TheBibleNet: Psalm 17

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

17:1 TEPHILAH LE DAVID SHIM'AH YHVH TSEDEK HAKSHIYVAH RINATI HA'AZIYNAH TEPHILATI BE LO SIPHTEY MIRMAH

תְּפִלָּה לְדָוִד שִׁמְעָה יְהוָה צֶדֶק הַקְשִׁיבָה רִנָּתִי הַאֲזִינָה תְפִלָּתִי בְּלֹא שִׂפְתֵי מִרְמָה

KJ (King James translation): (A Prayer of David.) Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

BN: A Prayer for David. {N} Hear a petition, YHVH. Listen to my cry. Lend an ear to my prayer. {N} It does not come from dishonest lips.

TEPHILAH LE DAVID: Yet another genre - this one is direct prayer; and again both "for" and "of" David - the earthly sacred-king serving both roles, speaking upwards to his "father" on behalf of his people, but also addressed as the deity in his cosmic role.

Is the title here the whole of the verse, the second half summarising the intent of the verses that follow? Or is it simply the title, "TEPHILAH LE DAVID", and then straight into the prayer; in which case, we should really separate it as an additional verse.

And what precisely is it that makes this a prayer, where others were Mizmorim or whatever...? I think the answer lies in the word TSEDEK, which appears to be part of an ungrammatical clause; if he is asking YHVH to hear "with justice" or "with righteousness", a preposition is required: probably BE ("in" or "with"). But if it is "a petition"... Yehudit does not possess an indefinite article, and if YHVH is being asked to serve as judge in the heavenly court, then "a petition" is precisely what a plaintiff would bring. And in the Jewish world, prayer comes with four definitions, of which the last three are confession, blessing and thanksgiving, but the first is... petition - click here for more on this.

It might be fun to make a concrete poem out of this, like Dylan Thomas' and Edwin Morgan's.

SHIM'AH YHVH TSEDEK
HAKSHIYVAH RINATI
HA'AZIYNAH TEPHILATI
BE LO SIPHTEY MIRMAH

four clearly separate parts; and then see if the rest of the piece follows or varies.

SHIM'AH...HAKSHIVAH...HA'AZIYNAH: As discussed on several previous occasions, one can listen but not really hear, just as one can hear but without paying full attention - I think it was Harrison Bertwhistle who said of Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 that the former is for people who want to hear classical music, the latter for people who want to listen to it; he might have added that concert-goers are the ones who are paying the fullest attention

SHIM'AH... HA'AZIYNAH: Impossible to ignore the Mosaic allusions in these words. See Deuteronomy 6:4 for the former, Deuteronomy 32:1 for the latter. And then, please explain why SHIM'AH is in the feminine here (or if it isn't, then why is there a Heh ending?)

17:2 MI LEPHANEYCHA MISHPATI YETS'E EYNEYCHA TECHEZEYNAH MEYSHARIM

מִלְּפָנֶיךָ מִשְׁפָּטִי יֵצֵא עֵינֶיךָ תֶּחֱזֶינָה מֵישָׁרִים

KJ: Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

BN: However I am to be judged, let it come from you. But let your eyes look fairly.

MISHPATI: Translating it as "my judgement" gives celestial authority to David; but he is asking for the judgement about him to be delivered, so it has to be the other way around.

17:3 BACHANTA LIBI PAKADETA LAILAH TSERAPHTANI VAL TIMTS'A ZAMOTI BAL YA'AVAR PI

בָּחַנְתָּ לִבִּי פָּקַדְתָּ לַּיְלָה צְרַפְתַּנִי בַל תִּמְצָא זַמֹּתִי בַּל יַעֲבָר פִּי

KJ: Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

BN: You have put my heart on trial. You have taken care of me in the night. You have tested me, but you did not find {N} a single thought which should not pass my lips.

BACHANTA...TSARAPHTANI: A MIVCHAN is an examination of the kind that students take. But this is a spiritual examination, and it is being carried out in the heavenly court. The TSOREPH is the silver or gold smith (see Judges 17:4), and the verb describes the refining process at the forge - a different kind of testing, precisely in search of the sorts of flaws not found here.

