TheBibleNet: Psalm 33

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

No title, no dedication, no descriptor, just the hymn. And anonymous, like Psalms 1, 2 and 10 in Book 1; all the others are "attributed" to David; except that, in the Septuagint version, this Psalm is indeed "attributed" to David; what we cannot say, or know, is whether the Septuagint version made a false assumption, and added it in error, or followed tradition, and correctly restored it. But why, then, do later versions, including the Masoretic, not to do the same?

33:1 RANENU TSADIYKIM BA YHVH LA YESHARIM NA'VAH TEHILAH

רַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים בַּיהוָה לַיְשָׁרִים נָאוָה תְהִלָּה

KJ (King James translation): Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.

BN (BibleNet translation): Rejoice, you righteous ones, in YHVH. Offering praise is a worthy act for those who are upright.

I am still trying to pick up the plotology. Having told everyone to rejoice in the Creation that is now complete, here we are doing precisely that. And having offered to provide instruction, this hymn does precisely that. The dummy's guide to praise and rejoicing!

33:2 HODU LA YHVH BE CHINOR BE NEVEL ASOR ZAMRU LO

הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה בְּכִנּוֹר בְּנֵבֶל עָשׂוֹר זַמְּרוּ לוֹ

KJ: Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

BN: Give thanks to YHVH with a harp; sing praises to him with the ten-string lyre.

HODU LA YHVH: Pronounced HODU LADONAY by those who decline to read YHVH as Yahweh, because the LA and the YHVH are ellided. The phrase will recur throughout these Psalms.

CHINOR...NEVEL ASOR: The Biblical equivalents of the steel accoustic and the twelve-string. See my notes on this in the essay on musical instruments.

33:3 SHIRU LO SHIR CHADASH HEYTIYVU NAGEN BITRU'AH

שִׁירוּ לוֹ שִׁיר חָדָשׁ הֵיטִיבוּ נַגֵּן בִּתְרוּעָה

KJ: Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

BN: Sing to him a new song; play skilfully amid shouts of joy.

TERU'AH: As in Yom Teru'ah, one of the names for Rosh Ha Shanah, Jewish New Year. Is this then a New Year Psalm? Probably not, because probably the epithet was added much later.

BITRU'AH: This too is ellided; really it should be BI TERU'AH.

The tone of this feels like the shtick of the MC at the hoe-down: Grab your partners, one-two-three. Everybody, clap your hands...We are supposed to be rejoicing, after all!

33:4 KI YASHAR DEVAR YHVH VE CHOL MA'ASEHU BE EMUNAH

כִּי יָשָׁר דְּבַר יְהוָה וְכָל מַעֲשֵׂהוּ בֶּאֱמוּנָה

KJ: For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.

BN: For the Word of YHVH is upright, and what he does he does with sincerity.

How to rejoice, fully taught in the previous verses; now, lesson two, how to praise. How far should we regard this Psalm as a continuation of Psalm 32, which was a Maskil, and told us it was going to teach us?

33:5 OHEV TSEDAKAH U MISHPAT CHESED YHVH MAL'AH HA ARETS

אֹהֵב צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט חֶסֶד יְהוָה מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ

KJ: He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

BN: He loveth righteousness and justice; the lovingkindness of YHVH fills the Earth.

MAL'AH: That way around please, active, not passive. The liturgy - the Kedushah, to be precise - includes a very similar phrase: MEL'O KOL HA ARETS KAVODO, though that actually comes from Isaiah 6:3. I wonder which came first.

33:6 BID'VAR YHVH SHAMAYIM NA'ASU U VE RU'ACH PIYV KOL TSEVA'AM

בִּדְבַר יְהוָה שָׁמַיִם נַעֲשׂוּ וּבְרוּחַ פִּיו כָּל צְבָאָם

KJ: By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

BN: By the Word of YHVH, through the breath of his mouth, the heavens were made, and all of its host.

