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
לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Artistic Director. A Psalm for David.
Again the KJ incorporates the first verse into the title, so the verse numbering is askew from the Yehudit.
19:2 HA SHAMAYIM MESAPRIM KEVOD EL U MA'ASEH YADAV MAGID HA RAKI'A
הַשָּׁמַיִם מְסַפְּרִים כְּבוֹד אֵל וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו מַגִּיד הָרָקִיעַ
KJ (19:1): The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
BN: The heavens are the scroll on which the glory of El is written, and the firmament recounts his handiwork.
EL: Not YHVH.
MESAPRIM: A SEPHER is a scroll, as in the SEPHER TORAH, strips of parchment sewn together and then wrapped, with a piece of handled wood at one end, for a small scroll, or both ends, for a large scroll. In the modern age the same word has come to be used for a book. A SOPHER is a person who writes a scroll, or an author today. There are two verbs for telling the story written on that scroll, LESAPER or LEHAGID. But a MAGID (usually spelled MAGGID in English) was also an itinerant preacher, a religious equivalent of the Celtic Bard, who knew what was on those scrolls by heart, or improvised his own versions, depending on the audience - click here.
But the key point here is that the deity, and everything connected, are metaphorical, not physical. The sun and the skies, described in the form of anthropomorphic symbols.
RAKI'A: See my note at Genesis 1:6.
19:3 YOM LE YOM YABI'A OMER VE LAILAH LE LAILAH YECHAVEH DA'AT
KJ (19:2): Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
BN: Day after day words pour out, and night after night reveals knowledge;
YABI'A here rhyming with RAKI'A above. The root is NAV'A, with an Ayin, but impossible not to hear NAV'I, with an Aleph (נביא), which is the word for a Prophet (cf Exodus 7:1, where Prophet is also very much "spokesperson", which fits even more perfectly here).
19:3 YOM LE YOM YABI'A OMER VE LAILAH LE LAILAH YECHAVEH DA'AT
יוֹם לְיוֹם יַבִּיעַ אֹמֶר וְלַיְלָה לְּלַיְלָה יְחַוֶּה דָּעַת
KJ (19:2): Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
BN: Day after day words pour out, and night after night reveals knowledge;
YABI'A here rhyming with RAKI'A above. The root is NAV'A, with an Ayin, but impossible not to hear NAV'I, with an Aleph (נביא), which is the word for a Prophet (cf Exodus 7:1, where Prophet is also very much "spokesperson", which fits even more perfectly here).
OMER: Note that the more common word, which is DAVAR, is not yet used here (it will almost be, in the very next verse). Words have connotations; clearly the poet wanted to separate those connected with the DAVAR, the "Word" of the deity. This is first and foremost about divinely-created Nature, not humanly-made but divinely attributed Law. They will follow.
YECHAVEH: Is this a form of LECHIYOT, the verb for "to exist"? See my notes on this in the previous Psalm - or go to my page on YAH, which explains in full the distinction between it and LEHIYOT, the connection between YAH/YHVH and CHAVAH, who is Eve, EM KOL CHAI, "the Mother of All Living Things", which is to say the male god provides the seed, which is the essence (ESSE in Latin = "to be"), and Mother Nature, who makes existence manifest - or should that really be womanifest? And if so, this is both about "revealing" knowledge and "bringing it into being"? Revealing is the second stage, creating the first - like turning a book into merchandise by publishing it!
YECHAVEH: Is this a form of LECHIYOT, the verb for "to exist"? See my notes on this in the previous Psalm - or go to my page on YAH, which explains in full the distinction between it and LEHIYOT, the connection between YAH/YHVH and CHAVAH, who is Eve, EM KOL CHAI, "the Mother of All Living Things", which is to say the male god provides the seed, which is the essence (ESSE in Latin = "to be"), and Mother Nature, who makes existence manifest - or should that really be womanifest? And if so, this is both about "revealing" knowledge and "bringing it into being"? Revealing is the second stage, creating the first - like turning a book into merchandise by publishing it!
And how interesting to learn that the male sun-god was identified with ideas and information, which is the base of Bloom's Taxonomy, but the female moon-goddess with the development of idea and base information into wisdom and understanding. And that all that takes place, not in the clear light of day, but deep in the darkness of the... they don't call it the unconscious or the sub-conscious, but clearly this is what they mean.
19:4 EYN OMER VE EYN DEVARIM BELI NISHM'A KOLAM
KJ (19:3): There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
BN: There is no speech, there are no words, but their voice can be heard.
Confirmation for us moderns, whose concept of the gods is rather different, that the ancients did not regard the gods as anything more than metaphors and allegories, manifestations of the E=MC²; the "corporeal reality" of the gods is trees and birds and stars and tempests; the "word of god" is simply the kinetic impulse driving it, articulated by coming into being, and therefore described in parallel to human articulation.
