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
22:1 LA MENATSE'ACH AL AYELET HA SHACHAR MIZMOR LE DAVID
לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל אַיֶּלֶת הַשַּׁחַר מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Leader; to be sung at Ayelet ha Shachar. A Psalm for David.
KJ as ever with the first verse merged into the title, unsyncing the verse numbers from the Yehudit.
AYELET HA SHACHAR: A kibbutz in northern Korazim bears this name, and it was there that I saw Leonard Cohen at the height of the Yom Kippur War of 1973; a splendid symmetry from the "secret chords" of King David with his lyre to the singing of Halleluyah, except that LC hadn't written that song yet; the one he had just written, and which we had heard on the radio from his concert in the desert just a few days earlier, was "Lover, Lover, Lover" - a song rooted in the Psalms nevertheless.But these are only reverberations. Ayelet ha Shachar is Sirius, the dawn star, and this Psalm clearly intended to be sung at the very start of the morning sacrifices, which can only begin when Sirius appears in the sky, confirming that, so to speak, YHVH has completed his journey through the Tuat, and is now emerging through the bloody thighs of Nut at the exit from the Twelfth Division.
Much debate though among the scholars, as to whether the title indicates the time of day, as per my note, or is simply citing the opening words of some well-known song, some equivalent, to, say, Paul Anka writing that brilliantly original song "My Way", and it turning out to have been written to the chords, tune, melody, structure and everything else except the original words, of Claude François' "Comme d'Habitude". God forbid!
Ayelet ha Shachar literally means "The Hind of the
Morning". Hind as in "deer".
22:2 ELI ELI LAMAH AZAVTANI RACHOK MIYSHU'ATI DIVREY SHA'AGATI
KJ (22:1): My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
BN: My god, my god, why have you abandoned me, and are far from my help at the words of my cry?
22:2 ELI ELI LAMAH AZAVTANI RACHOK MIYSHU'ATI DIVREY SHA'AGATI
אֵלִי אֵלִי לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי רָחוֹק מִישׁוּעָתִי דִּבְרֵי שַׁאֲגָתִי
KJ (22:1): My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
BN: My god, my god, why have you abandoned me, and are far from my help at the words of my cry?
More reverberations, though the gospels (Matthew 27:46) seem to think he said it in Aramaic, as "Eli Eli lamah sabachtani", when surely he was, as he always did, quoting directly from the scriptures.
And now that you know that, does it impact on the meaning in the Jesus story, that he said this as he hung on the Cross, the sun-god waiting to go down into the Tuat, where he too will pass through the Twelve Divisions, before "rising again", just like the new moon, on the third day after waning, and sit on the Bin-Yamin, the "right hand" of the sun-god, where Tammuz and Osher sit, the "beloved son" (Yedid-Yah in Yehudit; King David and King Shelomoh's full name), in whom his father is presumably well pleased?
But "Eli, Eli" also reverberates in a very different way, for which, and for a translation of the words below, see my Book of Days page for November 7.
Eli, Eli, she lo yigamer le’olam
Hachol ve hayam, rishro'ash shel ha mayim
Berah ha shamayim, tephilat ha adam
22:3 ELOHAI EKR'A YOMAM VE LO TA'ANEH VE LAILAH VE LO DUMIYAH LI
אֱלֹהַי אֶקְרָא יוֹמָם וְלֹא תַעֲנֶה וְלַיְלָה וְלֹא דוּמִיָּה לִי
KJ (22:2): O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
BN: I call on the gods by day, but they do not answer; and at night, but there is only silence.
And speaking of the Egyptian Tuat, which is the night journey of the sun-god Ra through the Netherworld, arriving back at the eastern horizon just in time to be reborn there, so to the Yisra-Elim of this epoch there was She'ol, the Underworld, and Dumah, the Netherworld, similar, but not quite the same. DUMAH means silence, and the play on words allows its two meanings, the failure to reply and the eternal hush of the Netherworld, to be expressed as one. And of course there is silence at night - the sun-god is tied to the pillars, his hair shorn, his eyes blinded, by the goddess of Night, Delilah.
22:4 VE ATAH KADOSH YOSHEV TEHILOT YISRA-EL
וְאַתָּה קָדוֹשׁ יוֹשֵׁב תְּהִלּוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ (22:3): But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
BN: But you are holy, you who are seated upon the praises of Yisra-El.
YOSHEV: As I am sure I have commented many times previously, the greatest difficulty for a translator is not the transferring of the words from language to language, but the transferring of the culture of those words from one culture to another. More often than not, an identical-seeming word can have an entirely different meaning in another language (is "amour" the same as "amore" the same as "liebe" the same as "love"?); or, even more often, it will have ambiguities and ambivalences and other-usages in the original culture which do not inhabit the language of transfer.
So with YOSHEV. "To sit". Where? In the YISHUV, which is the name used by Diasporal Jews through the epoch of Ottoman rule, to describe the inhabitants of those who did live in the homeland for which they longed? Or in the YESHIVA, the study-house, where Torah and Talmud are studied by the zealous?
And how do you "sit" on praises? If you are a metaphorical deity, then it is easy enough for your throne to be composed of them, which is why many translators use "enthroned" here. Or if you are the sun-god, as the silence and the darkness of the last verse appear to indicate... Genesis 4:20 uses YOSHEV for "those who dwell in tents", and we have just seen the deity doing precisely that, in the "tent of the sky", in Psalm 19:5 ff.
