:20 and 14:31, in Judges 9:38... et al. But note how the KJ translations of those links switch between "despised" and "rejected", as though NIVZEH and NIM'AS were synonyms. I have picked that up in my translation, extending my translation beyond the given words, because I think this is the intention; and the second half of the phrase endorses that reading.

The second part of this verse is even more abstruse. Word by word it simply does not make sense: YECHABED (he honours) NISHBA (he who swears an oath) LEHARA (to his own sin) VE (and) LO (does not) YAMIR (change or exchange). If it is our man, the answer to the question in verse 2, then no problem: we have been given the things he rejects and the things he accepts, and we are now told that he is unwavering in his consistency in these matters. No problem. But the order of the words infers that the non-changing applies to another man altogether, one he is honouring because he "swears an oath to his own sins"; but what does that mean anyway? Is he owning up, swearing on the Bible as in court? Good if he is - but then he surely needs to change his ways as well, and stop doing whatever he has admitted to. There are about two thousand years' worth of argument and debate over this verse, and especially this part of this verse; to get the flavour of it, click here, and then follow some of its links and references.

For myself, I tend to the same position that Sefaria has reached in its translation, "for whom a contemptible man is abhorrent, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who stands by his oath even to his hurt". It recognises LEHARA as meaning something slightly different than "his own sin", which would be "LA RA'TO"; though I think the real key lies in the word YAMIR, and I recommend a close look at YIGDAL, which uses YAMIR in exactly the same Biblical context that we have discussed NIVZEH and NIM'AS, and from which I reached my extended translation to that: "לֹא יַחֲלִיף הָאֵל וְלֹא יָמִיר דָּתוֹ לְעוֹלָמִים לְזוּלָתוֹ - LO YACHALIYPH HA EL VE LO YAMIR DATO LE OLAMIM LE ZULATO - He will never alter the divine law or exchange it for another, forever and ever."

15:5 KASPO LO NATAN BE NESHECH VE SOCHAD AL NAKI LO LAKACH OSEH ELEH LO YIMOT LE OLAM

כַּסְפּוֹ לֹא נָתַן בְּנֶשֶׁךְ וְשֹׁחַד עַל נָקִי לֹא לָקָח עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה לֹא יִמּוֹט לְעוֹלָם

KJ: He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

BN: He who does not lend money at interest, nor take bribes against the innocent. {N} He who does these things shall never be brought down. {P}

YIMOT: See my note to Psalm 13:5.

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