TheBibleNet: Psalm 30

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

This shouldn’t really be called a Psalm - see my notes in the introduction to this book. This is a Mizmor Shir - a song with musical accompaniment that happens to be used at a certain point in liturgy - though one that is well outside the daily or the festival.

And was it for the dedication of "The House", or of any house? Because if "The House", then it cannot be Davidic in the sense of written by him; though it could be written for him, as the Beloved of Yah incarnate...

Some Christian scholars assume that the title, "A Song at the Dedication of the House" infers that it "may have been used at the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, the Encaenia (John10:22). This feast was instituted by Judas Maccabeus (I Macc 4:59) to commemorate the rededication of the temple after its desecration by Antiochus." The Greek "Encaenia" replacing the Yehudit "Chanukah", for more detail on which which click on the link. For Yehudah ha Maccabee (Judas Maccabeus) click here, and for Antiochus Epiphanes here.

As we have seen with several Psalms, this one uses rhyme by means of repetition of the same suffix, at the ends of lines and in caesural pauses.

30:1 MIZMOR SHIR CHANUKAT HA BAYIT LE DAVID

מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר חֲנֻכַּת הַבַּיִת לְדָוִד

KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.) I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

BN (BibleNet translation): A song with musical accompaniment, to be played at the Dedication of the House; for David.

Again KJ has merged the title and the opening line, placing the former in brackets to show that it has done so, but also causing a disagreement of verse numbers between it and the Yehudit original.

CHANUKAT HA BAYIT: see the link.

30:2 AROMIMCHA YHVH KI DILIYTANI VE LO SIMACHTA OYEVAI LI

אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְהוָה כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי וְלֹא שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי

KJ (30:1): I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

BN: I will raise you to the highest height, YHVH, for you have kept me from becoming feeble, and have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me.

AROMIMCHA: As with OZ, which became AZAZ in Psalm 28:8 , so here we have the root RUM, with a single Mem, but the Mem doubled to facilitate the creation of a verb, and simultaneously strengthening and heightening the meanings of both words in doing so (OZ means "strength", as RAM means "height", but I am not simply making a clever word-play; the language itself, in its sophisticated development, already did that).

DILIYTANI: Being something of a diliytani myself... no, that really is just a bad pun, pretending to hear dilettante... DILIYTANI comes from the root DALAH, which really means "to draw water", as with a bucket from a well (Exodus 2:16 and 19), though it becomes metaphorical in Proverbs 20:5. But, there is also the root DELET, and... look at the oddity of Isaiah 26:20 before you read on... a DELET is precisely the place where you are going to hang the mezuzah at the Chanukat ha Bayit. Why is the Yesha-Yah an oddity? As the Masoretes recognised when they placed the alternative in square brackets, the grammar allows this to be the familiar DELET for a door, but it might also be DALAH, and DALAH makes the door interesting, because that root is all about things being suspended, or hanging down, which of course is precisely how the flap-door of a tent operates. So did the meaning "drawing water" come from the fact that you pendule a bucket on a long rope and hang it down inside the well? And if so, do we now have a much clearer pun: the first part raised up, the second part held secure as it is lowered down?

And then there is another logical step to take, in consequence of the above. Because there is also DAL, a masculine form of the same root. It too is used for things hanging, and even, Psalm 141:3, as a figuration for the outer lips (the lips being the parts that hang at the tent-flap of the mouth) - and compare the neat alternative that Michah uses at Micah 7:5.

But DAL has another, entirely different meaning, and that alternate is decidedly precise here. See 2 Samuel 3:1 and you will recognise a perfect parallel for this verse. And that meaning? "Weak" or "feeble".

30:3 YHVH ELOHAI SHIVA'TI ELEYCHA VA TIRPA'ENI

יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי שִׁוַּעְתִּי אֵלֶיךָ וַתִּרְפָּאֵנִי

KJ (30:2): O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

BN: YHVH my god, I cried to you, and you healed me.

