TheBibleNet: Psalm 28

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

28:1 LE DAVID ELEYCHA YHVH EKR'A TSURI AL TECHERASH MIMENI PEN TECHESHEH MIMENI VE NIMSHALTI IM YORDEY VOR

לְדָוִד אֵלֶיךָ יְהוָה אֶקְרָא צוּרִי אַל תֶּחֱרַשׁ מִמֶּנִּי פֶּן תֶּחֱשֶׁה מִמֶּנִּי וְנִמְשַׁלְתִּי עִם יוֹרְדֵי בוֹר

KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm of David.) Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

BN (BibleNet translation): For David. To you, YHVH, do I call. My Rock, do not play deaf with me; {N} lest, in staying silent with me, I become like those who go down into the pit.

TECHERASH...TECHESHEH: Two different verbs, and therefore a need for two different translations, where KJ treats them as one and the same.

CHARASH, the root of the first, isn't really deaf though, except poetically. Properly it means "to cut", in the sense of "engraving", as in Genesis 4:22; and is also used for "ploughing", which cuts the earth. An interesting oddity is that a CHORESH is also the type of woodland that we would call a "cutting" in English - see Ezekiel 31:3. How does it get to mean deaf? Probably because sound gets cut out, but I'm truthfully guessing. For its usage see Exodus 4:11 or Leviticus 19:14.

TECHESHEH is splendidly onomatopoeiac, though the root (don't tell anyone) is actually CHUSH rather than HUSH, but the Middle Eastern languages tend to be more guttural, so we should quietly expect this. Far too many occurrences throughout the Tanach to need listing here.

VOR: The BOR, not SHE'OL, despite the use of the verb NIMSHALTI, which plays a sound-game with She'ol, but still isn't it. Not even DUM'AH, which is the realm of silence. All variations on the same metaphor nonetheless, all goings-down into some sort of Underworld, Netherworld, Unconscious, Winter, Night-time; but nonetheless each is distinct. The Bor takes us back to Yoseph, who was thrown in one by his brothers, then thrown in another by Poti-Pherah (Genesis 37). We have traced Egyptian sources in several Psalms before this one; are we about to encounter another?

28:2 SHEMA KOL TACHANUNAI BE SHAV'I ELEYCHA BE NAS'I YADAI EL DEVIR KADSHECHA

שְׁמַע קוֹל תַּחֲנוּנַי בְּשַׁוְּעִי אֵלֶיךָ בְּנָשְׂאִי יָדַי אֶל דְּבִיר קָדְשֶׁךָ

KJ: Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

BN: Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, {N} when I lift up my hands toward Thy holy Sanctuary.

TACHANUNAI: Check in "A Myrtle Among Reeds", but I don't think this verse is specifically used or even referenced as part of Tachanun today, though very similar language is obviously used throughout.

DEVIR: Infers the existence of the not-yet-existant Temple, and therefore, yet again, tells us that these Psalms were written after the Temple was built, and dedicated to the Earth-god David, not written by, or even dedicated to, a king of that name.

However! In the last Psalm, the reference was made by using the word HEYCHAL, where here it is made by using the word DEVIR. The HEYCHAL is unquestionably the Temple, but the DEVIR doesn't have to be. If it is the Temple, then it is the Holy of Holies, but the root is DAVAR, which gives "the Word" of the deity, his "holy oracle" in the KJ's translation here; or it may be that the "curtain" of the sky, which is paralleled in the Parochet which separates the outer sanctum (Heychal) from the Devir (inner sanctum), is intended, and the Devir could thus perfectly well be the far side of the Rakiy'a (for which see Genesis 1:6).

28:3 AL TIMSHECHENI IM RESHA'IM VE IM PO'ALEY AVEN DOVREY SHALOM IM RE'EYHEM VE RA'AH BI LEVAVAM

אַל תִּמְשְׁכֵנִי עִם רְשָׁעִים וְעִם פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן דֹּבְרֵי שָׁלוֹם עִם רֵעֵיהֶם וְרָעָה בִּלְבָבָם

KJ: Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.

BN: Do not drag me into the realm of the wicked, nor that of the workers of iniquity; {N} who speak peace with their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts.

TIMSHECHENI: Am I wrong to hear a word-play on Mashiyach here? An ironic one if it is, contrasting good with evil, so to speak.

BI LEVAVAM: As noted many a time before, the LEV, which is the heart, is also the seat of thought in the Jewish world - because our thinking is driven by our emotional needs long before our ratiocinative faculties ever start to abstract concepts and conceits. And on this occasion, the distinction matters: this could as well be translated as "mischief is in their thoughts".

RESHA'IM... RA'AH: Two very different words for a very similar concept, and it is unusual to find both used together.

28:4 TEN LAHEM KE PHA'ALAM U CHE RO'A MA'ALELEYHEM KE MA'ASEH YEDEYHEM TEN LAHEM HASHEV GEMULAM LAHEM

תֶּן לָהֶם כְּפָעֳלָם וּכְרֹעַ מַעַלְלֵיהֶם כְּמַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיהֶם תֵּן לָהֶם הָשֵׁב גְּמוּלָם לָהֶם

KJ: Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.

BN: Treat them according to their deeds, and according to the evil of their endeavours; {N} treat them according the work of their hands; give them their just deserts.

