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
לְדָוִד אֵלֶיךָ יְהוָה נַפְשִׁי אֶשָּׂא
KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm of David.) Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
BN: For David. To you, YHVH, I lift up my soul.
YHVH NAPHSHI ES'A: On this occasion it is by no means obvious whether that opening verse is a title or not. Clearly KJ thinks the latter, and has therefore placed the descriptor in parenthesis - though it has also assumed that the word MIZMOR (Psalm or song) is missing, which it is not. There is a dedication - LE DAVID, "For David", and then the phrase, which may be the title, or may simply be the opening of what continues in verse 2.
And this is where the problem really lies, principally because of the word-play around EL, ELOHIM and ELEYCHA. ELEYCHA in principle has nothing to do with any gods, but simply means "to you". But it is in the plural, where YHVH, to whom it apparently refers, is singular (and would therefore have LECHA). Was the original Psalm in fact addressed to the ELIM, or ELOHIM, and adopted-adapted as a YHVH Psalm later on? In which case it is a rather obvious and inevitable word-game, and the only surprise is that we haven't seen it previously. But is also leaves us wondering: at what point in history did the rather sloppy modification take place. Rhythmically the word YHVH is extraneous too, which adds weight to the hypothesis. But the key to this lies in the very next verse, where the addressee shifts (or probably "shifts back") from YHVH to ELOHAI.
And then there is an additional layer, because this will become an accrostical poem, each verse taking the next letter in the aleph-bet as its initial: Gam in verse 3, Deracheycha in verse 4, etc. But that requires 22 verses, and this Psalm has 22 verses, including the verse that may or may not be the title; only that opening verse... but wait, what if the dedication is regarded as completely separate from the rest of the opening line, which is how a dedication should appear? Then the first verse begins with ELEYCHA, which has an initial Aleph. And the second verse ditto, repeating the Aleph - with BECHA providing the Bet for the accrostic, and VATACHTI a second Bet to match the double-Aleph... and if you continue to follow this, you will find the doubling repeated frequently, though not always, as with the Kaf in verse 3, for the aleph-betical accrostic. And internal rhymes throughout, usually at the caesura, and... sophisticated poets, these ancients!
25:2 ELOHAI BECHA VATACHTI AL EVOSHAH AL YA'ALTSU OYEVAI LI
אֱלֹהַי בְּךָ בָטַחְתִּי אַל אֵבוֹשָׁה אַל יַעַלְצוּ אֹיְבַי לִי
KJ: O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
BN: I have placed my trust in you, my gods. Do not make me ashamed. Do not allow my enemies to triumph over me.
ELOHAI: Plural, but with BECHA in the singular. The concept of "the gods" as a polytheon, a compound noun; but still not yet monotheism.
25:3 GAM KOL KVEYCHA LO YEVOSHU YEVOSHU HA BOGDIM REYKAM
גַּם כָּל קוֶֹיךָ לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ יֵבֹשׁוּ הַבּוֹגְדִים רֵיקָם
BN: No one who waits expectantly for you shall ever be ashamed; the ones who should be ashamed are the ones who have learned how to fake sincerity.
GAM: Literally means "also", but that doesn't make sense in the context. It is being used to add significant emphasis, whence my translation.
KVEYCHA: sounds terribly Yiddish to me, and not Yehudit at all; have I missed a vowel after the Kuph? The answer to which lies in the perennially problematic Vav, which simply doesn't have anywhere obvious to place vowels, or if you do you always leave behind two possibilities for pronunciation. So, yes, there is a vowel after the Kuph, but it sits on top of the Vav, which also renders the Vav a Vav, rather than an OO; and this is necessary, because the root is KAVAH, and that Vav has to be pronounced - normally the problem would be resolved by placing a dagesh inside the letter, to indicate it as doubled, but alas a Vav is a straight line, so it isn't doable. So, yes, this should be KOVEYCHA, but if I had put it as such in the transliteration, that would have precluded the explanation which it also requires.
KOVEYCHA: and then there is the issue of meaning. "Waits" is not precise, neither in the KJ reading as "waiting on", nor in the several Jewish translations, which simply, so to speak, stand in line. A KAV is indeed a line, and may even be a very strong line, used on the scaffold as a rope, or to tie bundles of goods, though that is rather more the Arabic than the Ivrit understanding of the word. And yet it is there in the Yehudit - the MIKVEH, for example (Genesis 1:9), which comes from the same root, a "gathering together" of the waters in a single place, as though they were bound there by a cord. Or look at Jeremiah 3:17 (which will also help clarify my explanation of the Vav medugash, because you can see the problem in full operation there, the wrong Vav medugash, but necessarily, to make the final OO), where it is the nation that is "gathered together".
