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
44:1 LA MENATSE'ACH LIVNEY KORACH MASKIL
לַמְנַצֵּחַ לִבְנֵי קֹרַח מַשְׂכִּיל
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.) We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Leader of the Beney Korach. A Teaching Psalm.
Title, dedication, and descriptor; KJ has also included the first verse, shifting the numbers of the succeeding verses.
Is this a double dedication: to the Artistic Director and (or for) the Beney Korach, or a single dedication, to the Leader of the Beney Korach?
44:2 ELOHIM BE AZNEYNU SHAM'ANU AVOTEYNU SIPRU LANU PO'AL PA'ALTA VIY'MEYHEM BIYMEI KEDEM
KJ (44:1): We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
BN: You gods, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us; {N} the work that you did in their days, in the days of yore.
PO'AL PA'ALTA: The gods in the Yisra-Eli world act through the power of the Word, ha DAVAR: their actions are verbs. So the word to describe their actions (tempests blowing, rivers flowing, microbes infecting, seasons changing, butterflies pollenating, the ripening of the corn...) is not AVODAH, which is both the slavery and the worship required of human beings, but PE'ULAH, the very word used by humans for the conjugation of those verbs - click here.
44:3 ATAH YADCHA GOYIM HORASHTA VA TITA'EM TAR'A LE'UMIM VA TESHALCHEM
KJ (44:2): How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
BN: How by your own hand you drove out the nations, and enabled them to settle; {N} how you broke up the people, and spread them abroad.
GOYIM...LE'UMIM: This has nothing to do with religious faith, or only secondarily; this has to do with one set of people (the Celts, say, or the Seminole) who are indigenous to a land, and along comes another, and either kicks them out, or forces them to live in reservations (the West Bank of Wales), or ghettoes (the Gaza Strip of Alligator Alley).
44:2 ELOHIM BE AZNEYNU SHAM'ANU AVOTEYNU SIPRU LANU PO'AL PA'ALTA VIY'MEYHEM BIYMEI KEDEM
אֱלֹהִים בְּאָזְנֵינוּ שָׁמַעְנוּ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ סִפְּרוּ לָנוּ פֹּעַל פָּעַלְתָּ בִימֵיהֶם בִּימֵי קֶדֶם
KJ (44:1): We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
BN: You gods, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us; {N} the work that you did in their days, in the days of yore.
PO'AL PA'ALTA: The gods in the Yisra-Eli world act through the power of the Word, ha DAVAR: their actions are verbs. So the word to describe their actions (tempests blowing, rivers flowing, microbes infecting, seasons changing, butterflies pollenating, the ripening of the corn...) is not AVODAH, which is both the slavery and the worship required of human beings, but PE'ULAH, the very word used by humans for the conjugation of those verbs - click here.
44:3 ATAH YADCHA GOYIM HORASHTA VA TITA'EM TAR'A LE'UMIM VA TESHALCHEM
אַתָּה יָדְךָ גּוֹיִם הוֹרַשְׁתָּ וַתִּטָּעֵם תָּרַע לְאֻמִּים וַתְּשַׁלְּחֵם
KJ (44:2): How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
BN: How by your own hand you drove out the nations, and enabled them to settle; {N} how you broke up the people, and spread them abroad.
GOYIM...LE'UMIM: This has nothing to do with religious faith, or only secondarily; this has to do with one set of people (the Celts, say, or the Seminole) who are indigenous to a land, and along comes another, and either kicks them out, or forces them to live in reservations (the West Bank of Wales), or ghettoes (the Gaza Strip of Alligator Alley).
TESHALSCHEM: sent them into exile? Is this about the dispersal of the remaining indigenes, or the later removal of the Beney Yisra-El themselves? If the Psalm belongs to the First Temple period, it has to be the former; if it belongs to the Second Temple period, it is more likely the latter.
Is this then a hymn of praise to the deity for a successful act of ethnic cleansing? The next verses will help to clarify that this is (presumably) the Joshuaic conquest.
