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
In truth a 12-verse piece, the first being the title; and as to the last, see my note at verse 13. It's also split 5-7, with a Selah after verse 6 (though that is really 5 of the 12), and another after 12.
Is it just me, or do the Haiku-Senryu-Tanka numbers recur in both syllables and lines throughout the Psalms?
39:1 LA MENATSE'ACH LIY'DIYTUN MIZMOR LE DAVID
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.) I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Leader, for Yediytun. A Psalm for David.
And yet again KJ has joined verse 2 into verse 1, misnumbering the remainder.
LIY'DIYTUN: The name of a person, or an honorary title, like Asaph ("the collector of the Royal Psalms"), or his position in the choir or orchestra? 1 Chronicles 16:38 is where we need to go. David having finally brought the Ark to the edge of Yeru-Shala'im, it is placed in a tent and the Kohanim and Levites summoned, and then danced and sung into the city. A feast is held, after which (16:7) "That was the day on which David appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to YHVH", which takes us to verse 36. Then "David left Asaph and his associates before the ark of the covenant of YHVH, to minister there regularly, according to each day's requirements. He also left Oved-Edom and his sixty-eight associates to minister with them. Oved-Edom the son of Yedutun, and also Chosah, were gatekeepers."
39:3 NE'ELAMTI DUMIYAH HECHESHEYTI MI TOV U CHE'EVI NE'KAR
BN: I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, had no comfort; and my pain was held in check.
Ditto with this verse; the only obvious difference being that he uses DUMAH here for silence, where 38:14 and 15 are structured differently.
39:4 CHAM LIBI BE KIRBI BA HAGIYGI TIV'AR ESH DIBARTI BILSHONI
KJ (39:3): My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
BN: My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then I spoke with my tongue:
39:5 HODIY'ENI YHVH KITSI U MIDAT YAMAI MAH HI ED'AH MEH CHADEL ANI
KJ (39:4): LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
BN: YHVH, let me know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how short-lived I am to be.
CHADEL: I have added two words to the customary translation, but I think they make two volumes of difference philosophically; he isn't asking YHVH to teach him that life is short; he wants to know how long he's got.
39:6 HINEH TEPHACHOT NATATAH YAMAI VE CHELDI CHE AYIN NEGDECHA ACH KOL HEVEL KOL ADAM NITSAV (SELAH)
KJ (39:5): Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
BN: Behold, you have made my days like hand-breadths; and my age is as nothing compared with yours; {N} surely every man, even at his best, is still nothing but vanity. (Selah)
TEPHACHOT: The TEPACH is the open palm, but it is used as a measure, based on the width of four fingers, at 1 Kings 7:26 and 2 Chronicles 4:5. See also Exodus 25:25. Where the cubit is an arm's length, this is much shorter, though still longer than a T.S. Eliot coffee-spoon (you can look that up for yourself!)
NEGDECHA: Frequently used, seemingly as a synonym for LIPHNECHA - and yet, in reality, the two are opposites. What is the subtlety in this difference?
39:8 VE ATAH MAH KIVIYTI ADONAI TOCHALTI LECHA HI
KJ (39:7): And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
BN: And now, my Lord, what am I waiting for? My hope is in you.
TOCHALTI: We looked at "wait" versus "hope" in the last Psalm, but this is yet a different root with the same ambivalence. The root is YACHAL, and really it is about waiting in the sense of "delaying", which is a much lower level of hope, and practically no expectation, but still not giving up, whereas LECHAKOT is waiting because it should be arriving at any moment and hope is scarcely distinguishable from expectation. And the phrasing of the first half of this verse endorses that: he has virtually given up waiting, because he knows it ain't going to happen. Cf Proverbs 10:28, which is the only other occurrence of this root in the Tanach, and again endorses my commentary.
39:9 MI KOL PESHA'AI HATSIYLENI CHERPAT NAVAL AL TESIYMENI
KJ (39:8): Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
BN: Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
NAVAL: See my notes at Psalm 37:2.
39:10 NE'ELAMTI LO EPHTACH PI KI ATAH ASIYTA
KJ (39:9): I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
BN: I have shut my mouth and will not say another word, because this is your responsibility.
The problem with translating this as "dumb" is that it makes an incorrect back-reference to verse 3. There it was NE'ALAMTI DUMIYAH, here plain NE'ELAMTI. Which is to say, the emphasis there was on the silence consequent upon shutting his mouth; here it is the act of closing it that is being emphasised. My translation is of the intention rather more than of the precise words; ditto the next verse.