GAM: Literally means "also", but that doesn't make sense in the context. It is being used to add significant emphasis, whence my translation.
KVEYCHA: sounds terribly Yiddish to me, and not Yehudit at all; have I missed a vowel after the Kuph? The answer to which lies in the perennially problematic Vav, which simply doesn't have anywhere obvious to place vowels, or if you do you always leave behind two possibilities for pronunciation. So, yes, there is a vowel after the Kuph, but it sits on top of the Vav, which also renders the Vav a Vav, rather than an OO; and this is necessary, because the root is KAVAH, and that Vav has to be pronounced - normally the problem would be resolved by placing a dagesh inside the letter, to indicate it as doubled, but alas a Vav is a straight line, so it isn't doable. So, yes, this should be KOVEYCHA, but if I had put it as such in the transliteration, that would have precluded the explanation which it also requires.
KOVEYCHA: and then there is the issue of meaning. "Waits" is not precise, neither in the KJ reading as "waiting on", nor in the several Jewish translations, which simply, so to speak, stand in line. A KAV is indeed a line, and may even be a very strong line, used on the scaffold as a rope, or to tie bundles of goods, though that is rather more the Arabic than the Ivrit understanding of the word. And yet it is there in the Yehudit - the MIKVEH, for example (Genesis 1:9), which comes from the same root, a "gathering together" of the waters in a single place, as though they were bound there by a cord. Or look at Jeremiah 3:17 (which will also help clarify my explanation of the Vav medugash, because you can see the problem in full operation there, the wrong Vav medugash, but necessarily, to make the final OO), where it is the nation that is "gathered together".
But even this does not complete our investigation. From the above we could reasonably deduce that the verse is about people gathering as a congregation to worship the deity. But the Mikveh is Pi'el, and this is Pa'al. And in that form, the root is usually understood as "expectation" - another kind of line, I guess, the furthest point of hope: my choice of phrasing here based on Proverbs 2:22. The root is used, in the Pa'al form, twice more in the Psalms (27:14 and 37:34), and always with that meaning: hope, expectation, trust.
BOGDIM REYKAM: "Who wear empty clothes" is the literal translation; I suspect it would translate very easily into Arabic as Munafiqun.
25:4 DERACHEYCHA YHVH HODIY'ENI ORCHOTEYCHA LAMDENI
דְּרָכֶיךָ יְהוָה הוֹדִיעֵנִי אֹרְחוֹתֶיךָ לַמְּדֵנִי
KJ: Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
BN: Show me your roads, YHVH, Teach me your ways.
ORCHOTEYCHA: I like "ways" because it is conveniently ambivalent; "ways" as in byways and roadways and other physical paths, but also "ways" as in manners, customs, methods.
25:5 HADRIYCHENI VA AMITECHA VE LAMDENI KI ATAH ELOHEY YISH'I OT'CHA KIVIYTI KOL HA YOM
הַדְרִיכֵנִי בַאֲמִתֶּךָ וְלַמְּדֵנִי כִּי אַתָּה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעִי אוֹתְךָ קִוִּיתִי כָּל הַיּוֹם
KJ: Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
BN: Guide me with your truth, and teach me, for you are the gods of my salvation; {N} for you do I wait daily.
ATAH ELOHEY: We have seen this already, but I waited to comment, wanting to have witnessed further examples in order to be sure; and now that it has repeated again, it cannot be sheer accident, coincidence or anything but deliberate: the clearest possible argument against the J/E hypothesis: the clearest possible statement that Elohim means the polytheon, with YHVH the chief deity, sometimes the representative of all of them, as here, sometimes standing alone.
25:6 ZECHOR RACHAMEYCHA YHVH VA CHASADEYCHA KI ME OLAM HEMAH
זְכֹר רַחֲמֶיךָ יְהוָה וַחֲסָדֶיךָ כִּי מֵעוֹלָם הֵמָּה
KJ: Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
BN: Remember your compassion and your mercy, YHVH, for these have been yours throughout eternity.