ALIYLOT: See my note at Psalm 9:12. I think the difference between PHA'ALAM and MA'ALELEYHEM here is that the former are one-off deeds but the latter are regular practices.

GEMULAM: I am tempted to spell this "desserts", just to be sure a reader gets the emphasis correct; though the ambivalence of "treat" should already have done that. Though the arid emptiness of the sandy desert may well be their just "dessert" (especially as GEMUL plays a word-game with GAMAL, the hump-backed creature most associated with deserts).

28:5 KI LO YAVIYNU EL PE'ULOT YHVH VE EL MA'ASEH YADAV YEHERSEM VE LO YIVNEM

כִּי לֹא יָבִינוּ אֶל פְּעֻלֹּת יְהוָה וְאֶל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו יֶהֶרְסֵם וְלֹא יִבְנֵם

KJ: Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.

BN: Because they have no understanding of the actions of YHVH, nor the deeds of his hands, {N} he will tear them down rather than build them up.

YAVIYNU: It isn't that they don't "heed" them; LE'HA'VIYN means "to understand".

PE'ULOT: Goes with PHA'ALAM in the previous verse.

YIVNEM: But in the world of fertility gods, "building up" also means fertility, at least through word-play. The root of building is BANAH (בנה), and the word BEN = "son" is derived from it; for confirmation, see Genesis 16:2, but also my notes at Genesis 38:8.

28:6 BARUCH YHVH KI SHAM'A KOL TACHANUNAI

בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה כִּי שָׁמַע קוֹל תַּחֲנוּנָי

KJ: Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

BN: Blessed be YHVH, because he has heard the voice of my supplications.

BARUCH: Many instances of BARUCH in these poems, but are there any instances of BARUCH ATAH, which is the form of blessing used throughout Judaic liturgy in the post-Biblical era? I am not aware of any.

28:7 YHVH UZI U MAGINI BO BATACH LIBI VE NE'EZARTI VA YA'ALOZ LIBI U MI SHIYRI AHODENU

יְהוָה עֻזִּי וּמָגִנִּי בּוֹ בָטַח לִבִּי וְנֶעֱזָרְתִּי וַיַּעֲלֹז לִבִּי וּמִשִּׁירִי אֲהוֹדֶנּוּ

KJ: The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

BN: YHVH is my strength and my shield. In him my heart places its trust, and I am helped; {N} therefore my heart rejoices, and with my song I will give thanks to him.

MAGINI: The famous Magen David. And yes, UZI is in the name of Israel's home-made sub-machine gun, and this is why.

NE'EZARTI: The Niph'al form - passive causative. The root is AZAR, whence the name EZRA - "to help".

AHODENU: this is not praise, this is thanksgiving - Joshua 7:19 uses TODAH in the same way, and it is the source of the word "thank you" today.

28:8 YHVH OZ LAMO U MA'OZ YESHU'OT MESHIYCHU HU

יְהוָה עֹז לָמוֹ וּמָעוֹז יְשׁוּעוֹת מְשִׁיחוֹ הוּא

KJ: The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.

BN: YHVH is their strength; and he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.

OZ...MA'OZ: A rather obvious pun, but not one that has been used quite so obviously before. Both from the same root, originally, though OZ = "strength" had to become AZAZ with a double Zayin in order to be workable as a name (cf 1 Chronicles 5:8, 27:20), but then, oddly, lost the second Zayin whenever it got used as a noun or verb, as here. Cf Judges 3:10, Ecclesiastes 7:19,

His anointed being David, the "crowned" king of Yisra-El; so this Psalm can't be "by" David, but is dedicated "to" him. And note the use of both words in the same verse, YESHU'OT being the Messiainc role of the deity, MESHIYCHU being his earthly representative, the Mashiyach. The same again with HOSHIY'AH in the next verse.

28:9 HOSHIY'AH ET AMECHA U VARECH ET NACHALATECHA U RE'EM VE NAS'EM AD HA OLAM

הוֹשִׁיעָה אֶת עַמֶּךָ וּבָרֵךְ אֶת נַחֲלָתֶךָ וּרְעֵם וְנַשְּׂאֵם עַד הָעוֹלָם

KJ: Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.

BN: Save your people, and bless your inheritance; {N} and tend them, and sustain them for ever. {P}

RE'EM: Oh but the word-games can sometimes be so much fun! "Tehiyeh ro'eh lahem" would mean "be a shepherd to them", but Yehudit grammar allows, indeed encourages ellisions, and so RE'EM covers the entire phrase. But then there is RA'AM, spelled, without vowels, exactly the same, and that is what the deity does when he is angry: "rage", "trembling", "roaring" - as in Psalm 96:11 and 98:7, Ezekiel 27:35, 1 Samuel 2:10...

Pharaoh Rameses is also spelled with these letters, though that is probably phonetics, and bad phonetics at that, because his name in Egyptian was Ra-Mousa. More interesting, as far as puns are concerned, is RE'EM with an Aleph (ראם), which establishes the high place just this side of the heavenly Devir in Zechariah 14:10, and even more so the divine beast itself (cf Numbers 23:22, Deuteronomy 33:17) the RE'EM, a type of horned antelope apparently (click here), though there is a lengthy debate in Gesenius as to whether it is in fact the buffalo, and should be connected with Av-Ram.

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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