44:4 KI LO VE CHARBAM YARSHU ARETS U ZERO'AM LO HOSHIY'AH LAMO KI YEMIYNCHA U ZERO'ACHA VE OR PANEYCHA KI RETSIYTAM
כִּי לֹא בְחַרְבָּם יָרְשׁוּ אָרֶץ וּזְרוֹעָם לֹא הוֹשִׁיעָה לָּמוֹ כִּי יְמִינְךָ וּזְרוֹעֲךָ וְאוֹר פָּנֶיךָ כִּי רְצִיתָם
KJ (44:3): For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
BN: For they did not inherit the land through their own swords, nor did their own arms save them: but your right hand, your arm, the light of your countenance, because you showed favour to them.
To me, looking in as an outsider, this is the saddest statement of any in the entire Tanach, and it is by no means the first, nor the last time that we will encounter it - indeed, it is really what the entire Tanach is ultimately about. Nothing that human beings do can ever be credited to them. They are totally responsible for their sins, and must be punished; but if they do good, it wasn't them, it was the deity. What chance of civilisational progress with such a philosophy?
44:5 ATAH HU MALKI ELOHIM TSAVEH YESHU'OT YA'AKOV
אַתָּה הוּא מַלְכִּי אֱלֹהִים צַוֵּה יְשׁוּעוֹת יַעֲקֹב
KJ (44:4): Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
BN: You are him, the one who is my king; he who commands the salvation of Ya'akov.
YA'AKOV: meaning Yisra-El, the nation, as per the blessing at Genesis 32:29.
44:6 BECHA TSAREYNU NENAGE'ACH BE SHIMCHA NAVUS KAMEYNU
בְּךָ צָרֵינוּ נְנַגֵּחַ בְּשִׁמְךָ נָבוּס קָמֵינוּ
KJ (44:5): Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
BN: Through you we will overcome our sorrows; in your name we will tread down those who rise up against us.
NENAGE'ACH...NAVUS: Both verbs here are in the future tense. This is about faith for the future based on the past, not about present action.
44:7 KI LO VEKASHTI EVTACH VE CHARBI LO TOSHIY'ENI
כִּי לֹא בְקַשְׁתִּי אֶבְטָח וְחַרְבִּי לֹא תוֹשִׁיעֵנִי
KJ (44:6): For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
BN: For I placed no trust in my bow, nor can my sword save me.
VEKASHTI: Where this is in the past tense: faith is more powerful than weaponry. Go tell that to Abba Kovner or Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy!
44:8 KI HOSHA'TANU MI TSAREYNU U MESAN'EYNU HEVIYSHOTA
כִּי הוֹשַׁעְתָּנוּ מִצָּרֵינוּ וּמְשַׂנְאֵינוּ הֱבִישׁוֹתָ
KJ (44:7): But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
BN: But you delivered us from our sorrows, and put to shame those who hate us.
44:9 B'ELOHIM HILALNU CHOL HA YOM VE SHIMCHA LE OLAM NODEH (SELAH)
בֵּאלֹהִים הִלַּלְנוּ כָל הַיּוֹם וְשִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם נוֹדֶה סֶלָה
KJ (44:8): In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
BN: In the gods have we gloried all day long, and we will give thanks to your name for ever. (Selah)
44:10 APH ZANACHTA VA TACHLIYMENU VE LO TETS'E BE TSIV'OTEYNU
אַף זָנַחְתָּ וַתַּכְלִימֵנוּ וְלֹא תֵצֵא בְּצִבְאוֹתֵינוּ
KJ (44:9): But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
BN: But you have spurned us, and humiliated us, by not going out at the head of our armed forces.
The first part was all about the wonderful things the gods have done for us; the second part begins with them rejecting us - no reason given. So we can see that the Selah break on this occasion is thematic - which doesn't preclude it from being musical as well, but it is rare that we can pinpoint a thematic break as clearly as this one.
44:11 TESHIYVENU ACHOR MINIY TSAR U MESAN'EYNU SHASU LAMO
תְּשִׁיבֵנוּ אָחוֹר מִנִּי צָר וּמְשַׂנְאֵינוּ שָׁסוּ לָמוֹ
KJ (44:10): Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Sar Shalom translation: Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary; and they that hate us spoil at their will.