RACHAMEYCHA...CHASADEYCHA: Two of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
RACHAMEYCHA...CHASADEYCHA: Two of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
25:7 CHAT'OT NE'URAI U PHESHA'AI AL TIZKOR KE CHASDECHA ZECHAR LI ATAH LEMA'AN TUVCHA YHVH
חַטֹּאות נְעוּרַי וּפְשָׁעַי אַל תִּזְכֹּר כְּחַסְדְּךָ זְכָר לִי אַתָּה לְמַעַן טוּבְךָ יְהוָה
KJ: Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.
BN: Do not remember the errors of my youth, nor my transgressions; {N} remember me according to your mercy, for the sake of your goodness, YHVH.
Does this tacitly acknowledge the further errors from after-youth, and invite punishment for them? Or is it simply the poetical language of Selichah? And of course, if our plotology hypothesis is correct, then a new-born earth-god cannot resurrect without cleaning the slate, so Selichah has to be placed where it is in the contents list (and see verse 11 for confirmation of this).
You will notice that I have translated this as "errors" and not as "sins". I am far from convinced that there even is a concept of "sin" in Judaism; it belongs to a Dualistic view of the world, in which the noun "Good" is in permanent combat with the noun "Evil", and happens when a human is pulled into the hegemony of the latter. But in Judaism "good" and "bad" are adjectives, descriptions of choices made by human beings, with responsibility and accountability fully and firmly attached. So there are errors, which are "bad choices", and there are "transgressions", which are rules of whose existence one is aware, but one breaks them anyway.
25:8 TOV VE YASHAR YHVH AL KEN YOREH CHATA'IM BA DARECH
טוֹב וְיָשָׁר יְהוָה עַל כֵּן יוֹרֶה חַטָּאִים בַּדָּרֶךְ
KJ: Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
BN: YHVH is good and upright; that is why he shows transgressors the way.
YOREH: We had LAMDENI two verses back, and now YOREH. A Moreh is a teacher, but in the sense of OR = "light", a person who illuminates: the classroom teacher who hands out worksheets and explains everything on the whiteboard. LAMDENI is the precise opposite: the facilitator of self-learning, who provides the structure within which the student can acquire understanding for him or herself. Here YHVH the sun-god is providing "illumination", as the sun tends to do, once it has risen, and, as per the Yevarechecha, "turned his face to shine on us".
Now go on to the next verse.
25:9 YADRECH ANAVIM BA MISHPAT VIYLAMED ANAVIM DARKO
25:9 YADRECH ANAVIM BA MISHPAT VIYLAMED ANAVIM DARKO
יַדְרֵךְ עֲנָוִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט וִילַמֵּד עֲנָוִים דַּרְכּוֹ
KJ: The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
BN: He guides the humble with his justice, and he aids the humble in learning his way.
VIYLAMED: As explained above.
25:10 KOL ARCHOT YHVH CHESED VE EMET LE NOTSREY VERIYTO VE EDOTAV
VIYLAMED: As explained above.
25:10 KOL ARCHOT YHVH CHESED VE EMET LE NOTSREY VERIYTO VE EDOTAV
כָּל אָרְחוֹת יְהוָה חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת לְנֹצְרֵי בְרִיתוֹ וְעֵדֹתָיו
KJ: All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
BN: All of YHVH's paths lead to mercy and truth for those who keep his covenant and serve as his witnesses.
NOTSREY: The root of Notsrim perhaps, the earliest name by which the Christians referred to themselves? Their source, it is believed, was Isaiah 11:1, though really it isn't a branch so much as a green shoot - which will eventually become a branch, no doubt, but isn't yet. But how do they/we get to that, or from that, to "keep" here? Probably "watch" and "keep" were its original meaning, and we can find it repeatedly in the Tanach - Exodus 34:7 most famously, Deuteronomy 32:10 and 33:9, Psalm 141:3... from which the "watching" of the heavens9, because the Tweets and Facebook-post equivalents of the ancient deity were written in constellatory-space... from which the fastidious watching of anything, including sentry-boxes in Job 27:18... and all of that etymology is then undermined when we register that NATSAR in both Aramaic and Arabic means "to be green" (cf Daniel 11:7, and "rotting vegetation" may be the intention of Isaiah 14:19, rather than "carrion"), so in all likelihood we have another of those stories about a fifteen-storey building which need to be set on the kerb so that we can curb our bad habit of having two very similar words, spelled slightly differently, but now spelt the same, and their meanings thereby falsely combined into one.