TEHILOT: As opposed to TEHILIM, which is the Yehudit title for this very book, which we call Psalms. Both come from the root HALAL, which is an interesting choice of vocab in the context, because its basic meaning is "bright" and "clear", which is precisely what the sun is not yet, just before Ayelet ha Shachar, and as per the complaint in verse 3. TEHILOT (TEHILOS in the Litvak pronunciation) makes a feminine ending, where TEHILIM makes a masculine ending, though why there are both, and what the differences are, is not something anyone has yet managed to explain (see this link for proof of it!).
22:5 BECHA BAT'CHU AVOTEYNU BAT'CHU VA TEPHALTEMO
בְּךָ בָּטְחוּ אֲבֹתֵינוּ בָּטְחוּ וַתְּפַלְּטֵמוֹ
KJ (22:4): Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
BN: Our forefathers placed their trust in you; they trusted, and you delivered them.
TEPHALTEMO: The root is PALAT, and it really means "to escape", which involves doing it yourself, rather than being "delivered", which is what happens when someone else assists you. There is much debate among the scholars as to whether those who escaped from the sacking of Knossos, and looked for a new home along the Egyptian coast, and along the Kena'ani coast, and north where Lebanon now stands as well, whether they were in fact known originally as the Beney Pelet - "illegal immigrants" or "unwanted political refugees" might serve as contemporary translations - though they came to be known as the Pelishtim. The verb is used for "deliverance" throughout the Psalms (click here for a full list), though there is also Job 21:10, for which I have no explanation beyond the logically anatomical and veterinary - though it does reinforce my comment about the culture of lanugage, at verse 4; I even wonder which came first, linguistically speaking, given that these are gods and goddesses of a fertility cult.
22:6 ELEYCHA ZA'AKU VE NIMLATU BECHA VAT'CHU VE LO VOSHU
אֵלֶיךָ זָעֲקוּ וְנִמְלָטוּ בְּךָ בָטְחוּ וְלֹא בוֹשׁוּ
KJ (22:5): They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
BN: They called out to you, and they were set free; unashamedly they placed their trust in you.
NIMLATU: From PALAT to MALAT, yet apparently with the same meaning.The root means "make smooth", so yet again we are into cultural usage, idiom, language development. Isaiah 34:15 is worth looking at, alongside the Job cited above. In the world of the Earth-god, the enemies are other of Nature's creatures, who inhibit or prevent or otherwise destroy fertility.
VOSHU: Not to be confused with BOSHEH, ours has one Sheen, that has two. Exodus 32:1 and Judges 5:28 for the latter: "delay", "equivocation", "procrastination". This is purely about "shame", or in this case an absence of it.
22:7 VE ANOCHI TOLA'AT VE LO ISH CHERPAT ADAM U VEZU'I AM
KJ (22:6): But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
BN: But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
TOLA'AT: There is a Tol'a in the Torah. Is this metaphorical, or is it just coincidence among these journeys to the Underworld that there should be worms! Because without the worms - whether the tiniest of tiny or the ones we imagine must be huge monsters - how would all that dead matter get biodegraded and provide the nitrogen for next year's fertility?
VEZU'I: But this is also, or perhaps instead, a metaphorical worm. Why despised? Is this a continuation of VOSHU in the previous verse? The next verse tells us that it is, and we can therefore deduce that the mockers are either atheists or, less likely, followers of different cults. To them he is a worm; to himself he is a man of faith, and unashamed to be so.
22:8 KOL RO'AI YAL'IGU LI YAPHTIYRU VE SAPHAH YANIY'U ROSH
KJ (22:7): All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
BN: Everyone who sees me laughs me to scorn; they make faces and shake their heads.
22:9 GOL EL YHVH YEPHALTEHU YATSIYLEHU KI CHAPHETS BO
KJ (22:8): He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
BN: "Let him commit himself to YHVH! Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him, seeing what delight he finds in him."
GOL: See my note on this at Psalm 21:2.
As well as transferring the culture of the words from one language to the next, we also have to transfer the tone of the language, and in the previous verse we were told, unequivocally, that it was mocking.
22:7 VE ANOCHI TOLA'AT VE LO ISH CHERPAT ADAM U VEZU'I AM
וְאָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ חֶרְפַּת אָדָם וּבְזוּי עָם
KJ (22:6): But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
BN: But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
TOLA'AT: There is a Tol'a in the Torah. Is this metaphorical, or is it just coincidence among these journeys to the Underworld that there should be worms! Because without the worms - whether the tiniest of tiny or the ones we imagine must be huge monsters - how would all that dead matter get biodegraded and provide the nitrogen for next year's fertility?
VEZU'I: But this is also, or perhaps instead, a metaphorical worm. Why despised? Is this a continuation of VOSHU in the previous verse? The next verse tells us that it is, and we can therefore deduce that the mockers are either atheists or, less likely, followers of different cults. To them he is a worm; to himself he is a man of faith, and unashamed to be so.
22:8 KOL RO'AI YAL'IGU LI YAPHTIYRU VE SAPHAH YANIY'U ROSH
כָּל רֹאַי יַלְעִגוּ לִי יַפְטִירוּ בְשָׂפָה יָנִיעוּ רֹאשׁ
KJ (22:7): All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
BN: Everyone who sees me laughs me to scorn; they make faces and shake their heads.
22:9 GOL EL YHVH YEPHALTEHU YATSIYLEHU KI CHAPHETS BO
גֹּל אֶל יְהוָה יְפַלְּטֵהוּ יַצִּילֵהוּ כִּי חָפֵץ בּוֹ
KJ (22:8): He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
BN: "Let him commit himself to YHVH! Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him, seeing what delight he finds in him."
GOL: See my note on this at Psalm 21:2.
As well as transferring the culture of the words from one language to the next, we also have to transfer the tone of the language, and in the previous verse we were told, unequivocally, that it was mocking.
