TheBibleNet: Psalm 41

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

41:1 LA MENATSE'ACH MIZMOR LE DAVID

לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד

KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

BN: For the Artistic Director. A Psalm for David.

Title and first verse merged in the KJ, so the numbering is skewed.

41:2 ASHREY MASKIYL EL DAL BE YOM RA'AH YEMALTEHU YHVH

אַשְׁרֵי מַשְׂכִּיל אֶל דָּל בְּיוֹם רָעָה יְמַלְּטֵהוּ יְהוָה

KJ (41:1): Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

BN: Happy is he who is conscious of the poor; YHVH will deliver him on the day that he is subjected to wickedness.

ASHREY: I guess that you will feel "blessed" if you are feeling "happy", or if you have become "prosperous", but Yehudit has a specific word for blessed - BARUCH - and this is not it (the last verse of this Psalm, however, does have it). More importantly, in the pre-monotheistic Kena'ani (Canaanite) world of the Psalms, Ashrey is a variation on Asherah, the moon goddess who also represents fertility, a variation of Ishtar who is the source of the word Easter and the Jewish Queen Esther. Happiness in this sense then comes from having many children and a successful crop; and presumably the happiness related to the "consciousness of the poor" comes from the glow of self-pride when the poor come to glean from the harvested field, and can take home basketsful, and then gain health and social benefits from the institutions dependent on your ten per cent tithe.

MASKIYL: How does this connect with the MASKIL that was the title of an earlier Psalm, and with the concept of HASKALAH, Enlightenment? Is he "considering" the poor by giving them advice, or financial assistance, or simply by noticing them as he walks by, but doing nothing to assist them. The inference is the former, but the evidence is lacking; and the next verse appears to abrogate responsibility entirely, passing it back to the deity: "God bless you" whispered into the blind man's cup as you stroll on by. Maybe later verses will prove me wrong.

DAL: I have commented on this at length previously - Psalm 30:2 to be precise.

41:3 YHVH YISHMEREHU VIYCHAYEHU YE'SHOR BA ARETS VE AL TITNEHU BE NEPHESH OYEVAV

יְהוָה יִשְׁמְרֵהוּ וִיחַיֵּהוּ יֶאְשֹּׁר בָּאָרֶץ וְאַל תִּתְּנֵהוּ בְּנֶפֶשׁ אֹיְבָיו

KJ (41:2): The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

BN: YHVH, look after him, and keep him alive. Let him prosper in the land, and do not deliver him into the greed of his enemies.

YE'SHOR: From the same root that gave Ashrey.

YISHMERUHU: But wait, I am wrong! The "he" here isn't the blind man or the beggar at all; it's a special commendation for the one who did put a penny in his cup.

41:4 YHVH YIS'ADENU AL ERES DEVAI KOL MISHKAVO HAPHACHTA VE CHALI

יְהוָה יִסְעָדֶנּוּ עַל עֶרֶשׂ דְּוָי כָּל מִשְׁכָּבוֹ הָפַכְתָּ בְחָלְיוֹ

KJ (41:3): The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

BN: Support him, YHVH, when he rests on his couch; treat him with cures when he lies down on his sick-bed.

41:5 ANI AMARTI YHVH CHANENI REPHA'AH NAPHSHI KI CHATA'TI LACH

אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי יְהוָה חָנֵּנִי רְפָאָה נַפְשִׁי כִּי חָטָאתִי לָךְ

KJ (41:4): I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

BN: As for me, I said, YHVH, be gracious to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.

41:6 OYEVAI YOMRU RA LI MATAI YAMUT VE AVAD SHEMO

אוֹיְבַי יֹאמְרוּ רַע לִי מָתַי יָמוּת וְאָבַד שְׁמוֹ

KJ (41:5): Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

BN: My enemies whisper malice about me: "When is he going to die, and his name with him?"

41:7 VE IM BA LIR'OT SHAV YEDABER LIBO YIKBATS AVEN LO YETS'E LACHUTS YEDABER

וְאִם בָּא לִרְאוֹת שָׁוְא יְדַבֵּר לִבּוֹ יִקְבָּץ אָוֶן לוֹ יֵצֵא לַחוּץ יְדַבֵּר

KJ (41:6): And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.

BN: And if one of them comes to see me, he tells me lies. His heart compounds sin upon sin. When he goes out again, he can't wait to tell the world.

SHAV: Interesting to find an aspirated Aleph on the end of that word; not common in Yehudit to have redundant letters. Why is it there? I would suggest that it is "vain", "worthless" and "vacuous", but that would insinuate that I am just playing word-games, and that too might be construed as a sin.