SHIVA'TI: Picking up the pun on DAL within DALAH. Weak and feeble infers worthlessness. If I were to ask you how much something is worth, I would say "KAMAH ZEH SHAV'E?" But how can that be, when this means "to cry out" (cf Isaiah 22:5)? Because there is also the Aramaic SHIV'A, much used with that latter meaning in the Book of Job (30:24, 35:9, 36:13...), and which of course leads to the deity hearing and doing something about it, which is the verb MOSHI'A (Messiah-Redeemer-Saviour)... but there is also the Yehudit SHU'A (eventually the Yehudit SHU'A, as per the link), which means "wealth", and is used for the young nobles, the "men of wealth", in Ezekiel 23:23. See also 1 Chronicles 7:32, which adds an Aramaic Aleph, and then makes a girls' name of it.

30:4 YHVH HE'ELIYTA MIN SHE'OL NAPHSHI CHIYIYTANI MI YAVREDI VOR

יְהוָה הֶעֱלִיתָ מִן שְׁאוֹל נַפְשִׁי חִיִּיתַנִי מִיָּורְדִי בוֹר

KJ (30:3): O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

BN: YHVH, you brought my soul up from She'ol. You kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.

HE'ELIYTA: Continuing the imagery from the opening verse.

The cult of David is an earlier version of the cult of Jesus, so when David speaks of going down into the Underworld, or rising from there, he means resurrection in the way that Christianity understands it. We cannot separate the king, Sha'ul (Saul), who relentlessly pursues him into the wilderness, from the Underworld that is named here: She'ol.

YAVREDI: The pointing requires this pronunciation, but surely it is incorrect; this should be YOREDI.

VOR: See my notes on BOR, DUM'AH and SHE'OL at Psalm 28:1.

30:5 ZAMRU LA YHVH CHASIYDAV VE HODU LE ZECHER KADSHO

זַמְּרוּ לַיהוָה חֲסִידָיו וְהוֹדוּ לְזֵכֶר קָדְשׁוֹ

KJ (30:4): Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

BN: Sing to YHVH, you his pious followers, and give thanks to his holy memory.

ZECHER KADSHO: I think KJ probably has this correctly, but it could be read either way, so I have put the other as my version. The problem with "my" version is that it could be treated as insinuating a deity in the past: obsolete, no longer worshipped. Whereas it should insinuate that the mezuzah you are about to affix to your front door is the equivalent of a Yad va Shem, a memorial stone, a monument in his honour: and as such very much a way of keeping him alive. See the tale of the misunderstanding of the altar of the three tribes at Joshua 22:10 ff.

30:6 KI REGA BE APO CHAYIM BIRTSONO BA EREV YALIN BECHI VE LA BOKER RINAH

כִּי רֶגַע בְּאַפּוֹ חַיִּים בִּרְצוֹנוֹ בָּעֶרֶב יָלִין בֶּכִי וְלַבֹּקֶר רִנָּה

KJ (30:5): For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

BN: For his anger lasts just a moment, but his favour endures for a life-time; {N} at night you may weep, but joy returns in the morning.

APO: Why is there a dagesh in the Pey? Should it not be APHO?

BOKER RINAH: Once again the sun-god versus She'ol.

30:7 VA ANI AMARTI VE SHALVI BAL EMOT LE OLAM

וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי בְשַׁלְוִי בַּל אֶמּוֹט לְעוֹלָם

KJ (30:6): And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

BN: Now I had said in my security: "I shall never be moved."

Like a tree, standing by the waterside... no, that's an entirely different Psalm (1:3), or really Jeremiah 17:8. This, though, at least the fourth time the verb has occurred, and always with the same intention.