NOTSREY: The root of Notsrim perhaps, the earliest name by which the Christians referred to themselves? Their source, it is believed, was Isaiah 11:1, though really it isn't a branch so much as a green shoot - which will eventually become a branch, no doubt, but isn't yet. But how do they/we get to that, or from that, to "keep" here? Probably "watch" and "keep" were its original meaning, and we can find it repeatedly in the Tanach - Exodus 34:7 most famously, Deuteronomy 32:10 and 33:9, Psalm 141:3... from which the "watching" of the heavens9, because the Tweets and Facebook-post equivalents of the ancient deity were written in constellatory-space... from which the fastidious watching of anything, including sentry-boxes in Job 27:18... and all of that etymology is then undermined when we register that NATSAR in both Aramaic and Arabic means "to be green" (cf Daniel 11:7, and "rotting vegetation" may be the intention of Isaiah 14:19, rather than "carrion"), so in all likelihood we have another of those stories about a fifteen-storey building which need to be set on the kerb so that we can curb our bad habit of having two very similar words, spelled slightly differently, but now spelt the same, and their meanings thereby falsely combined into one.
25:11 LEMA'AN SHIMCHA YHVH VE SALACHTA LA AVONI KI RAV HU
לְמַעַן שִׁמְךָ יְהוָה וְסָלַחְתָּ לַעֲוֹנִי כִּי רַב הוּא
KJ: For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
BN: For your name's sake, YHVH, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
LEMA'AN SHIMCHA: The same form of words remains in use in today's liturgy, especially for the Selichot of the month of Tishrey (click here to hear it recited). But this is the intellectual source (probably not the textual source) of Heine's famous remark "Of course God will forgive me. That's his job". Or, here: "YHVH, forgive us. If you don't regularly forgive everybody, no matter what, your reputation as a Moshi'a will come into question, and people will stop having faith, trust and confidence in you."
25:12 MI ZEH HA ISH YER'E YHVH YORENU BE DERECH YIVCHAR
LEMA'AN SHIMCHA: The same form of words remains in use in today's liturgy, especially for the Selichot of the month of Tishrey (click here to hear it recited). But this is the intellectual source (probably not the textual source) of Heine's famous remark "Of course God will forgive me. That's his job". Or, here: "YHVH, forgive us. If you don't regularly forgive everybody, no matter what, your reputation as a Moshi'a will come into question, and people will stop having faith, trust and confidence in you."
25:12 MI ZEH HA ISH YER'E YHVH YORENU BE DERECH YIVCHAR
מִי זֶה הָאִישׁ יְרֵא יְהוָה יוֹרֶנּוּ בְּדֶרֶךְ יִבְחָר
KJ: What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
BN: What kind of a man is he who fears YHVH? He will instruct him in the way that he should choose.
That last comment, that last reason for the comment, may have been intellectually surprising, but this verse is even more so, philosophically as well as theologically, given that "fear", using precisely this verb, has been precisely the mode of apprehension throughout the Tanach, rather than the modern intellectual delusion of "belief". Fearing YHVH is a good thing, not a bad one - if you are religious, anyway.
25:13 NAPHSHO BE TOV TALIN VE ZAR'O YIYRASH ARETS
נַפְשׁוֹ בְּטוֹב תָּלִין וְזַרְעוֹ יִירַשׁ אָרֶץ
KJ: His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
BN: His soul shall get through the night untroubled, and his seed shall inherit the land.
TALIN: The verb means "to spend the night" - the root is LAYIL, whence LAILAH for "the night", and, more importantly in this contect, LILIT, the first wife of Adam, and her Lilim, the nightmare daemonesses.
TALIN: The verb means "to spend the night" - the root is LAYIL, whence LAILAH for "the night", and, more importantly in this contect, LILIT, the first wife of Adam, and her Lilim, the nightmare daemonesses.
ARETS: Not Ha Arets, so this is earth, not Earth. Is this because the recipient "he" of this verse is the corn-god, the earth-god in the sense of the vegetal produce of Ha Arets?
25:14 SOD YHVH LIYRE'AV U VRITO LEHODI'AM
25:14 SOD YHVH LIYRE'AV U VRITO LEHODI'AM
סוֹד יְהוָה לִירֵאָיו וּבְרִיתוֹ לְהוֹדִיעָם
KJ: The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.