22:10 KI ATAH GOCHI MI BATEN MAVTIYCHI AL SHEDEY IMI
כִּי אַתָּה גֹחִי מִבָּטֶן מַבְטִיחִי עַל שְׁדֵי אִמִּי
KJ (22:9): But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
BN: For you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust when I was upon my mother's breasts.
GOCHI: Does that connect to Giychon, the snake-pool at the foot of Hinnom? Or probably I need to say "worm-pool", in this context.
MI BATEN MAVTIYCHI: So the anatomical-veterinary was not accidental. Here too the "delivery" is midwifed by the deity. But it does leave me wondering if these PALAT and MALAT phrases are not a hint that these were once hymns to the mother-goddess, rather than the sun-god (YHVH with that residue). It makes much more sense of AYELET HA SHACHAR - in my Egyptian parallel it is Nut the sky-goddess whose thighs open to give birth to the new day. And it would allow the female to PALAT while the male MOSHI'As - both forms of "delivery", but the one rather more legal-spiritual and even governmental, the other purely Nature.
AL SHEDEY: Seems to be a play on words with El Shadai, which would be the logical god to pun on in the context, especially if I am right about Giychon.
22:11 ALEYCHA HASHLACHTI ME RACHEM MI BETEN IMI ELI ATAH
KJ (22:10): I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
BN: I have been thrown upon your mercy since I was born; you have been my god since I came out of my mother's womb.
AL SHEDEY: Seems to be a play on words with El Shadai, which would be the logical god to pun on in the context, especially if I am right about Giychon.
22:11 ALEYCHA HASHLACHTI ME RACHEM MI BETEN IMI ELI ATAH
עָלֶיךָ הָשְׁלַכְתִּי מֵרָחֶם מִבֶּטֶן אִמִּי אֵלִי אָתָּה
KJ (22:10): I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
BN: I have been thrown upon your mercy since I was born; you have been my god since I came out of my mother's womb.
HASHLACHTI: Why not HUSHLACHTI, if this is the Hiph'il passive (which is to say the Huphal) - as with MUDBAK in verse 16? I think this is a Masoretic error. Worth looking at this link for all the other usages of this word: Yishma-El abandoned by Hagar while she went in search of water for him (Genesis 21:15), Yoseph cast into the pit (Genesis 37:20), the Yisra-Eli firstborn thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22)... et al. SHALACH, the root, means "to send", but this is passive causative, making somebody "be sent", a casting away, with emphasis on the "away". So David here is cast upon the deity like a babe at its mother's breast. So the tent of the sky becomes the tent of the uterus, and again we have to ask if this was not a hymn to the moon-goddess originally, because male gods have number sevens, not number fifteens (Yud-Hey, which spells Yah, and numerically 15, the number of the full moon).
RACHEM: See Exodus 34:6, including my note there. And also this link, which explains the Thirteen Attributes of the deity, the first of which, like the first of the attributes of al-Lah in Islam, is "mercy" or "compassion" - RACHUM in Yehudit: the protective womb.
22:12 AL TIRCHAK MIMENI KI TSARAH KEROVAH KI EYN OZER
KJ (22:11): Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
BN: Do not go far from me, for trouble is near, and there is nobody to provide help.
22:13 SEVAVUNI PARIM RABIM ABIYREY VASHAN KITRUNI
KJ (22:12): Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
BN: Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan have made a circle around me.
If we were able to go back to the origins of the David myths, we would find ourselves in precisely the same realm as those of Hera-Kles in the Greek, or Hercules in the Roman (to name but those two), tales of the Earth-god being pursued month-by-month through the wilderness of the Netherworld, performing his labours in each month, in order that the fertile world should be able to overcome the drawing towards sterile infertility which is the domain of the Lord of She'ol. Different labours in each month because each month is different: in July the armaments of She'ol are midges and mosquitoes, bees and hornets, overgrown nettles and the hidden thorns on the rose-branches, whereas in January the enemy is frost, hail, thunder, storm.
22:12 AL TIRCHAK MIMENI KI TSARAH KEROVAH KI EYN OZER
אַל תִּרְחַק מִמֶּנִּי כִּי צָרָה קְרוֹבָה כִּי אֵין עוֹזֵר
KJ (22:11): Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
BN: Do not go far from me, for trouble is near, and there is nobody to provide help.
22:13 SEVAVUNI PARIM RABIM ABIYREY VASHAN KITRUNI
סְבָבוּנִי פָּרִים רַבִּים אַבִּירֵי בָשָׁן כִּתְּרוּנִי
KJ (22:12): Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
BN: Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan have made a circle around me.
If we were able to go back to the origins of the David myths, we would find ourselves in precisely the same realm as those of Hera-Kles in the Greek, or Hercules in the Roman (to name but those two), tales of the Earth-god being pursued month-by-month through the wilderness of the Netherworld, performing his labours in each month, in order that the fertile world should be able to overcome the drawing towards sterile infertility which is the domain of the Lord of She'ol. Different labours in each month because each month is different: in July the armaments of She'ol are midges and mosquitoes, bees and hornets, overgrown nettles and the hidden thorns on the rose-branches, whereas in January the enemy is frost, hail, thunder, storm.
The bulls also take us back to the origins by a different route: the ascendancy of Taurus in the heavens belongs to the years 4400-2200 BCE (click here). Had the Psalm been written in the epoch that followed, these would have been rams, not bulls; and after that a sea-monster (click here for an explanation).
