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
Dedication and descriptor, no title. KJ merges verse 1 into this, shifting the verse numbers as a consequence. Like Psalm 46, this is regarded as Davidic in both the Septuagint and the Vulgate, though that is more likely a reflection of their theological position than of the original.
47:1 LA MENATSE'ACH LIVNEY KORACH MIZMOR
לַמְנַצֵּחַ לִבְנֵי קֹרַח מִזְמוֹר
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.) O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
BN (BibleNet translation): For the Artistic Director, a song with musical accompaniment for the Beney Korach.
The previous Psalm had the same opening words, but the last word described it as a Shir, where this is a Mizmor; what is the distinction? Zemer being instruments, is one acapela and the other accompanied? Or do we understand Zemer as being the "praise" contained in the song, and KLEY ZEMER (the Yiddish Klezmer is derived from this) itself derived later from that meaning (see verse 7)? I think this is a plausible, but the less likely option: more likely a Mizmor is a song or poem set to music, as in a Lied, or even as in a nursery rhyme or popular song, where a Shir is a poem which then gets orchestrated and so becomes libretto. What follows feels rather more like a popular song. See my notes on this at the Intorduction to the Psalms.
47:2 KOL HA AMIM TIK'U CHAPH HARIY'U L'ELOHIM BE KOL RINAH
כָּל הָעַמִּים תִּקְעוּ כָף הָרִיעוּ לֵאלֹהִים בְּקוֹל רִנָּה
KJ (47:1): O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
BN: All the people, clap your hands. Shout out to the gods in your loudest voice.
The calling at a hoe-down works exactly the same. See also Psalm 33:3. Though on this occasion, judging from the verses that follow, it may be slightly less raucous, slightly more sombre than hoe-down calling.
47:3 KI YHVH ELYON NOR'A MELECH GADOL AL KOL HA ARETS
כִּי יְהוָה עֶלְיוֹן נוֹרָא מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל עַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ
BN: Because YHVH Elyon is wonderful, a great king for all the Earth.
YHVH ELYON: Cannot be translated as a mere synonym for the deity, which almost all translators do by calling him "God" - which anyway is a Christian concept, not a Jewish nor a Biblical Yisra-Eli one. El Elyon was a very specific deity, as we know from Av-Raham's encounter with his high priest, davkah in Yeru-Shala'im, but centuries before it became the religious centre of Yisra-El. In all likelihood this is a much more ancient hymn than the Davidic era, kept for its music or its words, or simply for being an established event in the liturgical cycle, and therefore adopted and adapted, El Elyon being renamed YHVH Elyon exactly as Sol Invictus was renamed Christmas and the Persian spring rites of Marduk and Ishtar became Purim and then Easter.
47:4 YEDABER AMIM TACHTEYNU U LE'UMIM TACHAT RAGLEYNU
YHVH ELYON: Cannot be translated as a mere synonym for the deity, which almost all translators do by calling him "God" - which anyway is a Christian concept, not a Jewish nor a Biblical Yisra-Eli one. El Elyon was a very specific deity, as we know from Av-Raham's encounter with his high priest, davkah in Yeru-Shala'im, but centuries before it became the religious centre of Yisra-El. In all likelihood this is a much more ancient hymn than the Davidic era, kept for its music or its words, or simply for being an established event in the liturgical cycle, and therefore adopted and adapted, El Elyon being renamed YHVH Elyon exactly as Sol Invictus was renamed Christmas and the Persian spring rites of Marduk and Ishtar became Purim and then Easter.
47:4 YEDABER AMIM TACHTEYNU U LE'UMIM TACHAT RAGLEYNU
יַדְבֵּר עַמִּים תַּחְתֵּינוּ וּלְאֻמִּים תַּחַת רַגְלֵינוּ
BN: He will speak to the nations who are under us, and the people who are under our feet.
YEDABER: "He will speak to the nations" is not necessarily the same as "subduing" them, though TACHAT RAGLEYNU does seem to insinuate that they soon will be.
47:5 YIVCHAR LANU ET NACHALATENU ET GE'ON YA'AKOV ASHER AHEV (SELAH)
YEDABER: "He will speak to the nations" is not necessarily the same as "subduing" them, though TACHAT RAGLEYNU does seem to insinuate that they soon will be.
47:5 YIVCHAR LANU ET NACHALATENU ET GE'ON YA'AKOV ASHER AHEV (SELAH)
יִבְחַר לָנוּ אֶת נַחֲלָתֵנוּ אֶת גְּאוֹן יַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר אָהֵב סֶלָה
BN: He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob whom He loveth. (Selah)
GE'ON: In the later Jewish world, in Babylon after the exile especially, but also among the Yeshivot of Eastern and Central Europe, the word "Ge'on", or sometimes "Ga'on", took on a very specific significance, being the descriptor of what we would probably but meaninglessly call a "genius". See, for example, my piece on the Ga'on of Vilna, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, on October 10 in "The Book of Days".
GE'ON: In the later Jewish world, in Babylon after the exile especially, but also among the Yeshivot of Eastern and Central Europe, the word "Ge'on", or sometimes "Ga'on", took on a very specific significance, being the descriptor of what we would probably but meaninglessly call a "genius". See, for example, my piece on the Ga'on of Vilna, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, on October 10 in "The Book of Days".
47:6 ALAH ELOHIM BI TERU'AH YHVH BE KOL SHOPHAR
עָלָה אֱלֹהִים בִּתְרוּעָה יְהֹוָה בְּקוֹל שׁוֹפָר
BN: Elohim is risen amidst shouting, YHVH to the sound of the shophar.