19:4 EYN OMER VE EYN DEVARIM BELI NISHM'A KOLAM
אֵין אֹמֶר וְאֵין דְּבָרִים בְּלִי נִשְׁמָע קוֹלָם
KJ (19:3): There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
BN: There is no speech, there are no words, but their voice can be heard.
Confirmation for us moderns, whose concept of the gods is rather different, that the ancients did not regard the gods as anything more than metaphors and allegories, manifestations of the E=MC²; the "corporeal reality" of the gods is trees and birds and stars and tempests; the "word of god" is simply the kinetic impulse driving it, articulated by coming into being, and therefore described in parallel to human articulation.
DEVARIM: See my note to OMER, above. This is still not the DAVAR. By using the plural it is inferred, but still avoided.
19:5 BE CHOL HA ARETS YATS'A KAVAM U VIK'TSEH TEVEL MILEYHEM LA SHEMESH SAM OHEL BAHEM
KJ (19:4): Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
BN: Their line stretches out across the Earth, and their margins are the ends of the Cosmos. Words everywhere. {N} He has set up a tent for the sun in their midst...
Need to ask what happens after the N; is it musical or thematic? Or both?
19:5 BE CHOL HA ARETS YATS'A KAVAM U VIK'TSEH TEVEL MILEYHEM LA SHEMESH SAM OHEL BAHEM
בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ יָצָא קַוָּם וּבִקְצֵה תֵבֵל מִלֵּיהֶם לַשֶּׁמֶשׁ שָׂם אֹהֶל בָּהֶם
KJ (19:4): Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
BN: Their line stretches out across the Earth, and their margins are the ends of the Cosmos. Words everywhere. {N} He has set up a tent for the sun in their midst...
Need to ask what happens after the N; is it musical or thematic? Or both?
KAVAM: Used for "ropes" and "cords", but most often as a measuring-stick, like the ruler on your Word-page, which allows you to set tabs and indents.
VIK'TSEH: "Edges" or "extremities".
MILEYHEM: A third word for word. An OMER is one that you say, a DAVAR one that you speak, a MILAH one that you write - more or less, anyway, because each one has other connotations besides. So, here, I am hearing a word-play between MILEYHEM and MAL'EYHEM ("full of them"), because the sentence is complete without needing MILEYHEM, and so adding it must be for a reason. And I think the reason is simple: in the Creation myth, in Genesis 1, where essence is established, and in the naming of the entities of Planet Earth, in Genesis 2, where existence is established, it is always through the power of the Word: "Let there be Light" (Genesis 1:3) names Light into essence. "So the man gave names to all the wild animals, and to the fowl of the air, and to all the beasts of the field... (Genesis 2:20). As John of Patmos put it (John 1:1), "In the beginning was the Word..."
MILEYHEM: A third word for word. An OMER is one that you say, a DAVAR one that you speak, a MILAH one that you write - more or less, anyway, because each one has other connotations besides. So, here, I am hearing a word-play between MILEYHEM and MAL'EYHEM ("full of them"), because the sentence is complete without needing MILEYHEM, and so adding it must be for a reason. And I think the reason is simple: in the Creation myth, in Genesis 1, where essence is established, and in the naming of the entities of Planet Earth, in Genesis 2, where existence is established, it is always through the power of the Word: "Let there be Light" (Genesis 1:3) names Light into essence. "So the man gave names to all the wild animals, and to the fowl of the air, and to all the beasts of the field... (Genesis 2:20). As John of Patmos put it (John 1:1), "In the beginning was the Word..."
OHEL: Odd choice of image, you would think, given the untented openness in which the sun occupies the skies. But of course the OHEL was precisely the place where the NAV'I went to meet with his deity "face to face"; and in a world of nomadic Bedouin such as this one, a tent wasn't a camping holiday but a permanent home. So the skies themselves provide the linen walls for the inhabitant of this particular tent.
And then, in the next verse, we will realise what is really meant, what this is merely metaphoring. The OHEL SARAH, first encountered in Genesis 24:67, when Eli-Ezer returns from Padan Aram with cousin Rivkah to be Yitschak's bride, and he takes her "into his mother's tent" to consummate the marriage. His mother's tent? Isn't that rather weird? Only if the OHEL SARAH is his biological mother's tent; but not if it is the universal marriage-tent, the chupah-and-more, and Sarah simply a dialect variation of Asherah, Ishtar, Astarte...
So the skies will themselves become, poetically, the universal OHEL SARAH, for the marriage of the sun and the moon, from which the offspring will be... David, the Earth-god, Dodi, the beloved, the bridegroom.