BASHAN: And why Bashan here? Who can say, but Bashan is the Golan Heights, and it was as much a war-zone then as it is today. Perhaps it was just an idiom. In the Hera-Kles version, the Bull was Cretan, and Crete was to Greece very much as the Golan to Kena'an. Click here to read that version, and then wonder about the seeming coincidence that David's first kingship was at Tsiklag, fighting alongside the Pelishtim against Sha'ul. The Pelishtim were refugees from Crete, forced to abandon their homeland when Knossos fell - and Knossos was the labyrinthine home of the Cretan Bull, the Minotaur. I wonder if we shouldn't retranslate this verse as
Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan have enclosed me in their maze.
ABIYREY: Lots of words for "strong", "mighty", "powerful", in Yehudit, as there are in English. But ABIYREY is not usually one of them. In some parts of the Middle East Av-Ram was known as Av-Raham, elsewhere as Ibrahim, and Abiy-Ram or Avi-Ram are far from uncommon. All from the same root. The Great Father. (Brahma in Sanskrit. Ar Thur in Brythonic. Jupiter in Latin).
22:14 PATSU ALAI PIYHEM ARYEH TOREPH VE SHO'EG
פָּצוּ עָלַי פִּיהֶם אַרְיֵה טֹרֵף וְשֹׁאֵג
KJ (22:13): They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
BN: They opened their mouths towards me, like a tearing, roaring lion.
Bulls mixed up with lions! Or are we in Keruv (cherub) territory again - the four-beasted beast? For the Herculean tale of the Nemean lion, click here. But in fact the bulls are only being compared to the lions, equated for their ferocity.
PATSU: Go back to verse 8, where they were mocking him. And then look at Lamentations 2:16, where PATSU is definitely "mocking", or Job 35:16, where the mouths are open to speak empty words, not to devour available prey. Which of the two is it here? Probably both.
TOREPH: And didn't we have TOHAR in a previous Psalm (19:10 is the answer)? I used the Yiddish word Treyf to explain it, and here it is now, in its Yehudit original. The non-kosher meat of an animal savaged and torn by a wild beast.
22:15 KA MAYIM NISHPACHTI VE HITPARDU KOL ATSMOTAI HAYAH LIBI KA DONAG NAMES BETOCH ME'AI
כַּמַּיִם נִשְׁפַּכְתִּי וְהִתְפָּרְדוּ כָּל עַצְמוֹתָי הָיָה לִבִּי כַּדּוֹנָג נָמֵס בְּתוֹךְ מֵעָי
KJ (22:14): I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
BN: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; {N} my heart has turned to wax and melted inside me.
NAMES: is that the source of the modern Ivrit NIMAS LI?
AI: We have encountered this previously as a place...and specifically as a "ruined" place.
22:16 YAVESH KA CHERES KOCHI U LESHONI MUDBAK MALKOCHAI VE LA APHAR MAVET TISHPETENI
KJ (22:15): My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
BN: My energy has dried out like a clay pot, and my tongue is stuck in my jaw; you might as well lay me down in the dust of death.
Sounds more like the flu than depression! Though it is really just an anthropomorphisation of Winter. T.S. Eliot's Wasteland, desperate for a flowering lilac tee!
22:17 KI SEVAVUNI KELAVIM ADAT MERE'IM HIKIYPHUNI KA ARI YADAI VE RAGLAI
KJ (22:16): For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
BN: For dogs have surrounded me; a company of evil-doers has enclosed me; like a lion, they have left stigmata in my hands and feet.
Exacty like the bulls in verse 8. And again the comparison with the lion - which is of course the emblem-animal of David's tribe, Yehudah.
HIKIYPHUNI: I am following Gesenius on this, because he has the expertise in Chaldean, where he claims the root derives, and means "to cut"; but he also finds it in later Assyrian, and says of it "to fasten together, as by nails; to join together; to cleave together; specially used of something with a clasp which, returning back to itself, forms a circle (compare 'border', 'bracelet'). Hence 'to go in a circle...'" for which he specifically quotes Isaiah 29:1, which he translates as "let the feasts go their round" and then adds "i.e when the circle of the yearly feasts is ended, after the space of a year."
22:18 ASAPER KOL ATSMOTAI HEMAH YABIYTU YIR'U VI
KJ (22:17): I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
BN: I may count all my bones; they just look at me and gloat.
ASAPER: Presumably, when humans still lived in caves and hadn't yet invented abacuses, let alone GCSEs, people counted on their fingers, while naming the numbers one by one; but even when literacy and numeracy developed, the same verb was still used for both the "telling" and the "counting", though the latter then developed as the "writing" too, as in SEPHER for a scroll or book. Fascinating thing, language!
As an account of severe, chronic, manic depression, this Psalm is as good as anything by Anne Sexton or Robert Lowell or Sylvia Plath! As an account of the wasteland, it is not however in T.S. Eliot's league. But which of these two is it? Click here for more on the first of these.
22:19 YECHALKU VEGADAI LAHEM VE AL LEVUSHI YAPILU GORAL
KJ (22:18): They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
BN: They share out my daily garments among themselves, but they cast lots for my official robes.
YECHALKU: Did I fail to mention, with MALKOCHAI at verse 16, that the word is equally used for "prey", which is what animals take, and also "booty", which is the human provenance? And of course LAKACH and YECHALKU are anagramatical, which is yet one more linguistic device much favoured in the Psalms.
22:21 HATSIYLAH ME CHEREV NAPHSHI MI YAD KELEV YECHIYDATI
KJ (22:20): Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
BN: Deliver my soul from the sword; my beloved from the power of the dog.
CHEREV: Probably he means the military sword, but we can't hear CHEREV in a mythological context and not hear the swirling sound made by the swastika as it twirls and twirls at the entrance to the shrine: the LAHAT HA CHEREV of Genesis 3:24.
HISTIR PANAV: A full explanation of this concept can be found at.... alas, I haven't finished writing it yet. In brief: the opposite of the YEVARECHECHA. In that latter, the sun-god turns his face to shine on us, and all is well with the world; in the former, the clouds block the face of the sun, and all is not at all well with the world.