PAKADETA: A TAPHKID is a position to which a person is appointed (Genesis 39:4), generally in the capacity of overseer or guardian or supervisor, someone who looks after others, whether clerical, military or personal. I am wondering whether we shouldn't look again at Genesis 21:1, which is always translated as YHVH "visiting" Sarah, or possibly "commanding" her, neither of which make sense in the context.

LAILAH: In the last Psalm too, the power of the daytime sun residual into the moon-governed night. This is a late concept, well after the time of David. In his days the night-visitor would have been one of the Lilim.

BAL... VAL (same in the next verse): another of those oddities of Yehudit grammar, where letters get hardened or softened according to the letter they are following.

YA'AVAR PI: Literally "mouth", but I have gone for "lips" as this is the equivalent idiom in English. And yes, I am aware that it clashes with SEPHATEYCHA in the next verse, but actually I don't think that's a problem: it may even reinforce my translation, by creating an unplanned echo-line.

17:4 LI PHE'ULOT ADAM BIDVAR SEPHATEYCHA ANI SHAMARTI ARCHOT PARIYTS

לִפְעֻלּוֹת אָדָם בִּדְבַר שְׂפָתֶיךָ אֲנִי שָׁמַרְתִּי אָרְחוֹת פָּרִיץ

KJ: Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

BN: As for the doings of men, I have followed the words that issued from your word; I have guarded the paths to the breach.

SEPHATEYCHA: And despite my last comment, I think this too works better by giving the equivalent English idiom; the unplanned echo is removed, but the balance of lips and mouths restored.

BIDVAR: The DAVAR of the deity, the"Word" of YHVH, is always a metaphor, never a literality. There are dynamic and kinetic impulses at force in the world, the technicalities of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, constantly in operation. Science labels them as quarks and quants and atoms and monads, the Tanach simply articulates them as BIDVAR SEPHATEYCHA, the expression of the Elohim.

ARCHOT: See my note at Psalm 16:11.

PARIYTS: Complex. First, there is the name, PARETS, the twin brother of Zerach, who came out first (Genesis 38:29) and had the scarlet thread placed on his wrist, and went back in, and then Parets came out, and was given his name because it was a "breach" birth. Theseus likewise came out of a womb-like labyrinth with the guidance of a scarlet thread, wound and unwound for him by Ariadne... but that is probably not the link being made here. For David, the breached-brothers were immensely important, because David traced his ancestry back to Pharets (Pharets → Chetsron → Ram → Ami-Nadav → Nachshon → Salmah → Bo'az → Oved → Yeshu [Jesse]: have I missed anyone?), and it is in the nature of these Psalms that words with secondary meanings cannot have those secondaries ignored.

Second, there is the root PARATS, and the fact that the verb attached to it here is SHAMARTI, which does not mean "avoided", nor even "kept away from", but simply "kept", even to the point of "guarding". So the petitioner is not claiming to have "avoided the ways of the destroyer", but to have "guarded the path to the breach", which is precisely what David did at the siege of Yevus (2 Samuel 5), while Yo-Av and his men were sneaking into the city through that other dark and womb-like labyrinth, the well by the city-gate that brought water up from the Pools of Giychon and Silo'am. Anyone who knows David's story knows this tale - his equivalent of the Trojan Horse at Troy, one of the great military achievements in history.

And no, I don't think he is referring explicitly to that here, but simply using the tale metaphorically. The breaches that he has guarded, in this Psalm, are those of other men; by doing his job fastidiously, by setting up the priestly institutions, by preparing the Temple, by confederating the tribes, by defeating the surrounding enemy-nations, in all these ways he has safe-guarded his nation, and thus he has "guarded the breaches" and vindicated his rule as sacred-king ("vindicated" being the verdict that his petition is presumably seeking).

17:5 TAMOCH ASHURAI BE MA'GELOTEYCHA BAL NAMOTU PHE'AMAI

תָּמֹךְ אֲשֻׁרַי בְּמַעְגְּלוֹתֶיךָ בַּל נָמוֹטּוּ פְעָמָי

KJ: Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

BN: Keep my steps secure on your paths, lest my feet slip.

Confirming my explanation of the previous verse: as sacred-king on Earth, I have done my duty by my people; now you, as sacred-king in the heavens, need to do the same for me.

NAMOTU: That word again, and differently translated on this occasion.