39:11 HASER ME ALAI NIG'ECHA MI TIGRAT YADCHA ANI CHALIYTI
KJ (39:10): Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
BN: Stop hitting me. I am out for the count from the blows of your hand.
NIG'ECHA: Is this from the same rot as LINGO'A, as in the previous Psalm?
CHALIYTI: See the link.
39:12 BE TOCHACHOT AL AVON YISARTA ISH VA TEMES KA ASH CHAMUDO ACH HEVEL KOL ADAM (SELAH)
KJ (39: 11): When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
BN: With rebukes you chasten a man for iniquity, and like a moth you cause his beauty to rot away; {N} the fact is, human beings are just vapour. (Selah)
39:13 SHIM'AH TEPHILATI YHVH VE SHAV'ATI HA'AZIYNAH EL DIM'ATI AL TECHERASH KI GER ANOCHI IMACH TOSHAV KE CHOL AVOTAI
KJ (39:12): Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
BN: Hear my prayer, YHVH, and listen to my cry. {N} Do not stay silent at my tears, {N} for I am a stranger to you, a sojourner, as all my ancestors were.
GER...TOSHAV: "Stranger" is not a good translation - it is there in GER, but in the sense of NACHRI, not of TOSHAV. A TOSHAV is a "settler", a "recent immigrant", an "asylum seeker" in modern parlance, and there may well be xenophobia in that modern context, but it is not inferred here. The point is rather more Beckettian, or that song by Leonard Cohen: life is a state of "only passing through".
The Selah on this occasion appears to indicate a change of tone, as though a coda were being added, a conclusory prayer, an after-thought, which is the next verse. Though it could be argued that verse 13 is already a post scriptum.
39:14 HASH'A MIMENI VE AVLIYGAH BE TEREM ELECH VE EYNENI
KJ (39:13): O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
BN: Redeem me, that I may be comforted, before I leave this place, before I am no more. {P}
HASH'A: Is from the root that gives Moshi'a.
39:1 LA MENATSE'ACH LIY'DIYTUN MIZMOR LE DAVID
לַמְנַצֵּחַ לִידִיתוּן מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.) I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Leader, for Yediytun. A Psalm for David.
And yet again KJ has joined verse 2 into verse 1, misnumbering the remainder.
LIY'DIYTUN: The name of a person, or an honorary title, like Asaph ("the collector of the Royal Psalms"), or his position in the choir or orchestra? 1 Chronicles 16:38 is where we need to go. David having finally brought the Ark to the edge of Yeru-Shala'im, it is placed in a tent and the Kohanim and Levites summoned, and then danced and sung into the city. A feast is held, after which (16:7) "That was the day on which David appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to YHVH", which takes us to verse 36. Then "David left Asaph and his associates before the ark of the covenant of YHVH, to minister there regularly, according to each day's requirements. He also left Oved-Edom and his sixty-eight associates to minister with them. Oved-Edom the son of Yedutun, and also Chosah, were gatekeepers."
Which actually doesn't help us, because it still doesn't tell us who Yedutun himself was, only the job his son had. But read on. Verse 41, while the burned offerings are being presented at the altar:
With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those chosen and designated by name to give thanks to YHVH, "for his love endures forever". Heyman and Yedutun were responsible for the sounding of the trumpets and cymbals and for the playing of the other instruments for sacred song. The sons of Yedutun were stationed at the gate.
And from this and other references in Chronicles and Psalms, we can say that it was originally a person's name, but it became a title, and a family inheritance, with many holders of the title among the musicians and singers through the centuries that followed.
(I will return to this theme again when Yedutun comes up again in Psalm 62 - see my notes there)
39:2 AMARTI ESHMERAH DERACHAI ME CHATO VILSHONI ESHMERAH LE PHI MACHSOM BE OD RASH'A LE NEGDI
KJ (39:1): I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
BN: I said: I will pay heed to my behaviour, so that I do not sin with my tongue; {N} I will pay heed to my mouth by using a muzzle, while the wicked are still standing up to oppose me.
ESHMERAH: It seems to me only respectful to translate the same word the same way when it it is used twice in the same sentence.
MACHSOM: See Deuteronomy 25:4.
אָמַרְתִּי אֶשְׁמְרָה דְרָכַי מֵחֲטוֹא בִלְשׁוֹנִי אֶשְׁמְרָה לְפִי מַחְסוֹם בְּעֹד רָשָׁע לְנֶגְדִּי
KJ (39:1): I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
BN: I said: I will pay heed to my behaviour, so that I do not sin with my tongue; {N} I will pay heed to my mouth by using a muzzle, while the wicked are still standing up to oppose me.
ESHMERAH: It seems to me only respectful to translate the same word the same way when it it is used twice in the same sentence.