22:26 ME IT'CHA TEHILATI BE KAHAL RAV NEDARAI ASHALEM NEGED YERE'AV
KJ (22:25): My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
BN: From Thee cometh my praise in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before them that fear Him.
TEHILATI: See my note at verse 4.
22:27 YOCHLU ANAVIM VE YISBA'U YEHALELU YHVH DORSHAV YECHI LEVAVECHEM LA AD
KJ (22:26): The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
BN: Let the humble eat and be satisfied; let those who praise YHVH seek after him; {N} may your heart be quickened for ever!
LO CHIYAH: Meaning "find his daily bread"; the construct is physical, not spiritual. But it also endorses my comment about APHSEY at verse 28 - should we then translate APHSEY as "dependents" rather than "nobodies"?
22:31 ZERA YA'AVDENU YESUPAR LA'DONAI LA DOR
KJ (22:30): A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
BN: All seed shall serve him; it shall be recounted of YHVH unto the next generation.
22:32 YAVO'U VE YAGIYDU TSIDKATO LE AM NOLAD KI ASAH
KJ (22:31): They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
BN: They shall come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be be born, that he has done it. {P}
And so the dawn breaks, the light of hope emerges, and the journey through the mythological, psychological and spiritual Underworlds has arrived... at Ayelet ha Shachar, exactly as the title promised.
AI: We have encountered this previously as a place...and specifically as a "ruined" place.
22:16 YAVESH KA CHERES KOCHI U LESHONI MUDBAK MALKOCHAI VE LA APHAR MAVET TISHPETENI
יָבֵשׁ כַּחֶרֶשׂ כֹּחִי וּלְשׁוֹנִי מֻדְבָּק מַלְקוֹחָי וְלַעֲפַר מָוֶת תִּשְׁפְּתֵנִי
KJ (22:15): My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
BN: My energy has dried out like a clay pot, and my tongue is stuck in my jaw; you might as well lay me down in the dust of death.
Sounds more like the flu than depression! Though it is really just an anthropomorphisation of Winter. T.S. Eliot's Wasteland, desperate for a flowering lilac tee!
MALKOCHAI: Used to mean "jaws" or "jowls", but for some reason it is also used to mean... exactly what those lions are seeking: "prey" (cf Numbers 31:12). The answer probably lies in Isaiah 49:24, which puns on KACH as LAKACH ("to take"), and KACH as KO'ACH ("strength"), just as the poet is doing here.
22:17 KI SEVAVUNI KELAVIM ADAT MERE'IM HIKIYPHUNI KA ARI YADAI VE RAGLAI
כִּי סְבָבוּנִי כְּלָבִים עֲדַת מְרֵעִים הִקִּיפוּנִי כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי
KJ (22:16): For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
BN: For dogs have surrounded me; a company of evil-doers has enclosed me; like a lion, they have left stigmata in my hands and feet.
Exacty like the bulls in verse 8. And again the comparison with the lion - which is of course the emblem-animal of David's tribe, Yehudah.
HIKIYPHUNI: I am following Gesenius on this, because he has the expertise in Chaldean, where he claims the root derives, and means "to cut"; but he also finds it in later Assyrian, and says of it "to fasten together, as by nails; to join together; to cleave together; specially used of something with a clasp which, returning back to itself, forms a circle (compare 'border', 'bracelet'). Hence 'to go in a circle...'" for which he specifically quotes Isaiah 29:1, which he translates as "let the feasts go their round" and then adds "i.e when the circle of the yearly feasts is ended, after the space of a year."
All of which simply confirms what we have been saying about David as the, so-to-speak, Paschal Heifer, and these as his version of the Heraklean Labours.
22:18 ASAPER KOL ATSMOTAI HEMAH YABIYTU YIR'U VI
אֲסַפֵּר כָּל עַצְמוֹתָי הֵמָּה יַבִּיטוּ יִרְאוּ בִי
KJ (22:17): I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
BN: I may count all my bones; they just look at me and gloat.
ASAPER: Presumably, when humans still lived in caves and hadn't yet invented abacuses, let alone GCSEs, people counted on their fingers, while naming the numbers one by one; but even when literacy and numeracy developed, the same verb was still used for both the "telling" and the "counting", though the latter then developed as the "writing" too, as in SEPHER for a scroll or book. Fascinating thing, language!
As an account of severe, chronic, manic depression, this Psalm is as good as anything by Anne Sexton or Robert Lowell or Sylvia Plath! As an account of the wasteland, it is not however in T.S. Eliot's league. But which of these two is it? Click here for more on the first of these.
22:19 YECHALKU VEGADAI LAHEM VE AL LEVUSHI YAPILU GORAL
יְחַלְּקוּ בְגָדַי לָהֶם וְעַל לְבוּשִׁי יַפִּילוּ גוֹרָל
KJ (22:18): They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
BN: They share out my daily garments among themselves, but they cast lots for my official robes.
YECHALKU: Did I fail to mention, with MALKOCHAI at verse 16, that the word is equally used for "prey", which is what animals take, and also "booty", which is the human provenance? And of course LAKACH and YECHALKU are anagramatical, which is yet one more linguistic device much favoured in the Psalms.
VEGADAI...LEVUSHI: What is the difference? As per my translation. But that is only one level of this. The root of BAGAD also gives us "cheating", "fraud" and general dishonesty", so we are metaphoring again - cf Exodus 21:8, 1 Samuel 14:33... but even worse at Isaiah 33:1, where it is "spoilage", "ravaged"; and utter "treachery" and "perfidy" in Zephaniah 3:4.