30:8 YHVH BIRTSONCHA HE'EMADETAH LE HARERI OZ HISTARTA PHANEYCHA HAYITI NIVHAL

יְהוָה בִּרְצוֹנְךָ הֶעֱמַדְתָּה לְהַרְרִי עֹז הִסְתַּרְתָּ פָנֶיךָ הָיִיתִי נִבְהָל

KJ (30:7): LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.

BN: YHVH, in your goodness, you established my mountain as a stronghold; {N} but then you hid your face, and I was afraid.

We may have been wondering, up to this point, what it is about this Psalm that makes it relevant to the dedication of a house; now, at last, it begins to become clear: though it is still not yet The House, but only the stronghold on the mountain, which was Tsi'on (Zion), located on the Ophel, the highest point of the city, which was the summit of Mor-Yah, where The House would eventually be built, though by Shelomoh (Solomon), not David. But what is being "dedicated" in this verse is Olympus, Valhalla, Avalon, Machu-Pichu, not yet The Temple. Or if it was The Temple, then - yet again! - this cannot have been "by" David, but only dedicated "to" him.

HISTARTA PHANEYCHA: This, too, we are beginning to recognise as a theme-phrase throughout the Psalms. The YEVARECHECHA on the one hand - the sun-god giving us a cloudless sky and a perfect day; HISTIR PANAV on the other - the clouds enabling the deity to not notice the bad things that then happen in the world.

30:9 ELEYCHA YHVH EKRA VE EL ADONAI ET'CHANAN

אֵלֶיךָ יְהוָה אֶקְרָא וְאֶל אֲדֹנָי אֶתְחַנָּן

KJ (30:8): I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.

BN: To you, YHVH, I called, and to Adonis I made supplication.

The formula of petition addresses YHVH by name, as often in a verse or Psalm as there is a need to do so; if, as here, the second name is not YHVH but Adonai, can we assume that the first half of the verse is addressed to the deity on Ophel, but the second half to the king in Tsi'on, who is also the "Beloved Son", the "Earth-God" Adonis? In later Judaism, when there was no longer a sacred king to represent the deity on Earth, the title Adonai was bestowed on the deity, and Jews today who are superstitious about pronouncing the name of the deity will use it; but Adonai was Adonis, the human Mashiyach, not YHVH, his father which art in the heavens.

30:10 MAH BETS'A BE DAMI BE RIDETI EL SHACHAT HA YODCHA APHAR HA YAGID AMITECHA

מַה בֶּצַע בְּדָמִי בְּרִדְתִּי אֶל שָׁחַת הֲיוֹדְךָ עָפָר הֲיַגִּיד אֲמִתֶּךָ

KJ (30:9): What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

BN: What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the place of destruction? {N} Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your truth?

SHACHAT: What is the difference between SHACHAT and SHE'OL? Indeed, between SHACHAT and the BOR into which Yoseph was cast by his brothers, and which is usually translated as "pit" as well (see verse 4). To understand this, as with so much of the Tanach, we have to step outside our contemporary notions about Life, Death and the Universe, and try to see it through the lens of the epoch. The pit was the grave in which a corpse was buried, with no delusions of an afterlife, or of a future resurrection following judgement. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes, as we were told in Genesis 3:19. She'ol, on the other hand, is the mythological realm, not a physical underworld, but the depths of the psyche, the state of spiritual death, the explanation of darkness when the sun "hides its face" (histir panav) at night, or of evil when it "hides its face" by day. The pursuit of David into the Underworld by King Sha'ul is an allegorical explanation of night-time, and of Winter, and the rebirth in the Spring, or the resurrection of the sun each morning, which is simply fertility re-emerging. In the absence of a scientific lexicon, mythological analogies and allegories.

So, to answer my opening question, SHE'OL is the generality of the Netherworld, in any of its forms. SHACHAT is the process of destruction, and I would really like to translate the phrase as "What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to be biodegraded?" - only I suspect that might not be taken as seriously as it should be.