MACHSOM: See Deuteronomy 25:4.
The content and tone of this verse feel like a continuation of the previous Psalm ("plotology"!).
39:3 NE'ELAMTI DUMIYAH HECHESHEYTI MI TOV U CHE'EVI NE'KAR
נֶאֱלַמְתִּי דוּמִיָּה הֶחֱשֵׁיתִי מִטּוֹב וּכְאֵבִי נֶעְכָּר
KJ (39:2): I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
Ditto with this verse; the only obvious difference being that he uses DUMAH here for silence, where 38:14 and 15 are structured differently.
39:4 CHAM LIBI BE KIRBI BA HAGIYGI TIV'AR ESH DIBARTI BILSHONI
חַם לִבִּי בְּקִרְבִּי בַּהֲגִיגִי תִבְעַר אֵשׁ דִּבַּרְתִּי בִּלְשׁוֹנִי
KJ (39:3): My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
BN: My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then I spoke with my tongue:
39:5 HODIY'ENI YHVH KITSI U MIDAT YAMAI MAH HI ED'AH MEH CHADEL ANI
הוֹדִיעֵנִי יְהוָה קִצִּי וּמִדַּת יָמַי מַה הִיא אֵדְעָה מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי
KJ (39:4): LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
BN: YHVH, let me know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how short-lived I am to be.
CHADEL: I have added two words to the customary translation, but I think they make two volumes of difference philosophically; he isn't asking YHVH to teach him that life is short; he wants to know how long he's got.
39:6 HINEH TEPHACHOT NATATAH YAMAI VE CHELDI CHE AYIN NEGDECHA ACH KOL HEVEL KOL ADAM NITSAV (SELAH)
הִנֵּה טְפָחוֹת נָתַתָּה יָמַי וְחֶלְדִּי כְאַיִן נֶגְדֶּךָ אַךְ כָּל הֶבֶל כָּל אָדָם נִצָּב סֶלָה
KJ (39:5): Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
BN: Behold, you have made my days like hand-breadths; and my age is as nothing compared with yours; {N} surely every man, even at his best, is still nothing but vanity. (Selah)
TEPHACHOT: The TEPACH is the open palm, but it is used as a measure, based on the width of four fingers, at 1 Kings 7:26 and 2 Chronicles 4:5. See also Exodus 25:25. Where the cubit is an arm's length, this is much shorter, though still longer than a T.S. Eliot coffee-spoon (you can look that up for yourself!)
NEGDECHA: Frequently used, seemingly as a synonym for LIPHNECHA - and yet, in reality, the two are opposites. What is the subtlety in this difference?
HEVEL...ADAM: HAVEL was the son of ADAM. But that is merely word-play here. See my note at Psalm 31:6. The word HEVEL really means "vapour", but this is not the idiom in English.
39:7 ACH BE TSELEM YIT'HALECH ISH ACH HEVEL YEHEMAYUN YITSBOR VE LO YEDA MI OSPHAM
KJ (39:6): Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
BN (interpretative translation): But the fact is, human beings are little more than shadows; the fact is we are vapour, and we live in a state of turmoil because of it; {N} we pile up "stuff", and have no idea whether it will end up in museums or on the trash-heap.
ACH: Really means "but", but "surely" gets used variously, and not only as "only" but surely as "however" as well: see the link for a very long list of usages.
39:7 ACH BE TSELEM YIT'HALECH ISH ACH HEVEL YEHEMAYUN YITSBOR VE LO YEDA MI OSPHAM
אַךְ בְּצֶלֶם יִתְהַלֶּךְ אִישׁ אַךְ הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן יִצְבֹּר וְלֹא יֵדַע מִי אֹסְפָם
KJ (39:6): Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
BN (interpretative translation): But the fact is, human beings are little more than shadows; the fact is we are vapour, and we live in a state of turmoil because of it; {N} we pile up "stuff", and have no idea whether it will end up in museums or on the trash-heap.
ACH: Really means "but", but "surely" gets used variously, and not only as "only" but surely as "however" as well: see the link for a very long list of usages.
39:8 VE ATAH MAH KIVIYTI ADONAI TOCHALTI LECHA HI
וְעַתָּה מַה קִּוִּיתִי אֲדֹנָי תּוֹחַלְתִּי לְךָ הִיא
KJ (39:7): And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
BN: And now, my Lord, what am I waiting for? My hope is in you.