As to LEVUSHI, see Psalm 104:1.
But this isn't really about either manic depression or the wasteland; it is about the taking down of the Beloved Son into the Underworld. And so we who know the Jesus version of this myth are not surprised to find King David's equivalent with the Roman soldiers, casting lots for the sharing of his garments (Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, John 19:23/24). Clearly it was part of the ritual from ancient times.
22:20 VE ATAH YHVH AL TIRCHAK EYALUTI LE EZRATI CHUSHAH
KJ (22:19): But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
BN: But you, YHVH, do not distance yourself. You, my strength, hurry up and help me.
EYALUTI: Almost as if the poet were creating a verb "to god" - the EYLON being the very tree upon whose bough the sacrificial king was hanged, while the AYAL is the male form of the AYELET, the "encircling" theme, if I may put it that way, of the Psalm. And AYIL (see Psalm 88:5 especially) is yet another word for "strength".
22:20 VE ATAH YHVH AL TIRCHAK EYALUTI LE EZRATI CHUSHAH
וְאַתָּה יְהוָה אַל תִּרְחָק אֱיָלוּתִי לְעֶזְרָתִי חוּשָׁה
KJ (22:19): But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
BN: But you, YHVH, do not distance yourself. You, my strength, hurry up and help me.
EYALUTI: Almost as if the poet were creating a verb "to god" - the EYLON being the very tree upon whose bough the sacrificial king was hanged, while the AYAL is the male form of the AYELET, the "encircling" theme, if I may put it that way, of the Psalm. And AYIL (see Psalm 88:5 especially) is yet another word for "strength".
22:21 HATSIYLAH ME CHEREV NAPHSHI MI YAD KELEV YECHIYDATI
הַצִּילָה מֵחֶרֶב נַפְשִׁי מִיַּד כֶּלֶב יְחִידָתִי
KJ (22:20): Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
BN: Deliver my soul from the sword; my beloved from the power of the dog.
CHEREV: Probably he means the military sword, but we can't hear CHEREV in a mythological context and not hear the swirling sound made by the swastika as it twirls and twirls at the entrance to the shrine: the LAHAT HA CHEREV of Genesis 3:24.
But who is this dog, and why does he figure so prominently? David's second kingship (his first in Tsiklag was among the Philistines) was at Chevron, and really it shouldn't have been, because Chevron was awarded by Mosheh, and the award confirmed by Yehoshu'a, to Chalev ben Yephuneh... a portrait of whom can be found at the top of the link to his name; though you will learn rather more about him, his relation to David's Vega in Lyra, his own relationship with Orion, and the reason why he is is barking at the hind of the dawn in this Psalm, by clicking here, or here. In the Chinese calendar, which likewise is based on number twelve, the Year of the Dog last occurred in 2018.
And why is his beloved threatened? His beloved is the moon, the brightest light in the night sky - except when the dawn comes, as it has done in this Psalm, and she is fading, but Sirius, the dog-star, is still the brightest star in the night sky.
YECHIYDATI: What is the difference between YECHIYD and YEDID, "darling" and "beloved"? Really YECHID means "only", so the spouse to whom you are faithful is your "only one", whereas you can be entirely unfaithful to any number of mistresses or toy-boys, and still call each one of them "beloved". YEDID is not actually used here, but it is the first half of David's name, when rendered in full, YEDID-YAH, "the beloved of the moon-goddess". So he is her YEDID, but she is his YECHIYD: sister, mother or spouse, depending on which phase she is in at the time.
22:22 HOSHIY'ENI MI PI ARYEH U MI KARNEY REMIM ANIYTANI
KJ (22:21): Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
BN: Save me from the lion's mouth; from the horns of the wild-oxen answer me.
Gradually it becomes clear that all these animals who are his enemies are in fact cosmological references, and that it is the position of Lyra, David's star, in relation to all the other stars that is really the subject of this poem... a means of drawing an astronomical map in the days before Hubble.
I think Hercules in the adjacent map should be Hera-Kles, and wonder if it shouldn't also be Gol-Yat, which is to say Goliath - the proximity makes the suggestion very compelling. Vulpecula means "little fox", and three hundred of those little foxes feature prominently in the Shimshon, which is to say Samson, tales (Judges 15:4), and Shimshon is the Philistine Hera-Kles. Vega (which comes from the Arabic and means "swooping eagle") is the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra, the fifth-brightest star in the whole of the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern hemisphere - Arcturus is the brightest. Cygnus is the Northern Cross, and forms one of the points of the so-called "Summer Triangle". No wonder Lyra is David's (and also his Greek counterpart Orpheus') star!
HOSHIY'ENI...ANITANI: In English, I would prefer to have the second half of this as "answer me from the horns of the wild-oxen", but the original makes deliberate bookends of the verbs, and that form needs to be respected.
22:23 ASAPRAH SHIMCHA LE ECHAI BETOCH KAHAL AHALELECHA
KJ (22:22): I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
BN: I will recount your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
ASAPRAH: The same verb that was used in verse 18, but its meaning there appears to be different. Or is it? He has been annotating the names of the constellations - his ECHAI in the heavens. Does "recount" allow us, in English, both meanings? We recount a tale; we re-count an election - it all depends on where you place the stress.
ECHAI: The brethren of the human being the congregation, sub-divided into twelve tribes; the brethren of the Dog-Star being the Zodiac, sub-divided into twelve constellations.
22:24 YIR'EY YHVH HALELUHU KOL ZERA YA'AKOV KABDUHU VE GURU MIMENU KOL ZERA YISRA-EL
KJ (22:23): Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
BN: You who fear YHVH, praise him. All of you, the seed of Ya'akov, glorify him; {N} and stand in awe of him, all you seed of Yisra-El.