BID'VAR: or possibly BI'DVAR, is really BI DEVAR, but conflated in pronunciation, because prepositions used as prefixes always do - as we have seen twice already in the verses above. The idea here is that consciousness is always consciousness of something, as in the COGITO ERGO SUM of René Descartes; so things exist because the deity named them into existence, as in Genesis 1 ("Let there be light" etc). So things exist in the moment that we name them - including non-existent abstractions like the deity, who is clearly alive and well and living in this sentence, named into existence by the Word of the author.

RU'ACH: See Genesis 1 for this too.

TSEVA'AM: Interesting that this should be plural; interesting because English translations, of this and of the term YHVH TSEVA'OT, always singularise it. And what is this "host"? The stars, the planets, the comets, the black holes, the nebulae, and of course that point at the flatness of the cosmic horizon at which Odysseus the astronaut will eventually fall off the edge.

33:7 KONES KA NED MEY HA YAM NOTEN BE OTSAROT TEHOMOT

כֹּנֵס כַּנֵּד מֵי הַיָּם נֹתֵן בְּאֹצָרוֹת תְּהוֹמוֹת

KJ: He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

BN: He gathers the waters of the sea together in a heap; he lays up the deeps in storehouses.

KONES is the root that gives the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) and your local synagogue (Beit ha Knesset). A gathering-place.

NED: Is indeed "a heap", but it is also the land where Kayin (Cain) went to wander (Genesis 4:16), and that becomes interesting when we realise that his brother, HAVEL (Abel), as noted at Psalm 31:6, comes from a root which means "vapour" or "breath", and is it not obvious that the first emanation of the marriage of the LEHIYOT (essence-YHVH) to the LECHIYOT (existence-Chavah) would produce precisely that! But it also makes for a very different take on Cain and Abel!

OTSAROT: Unlike the Logos of the previous verse, and again in verse 9, this may not be the best example of early scientific understanding that we have yet encountered! But it is what it says. On the other hand, maybe, to the gods, that is what an ocean is: a giant reservoir (reservoir is a synonym for "storehouse" after all). A "treasury" even - as in Deuteronomy 28:12, where the same metaphor is applied to the skies, or 1 Kings 14:26, where it is not a metaphor.

TEHOMOT: See the link.

33:8 YIYRE'U ME YHVH KOL HA ARETS MIMENU YAGURU KOL YOSHVEY TEVEL

יִירְאוּ מֵיְהוָה כָּל הָאָרֶץ מִמֶּנּוּ יָגוּרוּ כָּל יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל

KJ: Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

BN: Let all the Earth fear YHVH. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

33:9 KI HU AMAR VA YEHI HU TSIVAH VA YA'AMOD

כִּי הוּא אָמַר וַיֶּהִי הוּא צִוָּה וַיַּעֲמֹד

KJ: For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

BN: For he spoke, and it came into existence. He gave the order, and it stood.

As stated many times already, the "Word" is a metaphor, as YHVH is a metaphor: protons and neutrons do not actually utter words.

VA YA'AMOD: Stood, like a soldier called to attention!

33:10 YHVH HEPHIR ATSAT GOYIM HEN'I MACHSHEVOT AMIM

יְהוָה הֵפִיר עֲצַת גּוֹיִם הֵנִיא מַחְשְׁבוֹת עַמִּים

KJ: The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

BN (Sar Shalom traslation): YHVH bringeth the counsel of the nations to nought; He maketh the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

MACHSHEVOT: Today, these would be computers (Googletranslate it if you don't believe me: an extraordinary human creation). While I am happy to praise the bosons and the genomes for their wonderful creations, I am less happy to offer praise to a deity that renders human thought worthless - which is why I am not going to translate this verse until I have looked much more closely at the root of every word (and in so doing shown the value and effectiveness of human Machshevot, regardless of whether they are "devices" as per KJ, or "thoughts" as per Sar Shalom). Sefaria renders this verse as "The LORD frustrates the plans of nations, brings to naught the designs of peoples." I could almost be content with that, though only as a translation, not as a reality. As to the other keywords:

HEPHIR: From the root PUR, for which see Ezekiel 17:19, or more conveniently for what is below, Numbers 30:13.

ATSAT: Try Deuteronomy 32:28 or Judges 20:7.