17:6 ANI KERA'TIYCHA CHI TA'ANENI EL HAT AZNECHA LI SHEM'A IMRATI

אֲנִי קְרָאתִיךָ כִי תַעֲנֵנִי אֵל הַט אָזְנְךָ לִי שְׁמַע אִמְרָתִי

KJ: I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

BN: I called upon you, El, because I knew you would answer me. Bend your ear towards me. Hear what I have to say.

EL: Once again, confirmation that this was a Kena'ani hymn long before it was absorbed into Yisra-Eli liturgy.

17:7 HAPHLEH CHASADEYCHA MOSHI'A CHOSIM MI MITKOMEMIM BIY'MIYNECHA

הַפְלֵה חֲסָדֶיךָ מוֹשִׁיעַ חוֹסִים מִמִּתְקוֹמְמִים בִּימִינֶךָ

KJ: Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

BN: Demonstrate your many mercies and compassions. Redeem with your right hand those who put their trust in you.

BIY'MIYNECHA: Note "the right hand" again. And of course David is himself that Bin-Yamin, the "right hand man", the Dauphin of the Heavens (see Psalm 16:8). So the two halves of the petition come together: look after me, your right hand man, and I will be able to look after my people, who are also your people.

Note the use of MOSHI'A here, as well as the allusion to the YAMIN; this takes us back to the "to" v "of" debate: the Psalm is presented as "by" David (or it has simply been put into the mouth of the mythological David as a poetic device): but the Moshi'a is the deity; David is the Mashiyach.

17:8 SHAMRENI KE IYSHON BAT AYIN BE TSEL KENAPHEYCHA TASTIYREYNI

שָׁמְרֵנִי כְּאִישׁוֹן בַּת עָיִן בְּצֵל כְּנָפֶיךָ תַּסְתִּירֵנִי

KJ: Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

BN: Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings...

And again, the double-speech: David in his role as sacred-king is "the apple of his eye" as well as "the right hand". We have to learn to distinguish the universal concept from the particular individual (imagine, for example, Prince Charles at the World Cup final, waiting to hand out the trophy in his official capacity, but singing along to "God Save The Queen" before the game, and understanding it to mean the concept of monarchy as well as "mummy").

SHAMRENI: As noted at verse 4, SHAMAR means "guard".

IYSHON: As per the KJ, I have translated this idiomatically. The word for apple is really TAPU'ACH; the IYSHON is the "pupil" of the eye. Though it is entirely possible that the phrase is not intended idiomatically, but literally: the deity needing the Earth to be supervised appoints (TAPHKID in verse 3) the Mashiyach to be his watching eye; and it makes a lovely image for the Ptolemaic universe: the deity as the surrounding Cosmos, described as an eye, the Earth as the pupil in its centre. Something like this, perhaps?

The Egyptian "Eye of Ra", or "Eye of Hor"

17:9 MIPNEY RESHA'IM ZU SHADUNI OYEVAI BE NEPHESH YAKIYPHU ALAI

מִפְּנֵי רְשָׁעִים זוּ שַׁדּוּנִי אֹיְבַי בְּנֶפֶשׁ יַקִּיפוּ עָלָי

KJ: From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

BN: ...from the wicked who oppress me, my deadly enemies, who surround me on all sides.

MIPNEY: This verse completes the last verse.

17:10 CHELBAMO SAGRU PIYMO DIBRU VE GE'UT

חֶלְבָּמוֹ סָּגְרוּ פִּימוֹ דִּבְּרוּ בְגֵאוּת

KJ: They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

BN: They have sealed tight their fat hearts; their mouths utter nothing but vanity and self-esteem.

I am presuming that these too were idioms of their time, and not something to be taken literally. Are their any phrases in Proverbs which echo or parallel them?

However, as with the last verse, we have to explore it anyway, because maybe it is not an idiom, maybe it is meant to be taken literally.