YECHIYDATI: What is the difference between YECHIYD and YEDID, "darling" and "beloved"? Really YECHID means "only", so the spouse to whom you are faithful is your "only one", whereas you can be entirely unfaithful to any number of mistresses or toy-boys, and still call each one of them "beloved". YEDID is not actually used here, but it is the first half of David's name, when rendered in full, YEDID-YAH, "the beloved of the moon-goddess". So he is her YEDID, but she is his YECHIYD: sister, mother or spouse, depending on which phase she is in at the time.
22:22 HOSHIY'ENI MI PI ARYEH U MI KARNEY REMIM ANIYTANI
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי מִפִּי אַרְיֵה וּמִקַּרְנֵי רֵמִים עֲנִיתָנִי
KJ (22:21): Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
BN: Save me from the lion's mouth; from the horns of the wild-oxen answer me.
I think Hercules in the adjacent map should be Hera-Kles, and wonder if it shouldn't also be Gol-Yat, which is to say Goliath - the proximity makes the suggestion very compelling. Vulpecula means "little fox", and three hundred of those little foxes feature prominently in the Shimshon, which is to say Samson, tales (Judges 15:4), and Shimshon is the Philistine Hera-Kles. Vega (which comes from the Arabic and means "swooping eagle") is the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra, the fifth-brightest star in the whole of the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern hemisphere - Arcturus is the brightest. Cygnus is the Northern Cross, and forms one of the points of the so-called "Summer Triangle". No wonder Lyra is David's (and also his Greek counterpart Orpheus') star!
HOSHIY'ENI...ANITANI: In English, I would prefer to have the second half of this as "answer me from the horns of the wild-oxen", but the original makes deliberate bookends of the verbs, and that form needs to be respected.
22:23 ASAPRAH SHIMCHA LE ECHAI BETOCH KAHAL AHALELECHA
אֲסַפְּרָה שִׁמְךָ לְאֶחָי בְּתוֹךְ קָהָל אֲהַלְלֶךָּ
KJ (22:22): I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
BN: I will recount your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
ASAPRAH: The same verb that was used in verse 18, but its meaning there appears to be different. Or is it? He has been annotating the names of the constellations - his ECHAI in the heavens. Does "recount" allow us, in English, both meanings? We recount a tale; we re-count an election - it all depends on where you place the stress.
ECHAI: The brethren of the human being the congregation, sub-divided into twelve tribes; the brethren of the Dog-Star being the Zodiac, sub-divided into twelve constellations.
22:24 YIR'EY YHVH HALELUHU KOL ZERA YA'AKOV KABDUHU VE GURU MIMENU KOL ZERA YISRA-EL
יִרְאֵי יְהוָה הַלְלוּהוּ כָּל זֶרַע יַעֲקֹב כַּבְּדוּהוּ וְגוּרוּ מִמֶּנּוּ כָּל זֶרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ (22:23): Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
BN: You who fear YHVH, praise him. All of you, the seed of Ya'akov, glorify him; {N} and stand in awe of him, all you seed of Yisra-El.
And remember that "the seed of Yisra-El" means the 12 tribes, who are themselves the 12 constellations, first dreamed by Ya'akov when he looked up at the Milky Way in Genesis 28:12 - the "angels of Elohim" being the messengers of the deity, sent out in the form of light from the horoscopal Round Table of the heavens - and then oracled by him in the Hikavtsu of Genesis 49.
HALELUHU: Note this. When YHVH is addressed, this is the form. Hallelu-Yah is specifically the moon-goddess.
22:25 KI LO VAZAH VE LO SHIKATS ENUT ANI VE LO HISTIR PANAV MIMENU U VE SHAV'O ELAV SHAME'A
KJ (22:24): For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
BN: For he has neither despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor; nor has he hidden his face from him; {N} but when he cried out to him, he heard.
HALELUHU: Note this. When YHVH is addressed, this is the form. Hallelu-Yah is specifically the moon-goddess.
22:25 KI LO VAZAH VE LO SHIKATS ENUT ANI VE LO HISTIR PANAV MIMENU U VE SHAV'O ELAV SHAME'A
כִּי לֹא בָזָה וְלֹא שִׁקַּץ עֱנוּת עָנִי וְלֹא הִסְתִּיר פָּנָיו מִמֶּנּוּ וּבְשַׁוְּעוֹ אֵלָיו שָׁמֵעַ
KJ (22:24): For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
BN: For he has neither despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor; nor has he hidden his face from him; {N} but when he cried out to him, he heard.
HISTIR PANAV: A full explanation of this concept can be found at.... alas, I haven't finished writing it yet. In brief: the opposite of the YEVARECHECHA. In that latter, the sun-god turns his face to shine on us, and all is well with the world; in the former, the clouds block the face of the sun, and all is not at all well with the world.
22:26 ME IT'CHA TEHILATI BE KAHAL RAV NEDARAI ASHALEM NEGED YERE'AV
מֵאִתְּךָ תְהִלָּתִי בְּקָהָל רָב נְדָרַי אֲשַׁלֵּם נֶגֶד יְרֵאָיו
KJ (22:25): My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
BN: From Thee cometh my praise in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before them that fear Him.
TEHILATI: See my note at verse 4.
22:27 YOCHLU ANAVIM VE YISBA'U YEHALELU YHVH DORSHAV YECHI LEVAVECHEM LA AD
יֹאכְלוּ עֲנָוִים וְיִשְׂבָּעוּ יְהַלְלוּ יְהוָה דֹּרְשָׁיו יְחִי לְבַבְכֶם לָעַד
KJ (22:26): The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
BN: Let the humble eat and be satisfied; let those who praise YHVH seek after him; {N} may your heart be quickened for ever!