TESHIYVENU: Human cowardice, turning tail and fleeing, but refusing to accept the responsibility. Before you know it, they will be describing it as a heroic tactical retreat - a Biblical Dunkirk! Before you know it they will be passing laws declaring it illegal to name the battle as Yisra-Eli - a Biblical Polish Death Camp! The deity made us do it. The deity let us down!
MINIY TSAR: Surprises me, I would have expected MI NITSAR, but I have checked this in several versions... MI NI TSAR: MINIY TSAR: MI NITSAR??? (see also verse 19). And if it is the last of those, the meaning cannot be the one in KJ or SarShalom, as above, because TSAR ("enemy", "adversary") is not the same root as NITSAR ("branch", "shoot", "sapling"). The context renders NITSAR somewhat unlikely, so this has to be MINI TSAR. Then is this simply a grammatical necessity to enable MIN to become a prefix to TSAR?
ME SAN'EYNU: MESAN'EYNU??? Why is this not also split in two, or given that alternative form of MIN?
BN: It is your fault that we turned tail and fled from our enemy; and now those who hate us have rewarded themselves with pillage.
44:12 TITNENU KE TSON MA'ACHAL U VA GOYIM ZERIYTANU
KJ (44:11): Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
BN: You have handed us over like lambs to the slaughter, and scattered us among the nations.
GOYIM: Again KJ renders this as "heathens".
ZERIYTANU: Again I ask: at what moment of history was this written? Because it makes a perfect prelude to Psalm 137. Or is the statement meant metaphorically - too much assimilation among the non-Yisra-Elim in the land - which would make "heathens" a valid translation!
44:13 TIMKOR AMCHA VE LO HON VE LO RIBIYTA BIM'CHIREYHEM
KJ (44:12): Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
BN: You sell your people for virtually nothing, and barely make a profit in the process.
Capitalist work contracts or slavery in Babylon? Probably not much difference, unfortunately. HON means "sufficiency" rather more than it means "wealth" - wealth at the very low end, barely enough to subsist on, but poverty of that sort, in England say, would still be regarded as plenty in some other corners of the human world (click here).
44:14 TESIYMENU CHERPAH LISHCHENEYNU LA'AG VA KELES LISVIYVOTEYNU
KJ (44:13): Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
BN: You make us an object of contempt to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to those who live around us.
LISHCHENEYNU...LISVIYVOTEYNU: The former are our immediate neighbours, in our village let alone our country; the latter are the neighbouring countries.
44:12 TITNENU KE TSON MA'ACHAL U VA GOYIM ZERIYTANU
תִּתְּנֵנוּ כְּצֹאן מַאֲכָל וּבַגּוֹיִם זֵרִיתָנוּ
KJ (44:11): Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
BN: You have handed us over like lambs to the slaughter, and scattered us among the nations.
GOYIM: Again KJ renders this as "heathens".
ZERIYTANU: Again I ask: at what moment of history was this written? Because it makes a perfect prelude to Psalm 137. Or is the statement meant metaphorically - too much assimilation among the non-Yisra-Elim in the land - which would make "heathens" a valid translation!
44:13 TIMKOR AMCHA VE LO HON VE LO RIBIYTA BIM'CHIREYHEM
תִּמְכֹּר עַמְּךָ בְלֹא הוֹן וְלֹא רִבִּיתָ בִּמְחִירֵיהֶם
KJ (44:12): Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
BN: You sell your people for virtually nothing, and barely make a profit in the process.
Capitalist work contracts or slavery in Babylon? Probably not much difference, unfortunately. HON means "sufficiency" rather more than it means "wealth" - wealth at the very low end, barely enough to subsist on, but poverty of that sort, in England say, would still be regarded as plenty in some other corners of the human world (click here).
44:14 TESIYMENU CHERPAH LISHCHENEYNU LA'AG VA KELES LISVIYVOTEYNU
תְּשִׂימֵנוּ חֶרְפָּה לִשְׁכֵנֵינוּ לַעַג וָקֶלֶס לִסְבִיבוֹתֵינוּ
KJ (44:13): Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
BN: You make us an object of contempt to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to those who live around us.