TOCHALTI: We looked at "wait" versus "hope" in the last Psalm, but this is yet a different root with the same ambivalence. The root is YACHAL, and really it is about waiting in the sense of "delaying", which is a much lower level of hope, and practically no expectation, but still not giving up, whereas LECHAKOT is waiting because it should be arriving at any moment and hope is scarcely distinguishable from expectation. And the phrasing of the first half of this verse endorses that: he has virtually given up waiting, because he knows it ain't going to happen. Cf Proverbs 10:28, which is the only other occurrence of this root in the Tanach, and again endorses my commentary.
I cannot hear TOCHALTI and not mistake it for TOCHELET; and I know I am wrong, because the word I am associating is KOHELET, not TOCHELET. But I look up KOHELET anyway, and right there, verse 1, is this very "Vanity of Vanities" which is the vaporous shadow passing itself off as the substance of this Psalm. And even more so when you go to verse 13 of this Psalm, below. And even more again when you see how Sefaria translates the Ecclesiastes (click here), rejecting "vanity", and quite rightly.
39:9 MI KOL PESHA'AI HATSIYLENI CHERPAT NAVAL AL TESIYMENI
מִכָּל פְּשָׁעַי הַצִּילֵנִי חֶרְפַּת נָבָל אַל תְּשִׂימֵנִי
KJ (39:8): Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
BN: Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
NAVAL: See my notes at Psalm 37:2.
39:10 NE'ELAMTI LO EPHTACH PI KI ATAH ASIYTA
נֶאֱלַמְתִּי לֹא אֶפְתַּח פִּי כִּי אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ
KJ (39:9): I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
BN: I have shut my mouth and will not say another word, because this is your responsibility.
The problem with translating this as "dumb" is that it makes an incorrect back-reference to verse 3. There it was NE'ALAMTI DUMIYAH, here plain NE'ELAMTI. Which is to say, the emphasis there was on the silence consequent upon shutting his mouth; here it is the act of closing it that is being emphasised. My translation is of the intention rather more than of the precise words; ditto the next verse.
39:11 HASER ME ALAI NIG'ECHA MI TIGRAT YADCHA ANI CHALIYTI
הָסֵר מֵעָלַי נִגְעֶךָ מִתִּגְרַת יָדְךָ אֲנִי כָלִיתִי
KJ (39:10): Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
BN: Stop hitting me. I am out for the count from the blows of your hand.
NIG'ECHA: Is this from the same rot as LINGO'A, as in the previous Psalm?
CHALIYTI: See the link.
39:12 BE TOCHACHOT AL AVON YISARTA ISH VA TEMES KA ASH CHAMUDO ACH HEVEL KOL ADAM (SELAH)
בְּתוֹכָחוֹת עַל עָוֹן יִסַּרְתָּ אִישׁ וַתֶּמֶס כָּעָשׁ חֲמוּדוֹ אַךְ הֶבֶל כָּל אָדָם סֶלָה
KJ (39: 11): When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
BN: With rebukes you chasten a man for iniquity, and like a moth you cause his beauty to rot away; {N} the fact is, human beings are just vapour. (Selah)
39:13 SHIM'AH TEPHILATI YHVH VE SHAV'ATI HA'AZIYNAH EL DIM'ATI AL TECHERASH KI GER ANOCHI IMACH TOSHAV KE CHOL AVOTAI
שִׁמְעָה תְפִלָּתִי יְהוָה וְשַׁוְעָתִי הַאֲזִינָה אֶל דִּמְעָתִי אַל תֶּחֱרַשׁ כִּי גֵר אָנֹכִי עִמָּךְ תּוֹשָׁב כְּכָל אֲבוֹתָי
KJ (39:12): Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
BN: Hear my prayer, YHVH, and listen to my cry. {N} Do not stay silent at my tears, {N} for I am a stranger to you, a sojourner, as all my ancestors were.
GER...TOSHAV: "Stranger" is not a good translation - it is there in GER, but in the sense of NACHRI, not of TOSHAV. A TOSHAV is a "settler", a "recent immigrant", an "asylum seeker" in modern parlance, and there may well be xenophobia in that modern context, but it is not inferred here. The point is rather more Beckettian, or that song by Leonard Cohen: life is a state of "only passing through".
The Selah on this occasion appears to indicate a change of tone, as though a coda were being added, a conclusory prayer, an after-thought, which is the next verse. Though it could be argued that verse 13 is already a post scriptum.
39:14 HASH'A MIMENI VE AVLIYGAH BE TEREM ELECH VE EYNENI
הָשַׁע מִמֶּנִּי וְאַבְלִיגָה בְּטֶרֶם אֵלֵךְ וְאֵינֶנִּי
KJ (39:13): O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
BN: Redeem me, that I may be comforted, before I leave this place, before I am no more. {P}
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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