Isn't the middle section of this the wrong way around? First seek, then praise when you find.
22:28 YIZKERU VE YASHUVU EL YHVH KOL APHSEY ARETS VE YISHTACHAVU LEPHANEYCHA KOL MISHPECHOT GOYIM
KJ (22:27): All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
BN: All the nobodies who inhabit the Earth shall remember and turn to YHVH; {N} and all the families of nations shall prostrate themselves before you.
APHSEY: Ephes = Zero, which is a beginning as much as it might be an end, and not an end at all in an infinite, eternal universe; so it could be translated as "ends", but it really is pushing the avoidance to its limits (pun intended).
22:28 YIZKERU VE YASHUVU EL YHVH KOL APHSEY ARETS VE YISHTACHAVU LEPHANEYCHA KOL MISHPECHOT GOYIM
יִזְכְּרוּ וְיָשֻׁבוּ אֶל יְהוָה כָּל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְפָנֶיךָ כָּל מִשְׁפְּחוֹת גּוֹיִם
KJ (22:27): All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
BN: All the nobodies who inhabit the Earth shall remember and turn to YHVH; {N} and all the families of nations shall prostrate themselves before you.
APHSEY: Ephes = Zero, which is a beginning as much as it might be an end, and not an end at all in an infinite, eternal universe; so it could be translated as "ends", but it really is pushing the avoidance to its limits (pun intended).
Nor is "nobodies" a derogation. Humans are merely one of the millions of YHVH's creations, a creature who serves (AVODAH as worship, AVODAH as slavery; AVODAH as service, in both of those - see verse 31), and anything they do well is because YHVH did it for them.
22:29 KI LA YHVH HA MELUCHAH U MOSHEL BA GOYIM
KJ (22:28): For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
BN: For the kingdom belongs to YHVH; and he is the ruler over the nations.
22:30 ACHLU VA YISHTACHAVU KOL DISHNEY ERETS LEPHANAV YICHRE'U KOL YORDEY APHAR VE NAPHSHO LO CHIYAH
KJ (22:29): All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
BN: All the fat ones of the Earth shall eat and worship; all those who go down into the dust shall kneel before him; {N} and he too who cannot sustain his own soul.
DISHNEY ERETS: Is this intended as the opposite of the APHSEY, in verse 28? DESHEN is usually the succulent juices of the ripe fruits (cf Psalm 92:14, Isaiah 30:23), which makes it an image of fully achieved fertility - the Earth-and-corn god at his apogee - and as such an equivalent of "the land of milk and honey". If so, then we have to assume the same parallel is intended here as with the congregation above: both the humans who have prospered, and the fruits of the Earth alongside them. And the use of the word ZERA in verse 24 and 31 likewise affirms this.
22:29 KI LA YHVH HA MELUCHAH U MOSHEL BA GOYIM
כִּי לַיהוָה הַמְּלוּכָה וּמֹשֵׁל בַּגּוֹיִם
KJ (22:28): For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
BN: For the kingdom belongs to YHVH; and he is the ruler over the nations.
22:30 ACHLU VA YISHTACHAVU KOL DISHNEY ERETS LEPHANAV YICHRE'U KOL YORDEY APHAR VE NAPHSHO LO CHIYAH
אָכְלוּ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ כָּל דִּשְׁנֵי אֶרֶץ לְפָנָיו יִכְרְעוּ כָּל יוֹרְדֵי עָפָר וְנַפְשׁוֹ לֹא חִיָּה
KJ (22:29): All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
BN: All the fat ones of the Earth shall eat and worship; all those who go down into the dust shall kneel before him; {N} and he too who cannot sustain his own soul.
DISHNEY ERETS: Is this intended as the opposite of the APHSEY, in verse 28? DESHEN is usually the succulent juices of the ripe fruits (cf Psalm 92:14, Isaiah 30:23), which makes it an image of fully achieved fertility - the Earth-and-corn god at his apogee - and as such an equivalent of "the land of milk and honey". If so, then we have to assume the same parallel is intended here as with the congregation above: both the humans who have prospered, and the fruits of the Earth alongside them. And the use of the word ZERA in verse 24 and 31 likewise affirms this.
LO CHIYAH: Meaning "find his daily bread"; the construct is physical, not spiritual. But it also endorses my comment about APHSEY at verse 28 - should we then translate APHSEY as "dependents" rather than "nobodies"?
22:31 ZERA YA'AVDENU YESUPAR LA'DONAI LA DOR
זֶרַע יַעַבְדֶנּוּ יְסֻפַּר לַאדֹנָי לַדּוֹר
KJ (22:30): A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
BN: All seed shall serve him; it shall be recounted of YHVH unto the next generation.
YA'AVDENU: See my note at verse 28. The human seed do it in the Temple or the synagogue, or in the "obedience" of their daily lives; the seeds of Nature in the fields, on the trees, in the oceans.
YESUPAR: Definitely "recounted" on this occasion!
YESUPAR: Definitely "recounted" on this occasion!
LA DOR: To the next generation. Unusual this; the norm is DOR LA DOR, a continued recounting into every "next generation".
22:32 YAVO'U VE YAGIYDU TSIDKATO LE AM NOLAD KI ASAH
יָבֹאוּ וְיַגִּידוּ צִדְקָתוֹ לְעַם נוֹלָד כִּי עָשָׂה
KJ (22:31): They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
BN: They shall come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be be born, that he has done it. {P}
And so the dawn breaks, the light of hope emerges, and the journey through the mythological, psychological and spiritual Underworlds has arrived... at Ayelet ha Shachar, exactly as the title promised.
SurfTheSite
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