BN: The hidden mysteries of YHVH are made for those who fear him; and his covenant is his means of interpreting them.
25:15 EYNAI TAMID EL YHVH KI HU YOTS'I ME RESHET RAGLAI
עֵינַי תָּמִיד אֶל יְהוָה כִּי הוּא יוֹצִיא מֵרֶשֶׁת רַגְלָי
KJ: Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
BN: My eyes are turned permanently towards YHVH, for he will disentangle my feet from any net.
25:16 PENEH ELAI VE CHANENI KI YACHID VE ANI ANI
25:16 PENEH ELAI VE CHANENI KI YACHID VE ANI ANI
פְּנֵה אֵלַי וְחָנֵּנִי כִּי יָחִיד וְעָנִי אָנִי
KJ: Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
BN: Turn your face towards me, and be gracious to me, for I am alone and troubled.
PENEH... CHANENI: I mentioned the Yevarechecha earlier, and here it is, slightly varied, but nonetheless the same words, the same statement.
ANI ANI: lovely word-play, once with an Ayin (ע), once with an Aleph (א), two entirely different words, and yet not. How can this be paralleled in the English translation? "Aye", "eye" and "I"... aye woe is me... something of this kind. "See eye to eye with me" would not work, because humans seeing the deity eye to eye leads to the opposite consequence (Exodus 33:20 will interpret that secret mystery).
25:17 TSAROT LEVAVI HIRCHIYVU MIM'TSUKOTAI HOTSI'ENI
צָרוֹת לְבָבִי הִרְחִיבוּ מִמְּצוּקוֹתַי הוֹצִיאֵנִי
BN: The turmoils of my heart grow exponentially. Find me a way out of my distress.
MIM'TSUKOTAI: is really MI METSUKOTAI, but ellided here.
LEVAVI: Remember that the Biblical Lev was physically the heart, but intellectually the intellect (it still is, really, we just like to delude ourselves that we have achieved ratiocination and objectivity!)
25:18 RE'EH ANYIY VA AMALI VE SA LE CHOL CHAT'OTAI
רְאֵה עָנְיִי וַעֲמָלִי וְשָׂא לְכָל חַטֹּאותָי
KJ: Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
BN: See my sorrows and my travail, and forgive all my errors.
25:19 RE'EH OYEVAI KI RABU VE SIN'AT CHAMAS SENE'UNI
25:19 RE'EH OYEVAI KI RABU VE SIN'AT CHAMAS SENE'UNI
רְאֵה אוֹיְבַי כִּי רָבּוּ וְשִׂנְאַת חָמָס שְׂנֵאוּנִי
KJ: Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
BN: See how the number of my enemies has increased, and the cruel hatred with which they hate me.
25:20 SHAMRAH NAPHSHI VE HATSIYLENI AL EVOSH KI CHASIYTI VACH
שָׁמְרָה נַפְשִׁי וְהַצִּילֵנִי אַל אֵבוֹשׁ כִּי חָסִיתִי בָךְ
KJ: O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.
BN: Watch over my soul, and redeem me. Do not allow me to be ashamed that I have taken refuge in you.
Yes, but at least you acknowledge that religion is a refuge, a place from which to escape from the rigours of reality.
25:21 TOM VA YOSHER YITSRUNI KI KIVIYTIYCHA
תֹּם וָיֹשֶׁר יִצְּרוּנִי כִּי קִוִּיתִיךָ
KJ: Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.
BN: Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I waited for you.
KIVIYTIYCHA: These Psalms like to work in completed circles, opening word-plays in order to articulate complex ideas, and then making sure the loose ends are tied up at the end. So we can go back now to verse 3, where the "shame" of verse 20, and now the KAV, complete their circles.
25:22 PEDEH ELOHIM ET YISRA-EL MI KOL TSAROTAV
פְּדֵה אֱלֹהִים אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִכֹּל צָרוֹתָיו
KJ: Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
BN: Redeem Yisra-El, you gods, from its troubles. {P}
And once again we have to note the polytheism of this Psalm. YHVH is there, but only as the head of the pantheon.
And once again we have to note the polytheism of this Psalm. YHVH is there, but only as the head of the pantheon.
Psalms:
Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150
Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles
Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language
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