So, for CHELBAMO, which comes from CHALAV, which is "fat", but also used for "milk", let us look at Leviticus 3:12-17, which is where the fat is best known (and is it pure coincidence that we just went there, a Psalm ago, to see the kidneys? probably): verse 14 is where the fat is separated from the blood is separated from the rest of the body: the blood was sprinkled on the altar at verse 13 - it is sacred, because it is life itself, but the beast is dead, so the blood is of no use any longer and is shed. But the fat, all that cooking usability, all those candles that could be made to light the people's houses, let alone the Temple: the fat too is sacred, but it is living-sacred, and it is extremely unhealthy if you eat it. So, in verse 16, the ultimate sacrifice: not just the goat or the bullock (at least you will get several meals out of it, and can use its hide for leather), but the fat, "the fat belongs to YHVH", and it must be burned. Until, in verse 17:

This shall be an eternal law, throughout your generations, wherever you may be living, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.

And of course, it may well be that the idiom itself was derived from this set of verses.

But CHELEV is also "milk", and the Promised Land is the land of CHALAV U DVASH" - "milk and honey". And milk is very good for you. And milk, like honey, are natural products, no need for farming even, no need for husbandry, though of course you can. But the milk and the honey will be there anyway, because the gods provide - and this the reason why the land received that epithet.

Not that any of that latter is intended in this verse (though the contrast is unavoidable), which is about the fat-mouthed and the ... you can fill in the rest of the misanthropisms for yourself.

17:11 ASHUREYNU ATAH SEVAVUNI EYNEYHEM YASHIYTU LINTOT BA ARETS

אַשֻּׁרֵינוּ עַתָּה סְבָבוּנִי עֵינֵיהֶם יָשִׁיתוּ לִנְטוֹת בָּאָרֶץ

KJ: They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

BN: At our every step they now surround us. They set their eyes to cast us down on the Earth.

ASUREYNU: Paths and steps, steps and paths, repeated throughout the Psalm. You can almost imagine David ending this by saying "Follow me, I am the Way".

LINTOT: If this were David the earthly king, the latter would not be possible. Only as David the deity can this happen.

17:12 DIMYONO KE ARYEH YICHSOPH LITROPH VE CHI CHEPHIR YOSHEV BE MISTARIM

דִּמְיֹנוֹ כְּאַרְיֵה יִכְסוֹף לִטְרוֹף וְכִכְפִיר יֹשֵׁב בְּמִסְתָּרִים

KJ: Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

BN: His image is like that of a lion that is eager to tear its prey to shreds, and like a young lion lurking in secret places.

DIMYONO: "His", third person singular; but EYNEYHEM, third person plural, in the previous verse, and all the references to these enemies have been third person plural until now. What has changed? The root is DOMEH (cf Genesis 1:26), which is that "likeness" of the deity that we are prohibited from turning into a graven image, and which is best explained, in partnership with that other keyword TSELEM, in the opening chapter of Maimonides' "Guide For The Perplexed".

ARYEH: There is a Herculean tale in 1 Samuel 17 of David slaying a lion, and also an equivalent tale of Shimshon (Samson) at Judges 14, in each case the Earth-god, being required by the Lord of the Underworld to perform a labour in every horoscopal month, is undertaking the one that belongs in Leo, which is at the height of summer, between July and August, and by no coincidence, in the Yisra-Eli world, is the month named Tammuz.

Probably these were mountain-lion, or leopards; African lions, such as may be found in the Serengeti or the Chobe deserts, were not common in Yisra-El at any point of post-prehistory. (And sadly those Asiatic lions that did make it beyond the Biblical era are now extinct in Israel - click here).

NISTARIM: Mysteries and secret places, but also hiding-places, so this lion may simply be lurking in the bushes; but the word conjures up another idiom, that of HISTIR PANAV, and the sun, when it is not YEVARECHECHA'ing, may likewise be lurking behind the clouds. And that other form of illumination, the light of knowledge, it too hides among the mysteries. Word-games. Always word-games.

17:13 KUMAH YHVH KADMAH PHANAV HACHRIY'EHU PALTAH NAPHSHI ME RA'ASH CHARBECHA

קוּמָה יְהוָה קַדְּמָה פָנָיו הַכְרִיעֵהוּ פַּלְּטָה נַפְשִׁי מֵרָשָׁע חַרְבֶּךָ

KJ: Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

BN: Arise, YHVH. Confront him. Cast him down. {N} Deliver my soul from the wicked with your sword.

PHANAV: The Histir was palpable likeness in the previous verse, but the PANAV was hidden; now it turns out to have been lurking, because here it is, making its appearance.