LISHCHENEYNU...LISVIYVOTEYNU: The former are our immediate neighbours, in our village let alone our country; the latter are the neighbouring countries.
44:15 TESIYMENU MASHAL BA GOYIM MENOD ROSH BAL UMIM
תְּשִׂימֵנוּ מָשָׁל בַּגּוֹיִם מְנוֹד רֹאשׁ בַּל אֻמִּים
KJ (44:14): Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
BN: You make us a byword among the nations, a cause of head-shaking among the people.
MASHAL: The Book of Proverbs is known in Yehudit as "Mishley Shelomoh", from its opening phrase.
44:16 KOL HA YOM KELIMATI NEGDI U VOSHET PANAI KISATNI
כָּל הַיּוֹם כְּלִמָּתִי נֶגְדִּי וּבֹשֶׁת פָּנַי כִּסָּתְנִי
KJ (44:15): My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
BN: All day my ignominy stands before me, and my face is covered with the evidence of my shame.
KELIMATI: Yes, but are you facing up to it, or turning your face away from it, accepting responsibility or seeking someone outside yourself, the deity even, to blame? See again my notes at verses 4 and 11. This is a teaching Psalm, after all: so we have now identified what is on its curriculum.
VOSHET PANAI KISATNI: A highly poetical way of blushing.
44:17 MI KOL MECHAREPH U MEGADEPH MIPNEY OYEV U MITNAKEM
מִקּוֹל מְחָרֵף וּמְגַדֵּף מִפְּנֵי אוֹיֵב וּמִתְנַקֵּם
KJ (44:16): For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
BN: From the voice of he who taunts and reviles me; because he too is my enemy, and he seeks vengeance.
MEGADEPH: Numbers 15:30 uses it for "reviling" the deity, which is "blasphemy"; and that is what the Psalmist is doing in these verses (but for a teaching purpose, which will become clear, and so it is acceptable); but what he is stating in this verse is about others "reviling" him, and that cannot be translated as "blaspheme", which is a term exclusive to the deity.
MITNAKEM: Folks familiar with these commentaries will know that I never make an outrageous statement that does't turn out to prefigure something coming up later on the same page, or make a historical or political allusion that doesn't do likewise. So I mentioned Abba Kovner earlier, and if you went to the link you will have read about his creation of the DIN, "Dam Yisra-El Nokem", literally "the blood of Israel will be revenged", which hunted down Nazis in the aftermath of Hitler's War, simply murdering most, handing a few over to the War Crimes commissioners. By contrast, that other Nazi-hunter Simeon Wiesenthal only handed his finds over, and called his auto-biography "Justice, Not Vengeance". If I were the Leader of the Beney Korach, teaching the Psalm to my students today, I would want to have them explore both of those alternative responses, but still focused on this text.
44:18 KOL ZOT BA'ATNU VE LO SHECHACHANUCHA VE LO SHIKARNU BI VRIYTECHA
כָּל זֹאת בָּאַתְנוּ וְלֹא שְׁכַחֲנוּךָ וְלֹא שִׁקַּרְנוּ בִּבְרִיתֶךָ
KJ (44:17): All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
BN: All this has befallen us, and yet we have not forgotten you, nor have we betrayed your covenant.
44:19 LO NASOG ACHOR LIBENU VA TET ASHUREYNU MINI ARCHECHA
לֹא נָסוֹג אָחוֹר לִבֵּנוּ וַתֵּט אֲשֻׁרֵינוּ מִנִּי אָרְחֶךָ
KJ (44:18): Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
BN: Our hearts have not turned away, nor have our steps wandered from your path...
LO NASOG: So the text begins to draw the threads together, as a good seminar should. The army may have turned and fled, we may even have blamed you at the time, but quiet reflection has moved us on...
MINI: Is this the same MINI that caused me consternation in verse 11? If so, then we have identified an unusual linguistic variation, and linguistic variations are always helpful to archaeologists, when they try to carbon date text but don't have an original artefact to take to their decarboniser (click here).