Because it yields the answer to the second and third questions in the Psalm itself - "yes it will", through the mulch and compost that will result from the biodegradation and lead to next year's fertile growth. Actually that answers the first question in the verse as well. Much profit.

But let me ask my question again, etymologically rather than mythologically this time: what is the difference between SHACHAT and SHE'OL? The root of SHACHAT means "to destroy", or to "ruin" (Genesis 9:11 seems to be the perfect choice, based on those numbers!). However it is also translated as "to act wickedly" (Exodus 32:7 probably, though it could be translated there as "ruined themselves"; ditto Deuteronomy 9:12; Deuteronomy 32:5 is a better link for this).

I have no doubt that, hearing SHACHAT and reading the last paragraph, you immediately made the word-association with SHECHITAH, the ritual slaughtering of animals. But actually, it isn't. SHACHAT here is spelled with a final Tet (שחט); the root of SHECHITAH has a final Tav (שחת). Different words.

30:11 SHEM'A YHVH VE CHANENI YHVH HEYEH OZER LI

שְׁמַע יְהוָה וְחָנֵּנִי יְהוָה הֱיֵה עֹזֵר לִי

KJ (30:10): Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.

BN: Hear, YHVH, and be gracious to me; YHVH, be my helper.

And in this verse YHVH is indeed named twice.

30:12 HAPHACHTA MISPEDI LE MACHOL LI PITACHTA SAKI VA TE'AZRENI SIMCHAH

הָפַכְתָּ מִסְפְּדִי לְמָחוֹל לִי פִּתַּחְתָּ שַׂקִּי וַתְּאַזְּרֵנִי שִׂמְחָה

KJ (30:11): Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

BN: You turned my mourning into dancing; you loosened my mourning garb, and dressed me with a smile.

SAKI: Interesting piece of cultural etymology here. The term "sackcloth" in English gave rise to the word "sack", as in a bag made of cheap cloth used for throwing away rubbish or carrying goods. So, today, because of the word "sack", we think of sackcloth as cheap, rubbishy material, and you dress down when you wear it. But the root is right here, in the Yehudit, and it does not mean "sack" and it does not mean "cloth"; it simply means "mourning garb". And of what did mourning garb consist? Of whatever you happened to be wearing at the time that you were told of the person's death, and then made a tear in it, a sacrificial act - sacrificial in the sense of "rendering it holy" as well as "rending it to render it unwearable ever again" - by which you denote yourself as being in mourning. Which could be anything from the bridal gown to the boiler-suit.

30:13 LEMA'AN YEZAMERCHA CHAVOD VE LO YIDOM YHVH ELOHAI LE OLAM ODECHA

לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ

KJ (30:12): To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

BN (literal translation): That is why my glory will play your praises, and not be silent. {N} YHVH, my god, I will give thanks to you for ever. {P}

SEFARIA'S translation: That [my] whole being might sing hymns to You endlessly; O LORD my God, I will praise You forever.

LEMA'AN YEZAMERCHA CHAVOD: The Yehudit text feels wrong to me, as though the original scribe made an error, and tradition refused to correct it. ODECHA, at the end, is first person singular - we know that from the initial Aleph. YEZAMERCHA is third person singular - we know that from the initial Yud. 3rd person singular requires a noun to explain it, but the CHAVOD is surely what is being played, and glorified in the playing, and not the performer. The same exactly applies to YIDOM. If the 2nd person suffix were taken off YEZAMER and added to CHAVOD, and then first person singular: LEMA'AN AZAMER CHAVODCHA VE LO EDOM would mean "Therefore I will perform in your honour and I will never be silent", which seems to me precisely the intention here. But it is not what the given words say. I have included the Sefaria translation, though I don't understand why it uses the Christian names for the deity, and I dislike its idolatrous/superstitious capital letters; nevertheless, it seems to agree with my concern about the original, and goes at least half-way to correcting it.

YIDOM: Playing with the word DUMAH, the fourth of our keywords for the Netherworld.

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Psalms:

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