HEN'I: Long pause before I answer. If you are a speaker of Yiddish you will get frustrated, and eventually you will look at me, and shrug your shoulders, and say "NU?", which is a splendid way of wondering when a person is finally going to get around to answering. And you will be correct, for that is the root in use here: and it means "to restrain", "to hold back", and may even, in Numbers 30:6, 9 and 12, go so far as "to forbid". Numbers 32:7, on the other hand, merely "discourages"; at least, in most translations.

BN translation: YHVH reduces the wisdom of the nations to mere nothingness; he holds back human thought, rendering it ineffective.

The first part of which makes total sense to me; the second part is really rather shocking - that humans should create such a god, I mean.

33:11 ATSAT YHVH LE OLAM TA'AMOD MACHSHEVOT LIBO LE DOR VA DOR

עֲצַת יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם תַּעֲמֹד מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבּוֹ לְדֹר וָדֹר

KJ: The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

BN: The counsel of YHVH stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart are available to every generation.

MACHSHEVOT LIBO: Oh yes indeed. "The thoughts of his heart". Not of his brain, but his heart, where, if we are honest, most of our real thinking takes place.

33:12 ASHREY HA GOY ASHER YHVH ELOHAV HA AM BACHAR LE NACHALAH LO

אַשְׁרֵי הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו הָעָם בָּחַר לְנַחֲלָה לוֹ

KJ: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

BN: Happy is the nation whose god is YHVH; the people who he has chosen for his own inheritance.

ASHREY: The word Ashrey occurs in Psalms 1, 2, 32, 33, 34, 40, 65, 84, 89, 112, 119, 127, 128, 137, 144 and 146, and it always mean "happy", usually in the sense of "prosperous", but with prosperity linked to fertility, whether personal or terrestrial.

HA GOY: On this occasion the text insists on GOY rather than GO'I. But the significance lies in the meaning, not the spelling: we use GOY to mean non-Jewish, and that may well be the case here too, ethnically. Not religiously, however. The GOY here is unequivocally the Beney Yisra-El.

The verse is reflected in the ASHREY prayer, though that prayer is not in fact from this Psalm. Its opening, "Ashrey yoshvey beytecha, od yehalelucha (selah). Ashrey ha am she kacha lo. Ashrey ha am she adonay elohav", is from Psalm 114:14/15; the remainder is from Psalm 145 (click here for the full text).

33:13 MI SHAMAYIM HIBIYT YHVH RA'AH ET KOL BENEY HA ADAM

מִשָּׁמַיִם הִבִּיט יְהוָה רָאָה אֶת כָּל בְּנֵי הָאָדָם

KJ: The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

BN: YHVH sees from the heavens; he is aware of all Humankind.

HIBIYT: Not MISTAKEL, which would be mere "looking". This pays full attention and notices. And then even more fastidiously with HISHGIYACH in the next verse.

So GOY in the previous verse claims the Beney Yisra-El for his personal inheritance, his "special people"; but does not overlook the remainder. Being essence, rather than Santa Claus, it doesn't really matter whether Humans believe in him or not. Fermions and bosons do what fermions and bosons do, for all Creation.

33:14 MI MECHON SHIVTO HISHGIYACH EL KOL YOSHVEY HA ARETS

מִמְּכוֹן שִׁבְתּוֹ הִשְׁגִּיחַ אֶל כָּל יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ

KJ: From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

BN: From the place where he sits, he scrutinises all the inhabitants of the Earth.

33:15 HA YOTSER YACHAD LIBAM HA MEVIYN EL KOL MA'ASEYHEM

הַיֹּצֵר יַחַד לִבָּם הַמֵּבִין אֶל כָּל מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם

KJ: He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

BN: He it is who fashion the hearts of them all, who understands all their deeds.

YOTSER: See my notes throughout Genesis 1, which explore the different verbs used for the different forms of Creation: BAR'A (making something out of nothing), ASAH (making something by bringing two elements together), YATSAR (transforming something) being the main three.

YACHAD: We need to understand what sort of "fashioning" this is that makes them YACHAD. Together? Joined? All the same, mere anagrams of a central uniformity? Or each one unique? Probably both!