19:6 VE HU KE CHATAN YOTS'E ME CHUPATO YASIS KE GIBOR LARUTS ORACH
וְהוּא כְּחָתָן יֹצֵא מֵחֻפָּתוֹ יָשִׂישׂ כְּגִבּוֹר לָרוּץ אֹרַח
KJ (19:5): Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
BN: And he will be like a bridegroom coming out from under the chupah, and rejoicing like a man of vigour about to prove his mettle.
CHUPATO: is not a chamber, but the Chupah itself, the bridal canopy beneath which Kidushin becomes Nisu'in, the completion of the act of marriage; save only one deed, and in ancient times that too took place in the Chupah, the "Tent of Sarah", which was a closed tent, unlike today's mere canopy, and into which the couple would be clapped and cheered, from which the proof of her virginity would be thrown out, and nine months later, if the goddess Asherah whose tent it really is has been compliant, a proof of her fertility will also emerge.
I think this latter part is intended to describe the joy of an Olympic champion picking up his gold medal, though in this case the gold medal is the bride.
19:7 MIKTSEH HA SHAMAYIM MOTSA'O U TEKUPHATO AL KETSOTAM VE EYN NISTAR ME CHAMATO
KJ (19:6): His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
BN: His journey is from one margin of the heavens to the other, a complete circuit end to end; and nothing is immune to the heat he exudes.
Remember that, at this epoch, and as we know from the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic written accounts, the skies were a flat ceiling, and the Earth was at the centre of the Cosmos, orbited by both sun and moon. So the journey of the sun, from sunrise to sunset, is like a boat (No'ach) - or a chariot in the Greek version (Helios) - traversing the ocean from coast to coast; and see the Egyptian version of the return by night in the Am-Tuat.
I think this latter part is intended to describe the joy of an Olympic champion picking up his gold medal, though in this case the gold medal is the bride.
19:7 MIKTSEH HA SHAMAYIM MOTSA'O U TEKUPHATO AL KETSOTAM VE EYN NISTAR ME CHAMATO
מִקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם מוֹצָאוֹ וּתְקוּפָתוֹ עַל קְצוֹתָם וְאֵין נִסְתָּר מֵחַמָּתוֹ
KJ (19:6): His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
BN: His journey is from one margin of the heavens to the other, a complete circuit end to end; and nothing is immune to the heat he exudes.
Remember that, at this epoch, and as we know from the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic written accounts, the skies were a flat ceiling, and the Earth was at the centre of the Cosmos, orbited by both sun and moon. So the journey of the sun, from sunrise to sunset, is like a boat (No'ach) - or a chariot in the Greek version (Helios) - traversing the ocean from coast to coast; and see the Egyptian version of the return by night in the Am-Tuat.
19:8 TORAT YHVH TEMIMAH MESHIVAT NEPHESH EDUT YHVH NE'EMANAH MACHKIMAT PETI
תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ עֵדוּת יְהוָה נֶאֱמָנָה מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי
KJ (19:7): The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
BN: The law of YHVH is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of YHVH is sure, making the simple wise.
TORAT: So, again, we can date this piece - or at least recognise when a much more ancient piece was redacted into the form that we now have. From OMER to DEVARIM to MILEYHEM, only one more option and that is TORAH, the SEPHER TORAH indeed, the Word of the deity now formalised, white papered so to speak, and passed through both the lower and the upper house as approved legislation - that couldn't have been scrolled until the start of the 1st millennium BCE, around the time of Shelomoh indeed, when the Ugaritic alphabet was first invented.
19:9 PIKUDEY YHVH YESHARIM MESAMCHEY LEV MITSVAT YHVH BARAH ME'IRAT EYNAYIM
פִּקּוּדֵי יְהוָה יְשָׁרִים מְשַׂמְּחֵי לֵב מִצְוַת יְהוָה בָּרָה מְאִירַת עֵינָיִם
KJ (19:8): The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
BN: The responsibilities set out by YHVH are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of YHVH is pure, enlightening the eyes.
A poem to enshrine a theological process: from essence to existence, from primaeval sound to human voice, from incoherent word to articulated thought, and at the margins: the inchoate deity and the Written Law. Some theologians and philosophers have needed entire volumes to say as much.
PIKUDEY: Complex word - Gesenius has three full paragraphs on it! In the military and civil service, a PIKUD is an appointment to a position of responsibility, and it is the responsibility rather more than the appointment that is the key.
MESAMCHEY...ME'IRAT: The two verbs appear to be echoing each other, but, at least according to the Masoretic pointing, the first uses the Pi'el or Intensive form - the difference between throat-singing and diaphragm-singing - but the second uses the Hiph'il, or Causative: the deity making this happen. I don't think that can be right - the echo is intentional, and the deity making it happen is clearly the intention of both. If the first was also in the Hiph'il, it would be MASMICHEY LEV, which, unpointed, would be written exactly the same as MESAMCHEY. And no question that the translators are all treating it as though it were Hiph'il.