44:20 KI DIKIYTANU BIMKOM TANIYM VA TECHAS ALEYNU VE TSALMAVET
KJ (44:19): Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
BN: ...even though you reduced us to mere biodegraded matter, and covered us with a shroud of earth.
BIMKOM: "Into a place of", or BI MEKOM, "instead of"? On this occasion it has to be the latter, though grammar requires the elision.
TANIYM: Dragons? Jackals? So many ways of avoiding translating this accurately (though actually "dragons" is not unreasonable; the dragons are just media hype versions of the worms that live underground and do the natural carbonisation)... See the link for a fuller explanation (and yes, I know that this says TANIYM, but my link says TANINIM - it is the same thing; the variation lies, as so often in these Psalms, with the dropping of the second of a double-letter. LIV-YATAN, Leviathan, works in exactly the same way).
44:21 IM SHACHACHNU SHEM ELOHEYNU VE NIPHROS KAPEYNU LE EL ZAR
KJ (44:20): If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
BN: If we had forgotten the names of our gods, or reached out our hands to a foreign god...
44:22 HA LO ELOHIM YACHAKAR ZOT KI HU YODE'A TA'ALUMOT LEV
KJ (44:21): Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
BN: ... would not Elohim find that out? For he knows the hidden secrets of the heart.
44:23 KI ALEYCHA HORAGNU CHOL HA YOM NECHSHAVNU KE TSON TIVCHAH
KJ (44:22): Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
BN: But it is for your sake that human beings die, all day and every day; we are reckoned up like sheep for the slaughter.
44:20 KI DIKIYTANU BIMKOM TANIYM VA TECHAS ALEYNU VE TSALMAVET
כִּי דִכִּיתָנוּ בִּמְקוֹם תַּנִּים וַתְּכַס עָלֵינוּ בְצַלְמָוֶת
KJ (44:19): Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
BN: ...even though you reduced us to mere biodegraded matter, and covered us with a shroud of earth.
BIMKOM: "Into a place of", or BI MEKOM, "instead of"? On this occasion it has to be the latter, though grammar requires the elision.
TANIYM: Dragons? Jackals? So many ways of avoiding translating this accurately (though actually "dragons" is not unreasonable; the dragons are just media hype versions of the worms that live underground and do the natural carbonisation)... See the link for a fuller explanation (and yes, I know that this says TANIYM, but my link says TANINIM - it is the same thing; the variation lies, as so often in these Psalms, with the dropping of the second of a double-letter. LIV-YATAN, Leviathan, works in exactly the same way).
44:21 IM SHACHACHNU SHEM ELOHEYNU VE NIPHROS KAPEYNU LE EL ZAR
אִם שָׁכַחְנוּ שֵׁם אֱלֹהֵינוּ וַנִּפְרֹשׂ כַּפֵּינוּ לְאֵל זָר
KJ (44:20): If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
BN: If we had forgotten the names of our gods, or reached out our hands to a foreign god...
44:22 HA LO ELOHIM YACHAKAR ZOT KI HU YODE'A TA'ALUMOT LEV
הֲלֹא אֱלֹהִים יַחֲקָר זֹאת כִּי הוּא יֹדֵעַ תַּעֲלֻמוֹת לֵב
KJ (44:21): Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
BN: ... would not Elohim find that out? For he knows the hidden secrets of the heart.
44:23 KI ALEYCHA HORAGNU CHOL HA YOM NECHSHAVNU KE TSON TIVCHAH
כִּי עָלֶיךָ הֹרַגְנוּ כָל הַיּוֹם נֶחְשַׁבְנוּ כְּצֹאן טִבְחָה
KJ (44:22): Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
BN: But it is for your sake that human beings die, all day and every day; we are reckoned up like sheep for the slaughter.
HORAGNU: Clearly, as individuals, we cannot be killed "all day long"; once and done is the human way. So is this speaking about death in the universal, or should we rethink the meaning of HARAG? I have gone for the former, because I can find nothing in the etymology to suggest an alternative.