33:16 EYN HA MELECH NOSH'A BE RAV CHAYIL GIBOR LO YINATSEL BE RAV KO'ACH

אֵין הַמֶּלֶךְ נוֹשָׁע בְּרָב חָיִל גִּבּוֹר לֹא יִנָּצֵל בְּרָב כֹּחַ

KJ: There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

BN: A king is not "great" because of the size of his army, nor is he "heroic" because he has powerful muscles.

Again, this needs closer attention to detail. EYN HA MELECH. That definite article is not accidental, and it changes the meaning radically. What I cannot say is: in what way. More work needed, but I presume the intention is to denote this king as YHVH, and YHVH as this king.

33:17 SHEKER HA SUS LIT'SHU'AH U VE ROV CHEYLO LO YEMALET

שֶׁקֶר הַסּוּס לִתְשׁוּעָה וּבְרֹב חֵילוֹ לֹא יְמַלֵּט

KJ: An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

BN: A horse is a high-risk strategy if your goal is safety; nor does its great strength guarantee your get-away.

33:18 HINEH EYN YHVH YERE'AV LA MEYACHALIM LE CHASDO

הִנֵּה עֵין יְהוָה אֶל יְרֵאָיו לַמְיַחֲלִים לְחַסְדּוֹ

KJ: Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

BN: Behold, YHVH's eye is fixed on those who fear him, towards those who wait for his mercy.

HINEH: Is this meant playfully? Telling us to look, in a Psalm that has just used several different words to show how intensely the deity looks, and then does so again, about our response to HINEH, in the rest of the same verse. We might do better on this occasion to translate HINEH, not as "behold", but as "Pay attention, you are being watched!"

MEYACHALIM: I think I may have questioned KJ on this before. This is about waiting, not hoping; and waiting may include hoping, but this is more focused on patience and comes without any reason to expect.

But we also need to distinguish MEYACHALIM here from CHIKTAH at verse 20.

33:19 LEHATSIL MI MAVET NAPHSHAM U LECHAYOTAM BA RA'AV

לְהַצִּיל מִמָּוֶת נַפְשָׁם וּלְחַיּוֹתָם בָּרָעָב

KJ: To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

BN: To deliver their souls from death, and to keep them alive when they are hungry.

LEHATSIL MI MAVET: This is not about the afterlife, nor the resurrection of the already dead; this is about sustaining alive those who are still alive, but struggling to remain so.

RA'AV: Why does this get translated as famine, which is a man-made event, the consequence of poor economic management, and not a god-sent event, as say a drought would be? This is simply "hunger". Which does not require a famine to be extensive.

33:20 NAPHSHENU CHIKTAH LA YHVH EZRENU U MAGINENU HU

נַפְשֵׁנוּ חִכְּתָה לַיהוָה עֶזְרֵנוּ וּמָגִנֵּנוּ הוּא

KJ: Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

BN: Our souls wait for YHVH; he is our help and our shield.

MEYACHALIM at verse 18 (and again, as YICHALNU, at verse 22), CHIKTAH here. Both mean "wait". With the former I emphasised the need for patience, if we look at 2 Kings 7:9 and 9:3, the difference appears to be the total lack of patience.

MAGEN: And of course, what is known in English as the Star of David is really the Shield of David, the Magen David.

33:21 KI VO YISMACH LIBENU KI VE SHEM KADSHO VATACHNU

כִּי בוֹ יִשְׂמַח לִבֵּנוּ כִּי בְשֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ בָטָחְנוּ

KJ: For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

BN: For our hearts rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

33:22 YEHI CHASDECHA YHVH ALEYNU KA ASHER YICHALNU LACH

יְהִי חַסְדְּךָ יְהוָה עָלֵינוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר יִחַלְנוּ לָךְ

KJ: Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

BN: Let your mercy be upon us, YHVH, in the measure that we have waited for you. {P}

YICHALNU: which brings together the two forms of waiting: the more patience we have, without pressing for it to be now, without yielding to hope or expectation that it will ever happen, but recognising, based on our actions, that we may not be entitled to much, or even any... all of which actually takes the mercy away from the divine judge and places it back in the responsibility of the human actor: we get what we deserve. Now there's a MISKAL definitely worth the learning!

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