Psalms:
Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
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
Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
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
16:1 MICHTAM LE DAVID SHAMRENI EL KI CHASITI VACH
מִכְתָּם לְדָוִד שָׁמְרֵנִי אֵל כִּי חָסִיתִי בָךְ
KJ (King James translation): (Michtam of David.) Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
BN (BibleNet translation): A Michtam for David. Look after me, Lord El, for I have taken refuge in you.
Once again, the title needs separating from the verse.
Once again, the title needs separating from the verse.
MICHTAM: See my notes in the introduction to this book (or to save you the trouble: no one has a clue what it means, but my paragraph there gives the speculations and possibilities).
EL: Hard to imagine David writing a Psalm to El! Clearly yet another traditional Kena'ani (Canaanite) hymn, borrowed, adapted, by the later Yisra-Elim (just as Christianity has done in creating its hymnal).
EL: Hard to imagine David writing a Psalm to El! Clearly yet another traditional Kena'ani (Canaanite) hymn, borrowed, adapted, by the later Yisra-Elim (just as Christianity has done in creating its hymnal).
16:2 AMART LA YHVH ADONAI ATAH TOVATI BAL ALEYCHA
אָמַרְתְּ לַיהוָה אֲדֹנָי אָתָּה טוֹבָתִי בַּל עָלֶיךָ
KJ: O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
BN (provisional translation): You said to YHVH: "You are my Lord; nothing good happens to me, except what comes from you".
AMART: Why not AMARTI, to make it properly grammatical - if this is by David, then it has to be in the first person? KJ recognises the problem, and evades it by adding "O my soul", which allows David to use the second person. But why not take the text as written, and assume that it is properly grammatical, and translate it correctly: "You (feminine) said to YHVH..."?
YHVH: This is the deity to whom we would expect David to address a Psalm. Why was verse 1 not altered or removed? We can only assume it was because, in spite of our CE belief system, both Jewish and Christian, the Davidic era was still decidedly polytheistic, and in all likelihood he did follow El as much as he followed Yah, El Elyon and YHVH. Other gods and goddesses too, as we shall see as we progress through these Psalms.
YHVH ADONAI: Most modern Jews decline to pronounce the name YHVH as written, preferring to address him by his epithet, which is ... Adonai. But with a verse like this...
I have chosen to close the quotation marks at the end of the line, but there is a case to be made that only "You are my Lord" belongs inside them, and an equally good case for placing everything that follows in quotes, to the end of verse 4.
16:3 LIKDOSHIM ASHER BA ARETS HEMAH VE ADIYREY KOL CHEPHTSI VAM
16:3 LIKDOSHIM ASHER BA ARETS HEMAH VE ADIYREY KOL CHEPHTSI VAM
לִקְדוֹשִׁים אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ הֵמָּה וְאַדִּירֵי כָּל חֶפְצִי בָם
KJ: But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
BN (provisional translation): As for the holy that are on the Earth, they are the men and women of excellence in whom I take all my delight.
Am I correct in hearing the name Chephtsi-Vah (Hephsibah) here? Click on her name for details of the person; click here for the explanation of the name. The key to all this lies in the seeming conflict between Isaiah 62:4 and 2 Kings 21:1, where one is an adjectival description, but the other a person's name. The two passages belong together, because Yesha-Yah lived at the time of Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah), Chephtsi-Vah's king and husband, even prophecied the coming to the throne of Chizki-Yah to the Moloch-worshipping Achaz (Isaiah 7:14), and he plays with the Bal of verse 2 repeatedly, word-gaming with Ba'al as the "pagan" equivalent of YHVH, and Ba'al as the word for "husband" - see for example Isaiah 54:1 and 6.
Am I correct in hearing the name Chephtsi-Vah (Hephsibah) here? Click on her name for details of the person; click here for the explanation of the name. The key to all this lies in the seeming conflict between Isaiah 62:4 and 2 Kings 21:1, where one is an adjectival description, but the other a person's name. The two passages belong together, because Yesha-Yah lived at the time of Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah), Chephtsi-Vah's king and husband, even prophecied the coming to the throne of Chizki-Yah to the Moloch-worshipping Achaz (Isaiah 7:14), and he plays with the Bal of verse 2 repeatedly, word-gaming with Ba'al as the "pagan" equivalent of YHVH, and Ba'al as the word for "husband" - see for example Isaiah 54:1 and 6.
All of which compels us to reconsider the use of BAL in verse 2, and then to register that verse 2 needs three dots at the end, not a full stop, because LIKDOSHIM at the start of verse 3 is a preposition-and-dative, which can't begin a sentence, and therefore renders my translation as incorrect as the KJ's.