TIVCHAH: The phrase echoes verse 12, but there it was MA'ACHAL, which is food on the table, where this is TIVCHAH, and the MITBACH is also the kitchen, but the usage of the word is sacrificial (click here for multiple examples). So, in verse 12, it was rout by an army; here, it is simply an acknowledgement that this is how life is - and by inference TSIDUK HA DIN, the "Justification of the Judgment", becomes the final teaching point.
TIVCHAH: The phrase echoes verse 12, but there it was MA'ACHAL, which is food on the table, where this is TIVCHAH, and the MITBACH is also the kitchen, but the usage of the word is sacrificial (click here for multiple examples). So, in verse 12, it was rout by an army; here, it is simply an acknowledgement that this is how life is - and by inference TSIDUK HA DIN, the "Justification of the Judgment", becomes the final teaching point.
44:24 URAH LAMAH TIYSHAN ADONAI HAKIYTSAH AL TIZNACH LA NETSACH
עוּרָה לָמָּה תִישַׁן אֲדֹנָי הָקִיצָה אַל תִּזְנַח לָנֶצַח
KJ (44:23): Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
BN: Wake up! Why are you sleeping, my Lord? Arouse yourself. Do not cast yourself off for ever.
When did a religious person ever address their deity in this tone? I can only suggest that this was a Psalm to be sung or recited during the hours of darkness, probably in the Matins before Ayelet ha Shachar (see Psalm 22). The next verse endorses this.
44:25 LAMAH PHANEYCHA TASTIR TISHKACH ANEYNU VE LACHATSENU
לָמָּה פָנֶיךָ תַסְתִּיר תִּשְׁכַּח עָנְיֵנוּ וְלַחֲצֵנוּ
KJ (44:24): Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
BN: Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our stresses?
PHANEYCHA TASTIR = HISTIR PANAV, the status that induces the YEVARECHECHA. Though it doesn't have to be pre-dawn. The sun going behind the nimbus clouds would have the same effect.
44:26 KI SHACHAH LE APHAR NAPHSHENU DAVKAH LA ARETS BITNENU
כִּי שָׁחָה לֶעָפָר נַפְשֵׁנוּ דָּבְקָה לָאָרֶץ בִּטְנֵנוּ
KJ (44:25): For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
BN: For our souls are bowed down to the dust; our bellies cleave to the earth.
DAVKAH: A much-used term in modern Ivrit, but is today's meaning the same as the one here? The construct is decidedly Jewish, so easiest to explain by analogy: for example, there has been a heat wave for days and days, and the forecasters are certain it will continue, so you organise a picnic, and davkah, ten minutes after you set out - and even more davkah it's ten minutes after, and not ten minutes before - it pours with rain.
And davkah, I am sorry to say, this is absolutely and precisely not the intention of the word here. Modern Davkah, with or without that final Hey, comes from the Aramaic, and the root (Dalet, Vav, Kuph - דוקה) means "to study thoroughly", so if something is davkah it is really very precise, it can only be this way and not any other; which gets transferred into folk-lore as chance, fate and destiny, but is really rather more academically fastidious than that.
Whereas here, in this Psalm, it is an entirely different root, a Yehudit root, Dalet-Bet-Kuph (דבק), the Bet softened to a Vet which is why the two words sound identical, and it means, as, davkah, KJ quite correctly translates it, "to cleave", "stick", "adhere".
The two verbs appear to be describing genuflection and prostration, but metaphorically. I imagine that the Beney Korach in their study-session would have taken the words as instructions, and enacted them.
44:27 KUMAH EZRATAH LANU U PHEDENU LEMA'AN CHASDECHA
קוּמָה עֶזְרָתָה לָּנוּ וּפְדֵנוּ לְמַעַן חַסְדֶּךָ
KJ (44:26): Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.
BN: Rise and help us; redeem us for your mercy's sake. {P}
KUMAH: Confirming that it is dawn, not a cold front.
And is that an instruction to the Beney Korach too? Get up from your prostration and genuflection, and now go out into the world, and take the responsibility for which you have been trained.
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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