41:8 YACHAD ALAI YITLACHASHU KOL SON'AI ALAI YACHSHEVU RA'AH LI

יַחַד עָלַי יִתְלַחֲשׁוּ כָּל שֹׂנְאָי עָלַי יַחְשְׁבוּ רָעָה לִי

KJ (41:7): All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

BN: They get together to whisper about me, and plan ways to hurt me.

41:9 DEVAR BELI YA'AL YATSUK BO VA ASHER SHACHAV LO YOSIYPH LAKUM

דְּבַר בְּלִיַּעַל יָצוּק בּוֹ וַאֲשֶׁר שָׁכַב לֹא יוֹסִיף לָקוּם

KJ (41:8): An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more.

BN: "Some deep misfortune has taken hold of him; now that he is bed-ridden, likely he will never get up again."

BELI YA'AL: One word, or two, or hyphenated? BELI means "without", as in "lacking"; YA'AL "gains" or "profits", so it could be an illness, but it could just as easily be a war-wound, a knife attack, a bankruptcy, a family tragedy, any one of which would drive Iyov to his bed, and no plans to get up again, ever.

The "he" turned to "I" at verse 5; and now the very concern the Psalmist had about the "he" turns out to be the current condition of the "I". Interesting technique! Can one write auto-biography in the third person? I guess one can!

41:10 GAM ISH SHELOMI ASHER BATACHTI VO OCHEL LACHMI HIGDIL ALAI AKEV

גַּם אִישׁ שְׁלוֹמִי אֲשֶׁר בָּטַחְתִּי בוֹ אוֹכֵל לַחְמִי הִגְדִּיל עָלַי עָקֵב

KJ (41:9): Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

BN: Even my best friend, who I trusted, who ate my bread, {N} has lifted up his heel against me.

SHELOMI: which needs both explaining, and also connecting to ASHALMAH in the next verse. We think of SHALOM as "peace", but it really means "wholeness", so here it is the friend with whom I am most in harmony, at peace, and rendered whole. So "my best friend". My "soul-mate" even.

AKEV: Heels cannot be mentioned in ancient mythology without their symbolic status being inferred. Ya'akov, Achilles, Oedipus, so many of them. The point about the heel in each case is that, like ballerinas and geisha girls, making it impossible to walk on the heel raises your footsteps above those of the common herd. With kings and emperors it makes them divine. With former best friends it simply makes them arrogantly self-superior.

41:11 VE ATAH YHVH CHANENI VE HAKIYMENI VA ASHALMAH LAHEM

וְאַתָּה יְהוָה חָנֵּנִי וַהֲקִימֵנִי וַאֲשַׁלְּמָה לָהֶם

KJ (41:10): But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

BN: But you, YHVH, treat me graciously, and help me to get up from my sick-bed, and I shall be best friend to them.

KJ has misunderstood this. The word-play is SHELOMI with ASHALMAH, not HIGDIL. He will show all the above the proper way to behave, when he is well enough to do so.

41:12 BE ZOT YADA'TI KI CHAPHATSTA BI KI LO YARIY'A OYEVI ALAI

בְּזֹאת יָדַעְתִּי כִּי חָפַצְתָּ בִּי כִּי לֹא יָרִיעַ אֹיְבִי עָלָי

KJ (41:11): By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

BN: By this I know that you take delight in me, [in that, by this you know] that my enemy does not triumph over me.

OYEVI: usually we get OYEVAI; why not now? OYEVI is singular, OYEVAI plural - and clearly an error by the scribe, because OYEVAI is LAHEM, "all the above".

41:13 VE ANI BE TUMI TAMACHTA BI VA TATSIYVENI LEPHANEYCHA LE OLAM

וַאֲנִי בְּתֻמִּי תָּמַכְתָּ בִּי וַתַּצִּיבֵנִי לְפָנֶיךָ לְעוֹלָם

KJ (41:12): And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

BN: And as for me, you look after me because of my integrity, and allow me to stand your face at all times.

41:14 BARUCH YHVH ELOHEI YISRA-EL ME HA OLAM VE AD HA OLAM AMEN VE AMEN

בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵהָעוֹלָם וְעַד הָעוֹלָם אָמֵן וְאָמֵן

KJ (41:13): Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

BN: Blessed be YHVH, the god of Yisra-El, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. {P}

With which words, what is generally regarded as the First Book of Psalms comes to its completion.

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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