CHARBECHA: And speaking of things that are mysteriously hidden. What kind of sword might the deity be using here? In Genesis 3:24 it was a swastika, a fire-wheel (the very symbol associated with Leo), a "good-luck" symbol until the Nazis malefised it; and it too "guarded the way", in its case to the Tree of Life.

But for Mosheh, when he received the Law, it wasn't so much a sword as a mountain, shaped perhaps like the tip of a sword. Mount Chorev, from the same root. No? Is that wrong? CHARAV means "dry", and is used for "wasteland", and has nothing to do with swords? Yet both are spelled Chet-Reysh-Bet (חרב). How odd!

17:14 MIMTIM YADCHA YHVH MIMTIM ME HELED CHELKAM BA CHAYIM U TSEPHIYNCHA TEMAL'E VITNAM YISBE'U VANIM VE HINIYCHU YITRAM LE OLELEYHEM

מִמְתִים יָדְךָ יְהוָה מִמְתִים מֵחֶלֶד חֶלְקָם בַּחַיִּים וּצְפִינְךָ תְּמַלֵּא בִטְנָם יִשְׂבְּעוּ בָנִים וְהִנִּיחוּ יִתְרָם לְעוֹלְלֵיהֶם

KJ: From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

BN: From the dead, YHVH, taken by your hand, taken from birth, {N} from their portion in life, whose stomachs you filled with your treasure; {N} who have children in plenty, and bequeath their leftovers to their offspring.

Where does KJ get the word "men" from? Is MIMTIM not MI HA METIM by ellision, and therefore this a reference to the dead?

TSEPHIYNECHA: Or possibly TSEPHUNCHA (צְפוּנְךָ֮) - the Masoretic pointing is questioned in most later versions. Either way, the root takes us into one more "hidden place", which is both where the original treasures can be found, and the one in which they are stored later.

YADCHA: Presumably the left hand, which goes down into the Netherworld, where the right hand ascends to the heavens and sits next to the sky god; though whether this left hand is simply gauche, as in French, or fully sinister, as in Latin, is for you to determine.

HINIYCHU: More allusions - see Genesis 2:15 especially (but also several occurrences in Exodus 16, all of them to do with divine provisions for the belly); and through it confirmation that human Paradise, here on Earth, achieved through the partnership of the Moshi'a and Mashiyach, is the ultimate subject of this Psalm.

YISBE'U: Those "treasures" being precisely the milk and honey referred to above.

YITRAM: "Abundance", when used for the economy; "high esteem" when used for people, as in Yitro, Mosheh's father-in-law.

OLELEYHEM: And yet one more word-play. a) The OLALOT - the same root but in the feminine - are the gleanings - Judges 8:2, Jeremiah 49:9, Isaiah 17:6; and of course it is preisely the gleanings that get put in the will for the next generation to inherit; b) The ALIYLIYOT - the same root, but now in the multiple plural - are "the deeds of the deity", as we witnessed in Psalm 14:1, and can see again at 77:13, or at Jeremiah 32:19; c) ALAL, the root, really means "quenching your thirst", or "fulfilling your aspiration", whether physical or intellectual or spiritual.

So a successful Mashiyach, supported by a beneficent deity, will not only safeguard national security against military enemies, not only provide a strong moral and ethical code for people to live by, but create a sound economy, so all the people can be well-fed and leave bequests to their offspring. Paradise - on Earth!

17:15 ANI BE TSEDEK ECHEZEH PHANEYCHA ESBE'AH VE HAKIYTS TEMUNATECHA

אֲנִי בְּצֶדֶק אֶחֱזֶה פָנֶיךָ אֶשְׂבְּעָה בְהָקִיץ תְּמוּנָתֶךָ

KJ: As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

BN: As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with your likeness. {P}

The final verse bringing together the last of the many strands that have threaded their way through the piece., and confirming the four parts that we broke it into at verse 1. TSEDEK confirmed. The PANAV no longer HISTIR, neither "hidden" nor "lurking". YISBE'U turns into ESBE'AH. The sun is fully in the sky by metaphor - KAYITS is the word for "summer"; which also confirms Leo-Tammuz. And interesting to see that final word: not the DOMEH or the TSELEM, but TEMUNAH, the one "likeness" that is permitted, the metaphorical. So the poem becomes its own vindication, just as the petitioner requested.

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Psalms:

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