ALAH: La'alot means "to go up", and an Aliyah could be the ascent to Yeru-Shala'im itself, singing Psalms as you go, or the ascent to the altar of the Temple, likewise to the accompaniment of Psalms - or today it could be emigration to Israel or a call-up in synagogue to the reading of the Torah. But Elohim "going up" can only be the sunrise.
TERU'AH: One of the triumphant blasts on the Shophar, alongside the Tekiya and the Shevarim - click here for more detail. And we must assume that there will indeed be "shouting" from the Beney Korach (hopefully of a rehearsed and orchestrated manner, and not the shouting of the rabble on the football terrace), and then the sound of the Shophar from the orchestra, to synchronise with these words.
47:7 ZAMRU ELOHIM ZAMERU ZAMRU LE MALKENU ZAMERU
ALAH: La'alot means "to go up", and an Aliyah could be the ascent to Yeru-Shala'im itself, singing Psalms as you go, or the ascent to the altar of the Temple, likewise to the accompaniment of Psalms - or today it could be emigration to Israel or a call-up in synagogue to the reading of the Torah. But Elohim "going up" can only be the sunrise.
TERU'AH: One of the triumphant blasts on the Shophar, alongside the Tekiya and the Shevarim - click here for more detail. And we must assume that there will indeed be "shouting" from the Beney Korach (hopefully of a rehearsed and orchestrated manner, and not the shouting of the rabble on the football terrace), and then the sound of the Shophar from the orchestra, to synchronise with these words.
47:7 ZAMRU ELOHIM ZAMERU ZAMRU LE MALKENU ZAMERU
זַמְּרוּ אֱלֹהִים זַמֵּרוּ זַמְּרוּ לְמַלְכֵּנוּ זַמֵּרוּ
BN: Sing praises to Elohim, sing praises; sing praises to our king, sing praises.
Happy-clappy style, no question. I can just see the young kids making a join-hands circle and this verse being repeated over and over, for five, maybe ten full minutes. And maybe people would come up with alternatives to ELOHIM and MALKENU. "Zamru YHVH Zameru". "Zamru Tseva'ot Zameru". Not hard to think of dozens, and make it competitive among the audience, with a prize of ever-louder clapping for the ones that people really like - "Zamru... name of the groom or the bride... Zameru" would obviously get the biggest cheer, and then put the pair on chairs and dance them round, the way they do today at Chasidic weddings.
Happy-clappy style, no question. I can just see the young kids making a join-hands circle and this verse being repeated over and over, for five, maybe ten full minutes. And maybe people would come up with alternatives to ELOHIM and MALKENU. "Zamru YHVH Zameru". "Zamru Tseva'ot Zameru". Not hard to think of dozens, and make it competitive among the audience, with a prize of ever-louder clapping for the ones that people really like - "Zamru... name of the groom or the bride... Zameru" would obviously get the biggest cheer, and then put the pair on chairs and dance them round, the way they do today at Chasidic weddings.
47:8 KI MELECH KOL HA ARETS ELOHIM ZAMRU MASKIL
כִּי מֶלֶךְ כָּל הָאָרֶץ אֱלֹהִים זַמְּרוּ מַשְׂכִּיל
BN: For Elohim is the king of all the Earth. Sing your praises in a thoughtful manner.
Note the use of the word MASKIL, which elsewhere is itself a descriptor for a type of Psalm - the entire piece in fact is self-referential throughout. This is a Psalm about psalming - but it seems as if the Psalms for the Beney Korach always are.
Or is that last phrase simply my comment about the rabble, but stated more generously? Perhaps it is even it placed here "in case of necessity"? If the "Zamer...Zameru" gets out of hand, the leader uses the phrase; if the behaviour is partyish but still appropriate, he leaves out the phrase. But still includes the first half of the verse, obviously.
47:9 MELECH ELOHIM AL GOYIM ELOHIM YASHAV AL KISEH KADSHO
Note the use of the word MASKIL, which elsewhere is itself a descriptor for a type of Psalm - the entire piece in fact is self-referential throughout. This is a Psalm about psalming - but it seems as if the Psalms for the Beney Korach always are.
Or is that last phrase simply my comment about the rabble, but stated more generously? Perhaps it is even it placed here "in case of necessity"? If the "Zamer...Zameru" gets out of hand, the leader uses the phrase; if the behaviour is partyish but still appropriate, he leaves out the phrase. But still includes the first half of the verse, obviously.
47:9 MELECH ELOHIM AL GOYIM ELOHIM YASHAV AL KISEH KADSHO
מָלַךְ אֱלֹהִים עַל גּוֹיִם אֱלֹהִים יָשַׁב עַל כִּסֵּא קָדְשׁוֹ
KJ (47:8): God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
BN: Elohim reigns over the nations; Elohim sits upon his holy throne.
47:10 NEDIYVEY AMIM NE'ESAPHU AM ELOHEY AV-RAHAM KI L'ELOHIM MAGINEY ERETS ME'OD NA'ALAH
נְדִיבֵי עַמִּים נֶאֱסָפוּ עַם אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם כִּי לֵאלֹהִים מָגִנֵּי אֶרֶץ מְאֹד נַעֲלָה
BN: The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the
gods of Av-Raham; {N} for the shields of the Earth belong to the gods; they are supreme. {P}
NEDIYVEY AMIM NE'ESAPHU: And now that we have found this phrase at the end of this Psalm, can we regard it as the next piece in the ceremony, after the Shegal has sung her part in Psalm 46?
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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