BN (retranslation of verses 2 and 3, combined):
You said to YHVH: "Lord, you are my well-being;
without you nothing good takes place
to me or to the holy ones who inhabit the Earth;
to them
and to all those in whom you delight."
and then, is the AMART intended as a further reference to the queen; and it is she, Cheptsi-Vah the person, who is being quoted?
and then, is MICHTAM indeed an adornment, an item to be treasured, and this a Psalm that has been written as a homage-gift for the queen, the only gift a poet has, where a jeweller might have made her a diamond brooch, or a gardener restocked her garden with Hephsibah roses?
16:4 YIRBU ATSVOTAM ACHER MAHARU BAL ASIYCH NISKEYHEM MI DAM U VAL ES'E ET SHEMOTAM AL SEPHATAI
יִרְבּוּ עַצְּבוֹתָם אַחֵר מָהָרוּ בַּל אַסִּיךְ נִסְכֵּיהֶם מִדָּם וּבַל אֶשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹתָם עַל שְׂפָתָי
KJ: Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
BN (literal translation): Let the troubles of those who hurry be increased, lest I should take up their drink-offerings made of blood, and lest I take up their names on my lips.
Most translators assume (quite correctly) that the "hurrying" is towards other gods, and therefore add the word; but I think the poet has left it out deliberately, because it is there, twice, homophonously, as BAL, "lest", and the subtlety is undermined by stating it: and anyway, as per the rest of the verse, he does not want the name on his lips, so he can't say it. If I were trying to find an equivalent in English, allowing mysef to be creative rather than translating the given text, I would make a play on the word "idol" by having "the troubles of these idle people multiplied", or something of the sort (I'm trying to find a better pun, but I'm having a devil of a time finding a good one).
Most translators assume (quite correctly) that the "hurrying" is towards other gods, and therefore add the word; but I think the poet has left it out deliberately, because it is there, twice, homophonously, as BAL, "lest", and the subtlety is undermined by stating it: and anyway, as per the rest of the verse, he does not want the name on his lips, so he can't say it. If I were trying to find an equivalent in English, allowing mysef to be creative rather than translating the given text, I would make a play on the word "idol" by having "the troubles of these idle people multiplied", or something of the sort (I'm trying to find a better pun, but I'm having a devil of a time finding a good one).
16:5 YHVH MENAT CHELKI VE CHOSI ATAH TOMICH GORALI
יְהוָה מְנָת חֶלְקִי וְכוֹסִי אַתָּה תּוֹמִיךְ גּוֹרָלִי
BN: YHVH gives me my place in the world, and fills my cup. You maintain my lot.
MENAT CHOSI is quoted in the hymn Adon Olam (written as M'nat kosi at the link), a hymn very much in the same tone and intention as this Psalm.
MENAT CHOSI is quoted in the hymn Adon Olam (written as M'nat kosi at the link), a hymn very much in the same tone and intention as this Psalm.
CHELKI...GORALI: Go back to Torah and the Book of Joshua for this. Sometimes the land of Kena'an is the "promised" land, sometimes "divided" (CHELKI here) between the tribes as their "inheritance" (GORALI here), but sometimes "inheritance" is "NACHALAH" - see for example Numbers 33:54. Exactly what were the intended differences between these seeming synonyms is impossible to know, but at least we can identify the same word-play taking place here, and understand that these are how the ancients denoted what we might call "fate and destiny".
TAMACH: "Hold fast", "sustain", "maintain" - the role of Vishnu in the Hindu trimurti.
16:6 CHAVALIM NAPHLU LI BA NE'IMIM APH NACHALAT SHAPHRAH ALAI
16:6 CHAVALIM NAPHLU LI BA NE'IMIM APH NACHALAT SHAPHRAH ALAI
חֲבָלִים נָפְלוּ לִי בַּנְּעִמִים אַף נַחֲלָת שָׁפְרָה עָלָי
KJ: The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
BN: The lines are fallen for me in pleasant places; I have indeed been most fortunate with the lot I have been allotted.
CHAVALIM: Did I really say "fate and destiny" in my comments on the last verse? In which case, are the lines here in fact the "palm-lines", the palms of the hand, though the palm trees make for pleasant places too. And if I am wrong (even only slightly, which is "not such a lot")? Well, as they say in modern Ivrit: "CHAVAL" - what a shame! See the link for the word-games behind my word-games, based on the ones being played (no, that should be "plaid") here.
16:7 AVARECH ET YHVH ASHER YE'ATSANI APH LAILOT YISRUNI CHILYOTAI
אֲבָרֵךְ אֶת יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר יְעָצָנִי אַף לֵילוֹת יִסְּרוּנִי כִלְיוֹתָי
KJ: I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
BN: I will kneel before YHVH, who has given me counsel; even at night he is there to teach and to admonish me.
AVARECH: Could be translated either my way or the KJ's, as both concepts stem from the same verbal root.
YE'ATSANI: "Advice" and "counsel" in most of its usages; however, and I could have predicted this, see Numbers 24:14 and Isaiah 41:28.
APH LAILOT: Because the sun has long gone down by night-time; and yet, such is its power, the after-impact can stay with you... all the way to sunrise.
YISRUNI: Other than in the Psalms, where it appears to mean "teach" and "instruct", the root YASAR is always used for "chastising" and "admonishing" - though of course these could be the same thing.
CHILYOTAI: Where KJ gets "reins" from is beyond me. Other translators go for "heart" or "mind", but the gut-truth of this is that the KELAYOT are the kidneys - see Exodus 29:13 and 22. But then look at Jeremiah 11:20 (or 17:10, or 20:12), where the kidneys become what D.L Lawrence insisted was the "solar plexus", the deepest, inmost portion of our being (I think our Psalmist would have called it the "lunar plexus"). Today we would probably speak about the diaphragm rather than the kidney - for singers, for example, singing "from the diaphragm".
But then, wait a minute, didn't we have CHELAYOT in Psalm 7? At verse 10, to be precise? And didn't we translate it, just as KJ did, as "reins"? And it seemed to make perfect sense in that context - though actually the translation at Sefaria makes even more sense - click here.
16:8 SHIVIYTI YHVH LE NEGDI TAMID KI MIY'MINI BAL EMOT
שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה לְנֶגְדִּי תָמִיד כִּי מִימִינִי בַּל אֶמּוֹט
KJ: I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
BN: I have set YHVH permanently before me; when he is at my right hand, I shall not falter.
MIY'MINI: The "right hand", as in the tribe of Bin-Yamin, as in the seat taken by the Earth-god when he takes the throne of the Dauphin next to his father (Mark 16:19).
EMOT: The third occurrence of this, though the other two were not in this Psalm - see 10:6 and 13:4.
16:9 LACHEN SAMACH LIBI VA YAGEL KEVODI APH BESARI YISHKON LA VETACH
לָכֵן שָׂמַח לִבִּי וַיָּגֶל כְּבוֹדִי אַף בְּשָׂרִי יִשְׁכֹּן לָבֶטַח
KJ: Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
BN: Therefore my heart is glad, and my name is held in high repute; my body too is safe and secure;
YAGEL KEVODI: How does "glory" rejoice? KAVOD can also be "honour", and the root, GIYL, has to do with things turning in circles, or being circular, like the shrine at Gil-Gal - it comes to mean "rejoice" because of the circle-dances that were performed, alongside these very Psalms, at the celebratory ceremonies in the Temple (and previously at the shrines of the other deities).
YAGEL KEVODI: How does "glory" rejoice? KAVOD can also be "honour", and the root, GIYL, has to do with things turning in circles, or being circular, like the shrine at Gil-Gal - it comes to mean "rejoice" because of the circle-dances that were performed, alongside these very Psalms, at the celebratory ceremonies in the Temple (and previously at the shrines of the other deities).
16:10 KI LO TA'AZOV NAPHSHI LI SHE'OL LO TITEN CHASIYDCHA LIR'OT SHACHAT
כִּי לֹא תַעֲזֹב נַפְשִׁי לִשְׁאוֹל לֹא תִתֵּן חֲסִידְךָ לִרְאוֹת שָׁחַת
KJ: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
BN: For you will not abandon my soul to She'ol, nor will you allow your pious follower to witness the pit of destruction.
SHE'OL: See the link.
SHE'OL: See the link.
16:11 TODIYENI ORACH CHAYIM SOV'A SEMACHOT ET PANEYCHA NE'IMOT BIY'MIYNCHA NETSACH
תּוֹדִיעֵנִי אֹרַח חַיִּים שֹׂבַע שְׂמָחוֹת אֶת פָּנֶיךָ נְעִמוֹת בִּימִינְךָ נֶצַח
KJ: Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
BN: You show me the path of life. {N} In your presence is the fulness of joy. In your right hand is bliss for evermore. {P}
ORACH CHAYIM: The source of the title of the first part of one of the major works of Jewish legal scholarship, written by Joseph Karo in Zefat (Safed) around 1563 CE. The book as a whole is called the "Shulchan Aruch", the "Set Table", and large though it is, it is actually a condensed and simplified version of an earlier book of Karo's, known as the "Beit Yosef". Basically, this is Jewish law, summarised; though Karo's interpretations are entirely Sephardic, he includes the views of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, which are entirely Ashkenazi. Orach Chaim means "Way of Life" or "Path of Life", and is focused on daily ritual observance, including prayer, Tefillin, Tsitsit, Shabbat, and holidays.
Psalms:
Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
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
Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
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
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