19:10 YIR'AT YHVH TEHORAH OMEDET LA AD MISHPETEY YHVH EMET TSADKU YACHDAV
יִרְאַת יְהוָה טְהוֹרָה עוֹמֶדֶת לָעַד מִשְׁפְּטֵי יְהוָה אֱמֶת צָדְקוּ יַחְדָּו
KJ (19:9): The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
BN: The fear of YHVH is clean, enduring for ever; the ordinances of YHVH are true, they are righteous altogether...
TEHORAH: Isn't just clean, but ritually pure, as though it had been dipped in the Mikveh. The opposite of Treyf. But it is more importantly a play-on-words, allowing Torah to become Tehorah.
19:11 HA NECHEMADIM MI ZAHAV U MI PAZ RAV U METUKIM MI DEVASH VE NOPHET TSUPHIM
הַנֶּחֱמָדִים מִזָּהָב וּמִפַּז רָב וּמְתוּקִים מִדְּבַשׁ וְנֹפֶת צוּפִים
KJ (19:10): More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
BN: ... which is more to be desired than gold, even than the finest of fine gold; sweeter also than honey from the honeycomb.
HA: As a grammatical form this is either the definite article - but there is no noun here to make it that - or the interrogative - which makes no sense in this context - or the preposition-conjunction "which".
Since we are talking about all this "wisdom" as the offspring of the sacred marriage between essence and existence, and using nuptial imagery, I find myself wondering which came first, this verse, or Proverbs 3:13-18? Traditional Judaism seems to think the Proverbs verses came first (click here), but I think that highly unlikely. I am also surprised that the link does not mention the fact that the Proverbs verses are sung in most synagogues as part of the reading of the law (see "A Myrtle Among Reeds" page 268).
HA: As a grammatical form this is either the definite article - but there is no noun here to make it that - or the interrogative - which makes no sense in this context - or the preposition-conjunction "which".
Since we are talking about all this "wisdom" as the offspring of the sacred marriage between essence and existence, and using nuptial imagery, I find myself wondering which came first, this verse, or Proverbs 3:13-18? Traditional Judaism seems to think the Proverbs verses came first (click here), but I think that highly unlikely. I am also surprised that the link does not mention the fact that the Proverbs verses are sung in most synagogues as part of the reading of the law (see "A Myrtle Among Reeds" page 268).
19:12 GAM AVDECHA NIZHAR BAHEM BE SHAMRAM EKEV RAV
גַּם עַבְדְּךָ נִזְהָר בָּהֶם בְּשָׁמְרָם עֵקֶב רָב
BN: What is more, they serve as a warning to your servant: there is great reward in keeping them.
19:13 SHEGIY'OT MI YAVIN MI NISTAROT NAKENI
19:13 SHEGIY'OT MI YAVIN MI NISTAROT NAKENI
שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי יָבִין מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי
KJ (19:12): Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
BN: Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me of my hidden faults.
NISTAROT: But I thought, as per verse 7, that nothing was hidden - from the deity anyway? Maybe they are only hidden from himself - as per the first half of the verse. Jungian psychology, three thousand years before Jung!
19:14 GAM MI ZEDIM CHASOCH AVDECHA AL YIMSHELU VI AZ EYTAM VE NIKEYTI MI PESH'A RAV
גַּם מִזֵּדִים חֲשֹׂךְ עַבְדֶּךָ אַל יִמְשְׁלוּ בִי אָז אֵיתָם וְנִקֵּיתִי מִפֶּשַׁע רָב
KJ (19:13): Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
BN: Restrain your servant too from presumptuous sins, that they may not have dominion over me; {N} then I shall be faultless, and I shall be clear from great transgression.
AL YIMSHELU: This too, the understanding that human beings are driven by aspects of character that are out of their control - genetic traits, aspects of nature and/or nurture deeply embedded before the human reaches the age even of attempted self-definition. We think these are 20th century discoveries - but here they are, elucidated and understood.
Does this N suggest a coda? or simply a closing line, some sort of refrain? And is verse 15 that refrain? Because it has become a refrain, repeated in liturgy - the final blessing of the Amidah, the Oseh Shalom or "Prayer for Peace", has Psalm 19:15 as the substitute prayer during the Yomim Nor'aim, the twenty-three days from Rosh ha Shanah (New Year) to Shemini Atseret, the first to the 23rd of Tishrey.
19:15 YIHEYU LE RATSON IMREY PHI VE HEGYON LIBI LEPHANEYCHA YHVH TSURI VE GO'ALI
יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי לְפָנֶיךָ יְהוָה צוּרִי וְגֹאֲלִי
KJ (19:14): Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
BN: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before you, {N} YHVH, my Rock, and my Redeemer. {P}
And also available as a pop song (click here, though in fact they sing it as a middle section to Psalm 137).
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
Copyright
© 2022 David Prashker
All
rights reserved
The
Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment