TheBibleNet: Psalm 52

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, descriptor, addressee. KJ has amalgamated the first verse with the title, as it usually does, but on this occasion, as with Psalm 51, it has also merged the second verse, perhaps because the first verse here is really a sub-title, a setting into the context of history of the events of the Psalm.

52:1 LA MENATSE'ACH MASKIL LE DAVID

לַמְנַצֵּחַ מַשְׂכִּיל לְדָוִד

KJ (King James translation): A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.) Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.

BN (BibleNet translation): For the Leader. A Maskil for David.

MASKIL: A "teaching-Psalm".

LE DAVID: In other words, "dedicated to him", and not "written by him". Though we could make the case for it being "a Psalm about David".

LA MENATSE'ACH: See my note at Psalm 51.

52:2 BE VO DO'EG HA EDOMI VA YAGED LE SHA'UL VA YOMER LO BA DAVID EL BEIT ACHI-MELECH

בְּבוֹא דּוֹאֵג הָאֲדֹמִי וַיַּגֵּד לְשָׁאוּל וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ בָּא דָוִד אֶל בֵּית אֲחִימֶלֶךְ

KJ: as above

BN: When Do'eg the Edomite came and told Sha'ul, {N} saying to him: "David has been at Achi-Melech's shrine."

At Nov, to be precise, which was one the collection of hillside shrines and villages that David would later incorporate into the single city of Yeru-Shala'im. David fled here (1 Samuel 21) after yet another attempt on his life by the king; when Sha'ul learned that the priests of Nov had sheltered him, he then decimated it to the last priest but one, the lone survivor being Avi-Atar ben Achi-Melech, who David would later appoint as his joint Chief Priest with Tsadok.

Once again we have to ask: is this history, and we have a record of the poem that David wrote after the incident; or is it history written at some later date, and attributed to David (if it is, then it has been sloppy with its proof-reading, because David had long left Nov before Do'eg informed Sha'ul, so "is come" or "has come" are errors); or is it mythology, and we need to read the semiotics? If the latter, then it is part of the "Labours of Herakles" in its proto-Jewish version, and may have been used as the equivalent of a "Miracle" or "Mystery" play of the Christian Middle Ages, or as the legends of Orestes, Electra, etc were performed in the Dionysus festivals in Greece.

Based on my speculations there, this Psalm should be read in partnership with Psalm 34, to which it may well be a sequel.

52:3 MAH TIT'HALEL BE RA'AH HA GIBOR CHESED EL KOL HA YOM

מַה תִּתְהַלֵּל בְּרָעָה הַגִּבּוֹר חֶסֶד אֵל כָּל הַיּוֹם

KJ: as above

BN: Why do you boast about this vast wickedness? The mercy of El is constant.

EL: Surprised to find the deity here EL? Does it change radically our understanding of the Davidic tales, requiring us to set them among the Beney Kena'an long before they were adopted by the Beney Yisra-El? It should do.

52:4 HAVOT TACHSHOV LESHONECHA KE TA'AR MELUTASH OSEH REMIYAH

הַוּוֹת תַּחְשֹׁב לְשׁוֹנֶךָ כְּתַעַר מְלֻטָּשׁ עֹשֵׂה רְמִיָּה

KJ (52:2): Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

BN: Your tongue thinks of destruction; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

52:5 AHAVTA RA MI TOV SHEKER MIDABER TSEDEK (SELAH)

אָהַבְתָּ רָּע מִטּוֹב שֶׁקֶר מִדַּבֵּר צֶדֶק סֶלָה

KJ (52:3): Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

BN: You love evil more than good, falsehoods more than speaking righteously. (Selah)

52:6 AHAVTA CHOL DIVREY VAL'A LESHON MIRMAH

אָהַבְתָּ כָל דִּבְרֵי בָלַע לְשׁוֹן מִרְמָה

KJ (52:4): Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

BN: You love all-devouring words, the deceitful tongue.

DIVREY VAL'A: The root really means "to swallow", so clearly this must be an idiom; but meaning what exactly? We talk about people "swallowing their words", but it probably isn't that. Does it mean "gossip" and "scandalous rumour" - the kinds of rumours that get people's reputations "swallowed up", even their lives "devoured". Had David not fled as soon as he knew he might have been seen by Do'eg, he would have been "devoured" by the following afternoon - 1 Samuel 21 for the full tale, verse 8 for Do'eg, verse 9 for David's flight - to Achish of Gat which is the other option for Psalm 34. 1 Samuel 22:6 ff for Do'eg telling Sha'ul and the massacre that follows.

52:7 GAM EL YITATSCHA LA NETSACH YACHTECHA VE YISACHACHA ME OHEL VE SHERESHCHA ME ERETS CHAYIM (SELAH)

גַּם אֵל יִתָּצְךָ לָנֶצַח יַחְתְּךָ וְיִסָּחֲךָ מֵאֹהֶל וְשֵׁרֶשְׁךָ מֵאֶרֶץ חַיִּים סֶלָה

KJ (52:5): God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

BN: El will likewise break you for ever, {N} He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. (Selah)

Really this is just a hate-poem, a venting of deep fury against both Do'eg and Sha'ul, but the final verse will Psalmify it, or at least justify its inclusion among the Psalms.

This may be a Maskil, but it is still a Psalm: words and music. So we cannot ignore the poetry, which endlessly combines with the instrumentation to make its harmonies: so, here, repeated sounds, assonances, sonorities, cadences, even dissonances: YITATSCHA... NETSACH YACHTECHA... YISACHACHA...SHERESHCHA... CHAYIM... as though he were spitting on Do'eg! And not just spitting, but bringing up the spit from the very places where the swallowed words go.

52:8 VE YIR'U TSADIYKIM VE YIYRA'U VE ALAV YISCHAKU

וְיִרְאוּ צַדִּיקִים וְיִירָאוּ וְעָלָיו יִשְׂחָקוּ

KJ (52:6): The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:

BN: The righteous also shall see, and fear, and treat you derisorily.

The English cannot convey the play between YIR'U and YIRA'U.

YISCHAKU: This is not YITSCHAKU, though, as we have seen many times, there are issues as to whether Av-Raham and Sarah's son was named Yischak or Yitschak; but that is not the word-play here. The root, SACHAK, is used for "play", whether as sport (Zechariah 8:5), or frollicking (Job 40:20), or music (1 Samuel 18:7). Worth looking at Judges 16:25 as well, because it has both SACHAK and TSACHAK, but also because the intention in our verse is also the intention there: mockery.

52:9 HINEH HA GEVER LO YASIM ELOHIM MA'UZO VA YIVTACH BE ROV ASHRO YA'OZ BE HAVATO

הִנֵּה הַגֶּבֶר לֹא יָשִׂים אֱלֹהִים מָעוּזּוֹ וַיִּבְטַח בְּרֹב עָשְׁרוֹ יָעֹז בְּהַוָּתוֹ

KJ (52:7): Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

BN: Behold the man who the gods have not made their stronghold, {N} but trusting in the abundance of his riches, he has strengthened himself through his wickedness.

GEVER: from the same root that gives GIBOR, for which see its very precise use in verse 3. Perhaps more significantly, we normally have ISH or ADAM as the word for "man". GEVER has a rather more colloquial tone to it - "bloke" rather than "chap", but of that order.

52:10 VA ANI KE ZAYIT RA'ANAN BE VEIT ELOHIM BATACHTI VE CHESED ELOHIM OLAM VA ED

וַאֲנִי כְּזַיִת רַעֲנָן בְּבֵית אֱלֹהִים בָּטַחְתִּי בְחֶסֶד אֱלֹהִים עוֹלָם וָעֶד

KJ (52:8): But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

BN: But as for me, I am like a leafy olive-tree in the house of God; {N} I will trust in the mercy of the gods for ever and ever.

RA'ANAN: "green" or "leafy"; it can't be both, because they are opposites - "green" means a sapling, young, naive, not yet producing leaves let alone fruit; "leafy" is full-grown, fertile, productive, "blessed" by the gods. But can we also assume the opposite for the fruit, that these are black olives, rather than green ones, and for the same reason (click here)?

ELOHIM: Need to run a check across all the Psalms, and note which ones are Elohim, which YHVH, and which both. I think this makes two in a row in which YHVH has not even achieved a passing mention.

52:11 ODECHA LE OLAM KI ASIYTA VA AKAVEH SHIMCHA CHI TOV NEGED CHASIDEYCHA

אוֹדְךָ לְעוֹלָם כִּי עָשִׂיתָ וַאֲקַוֶּה שִׁמְךָ כִי טוֹב נֶגֶד חֲסִידֶיךָ

KJ (52:9): I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

BN: I will give thanks to you for ever, because of what you have done; and I will wait for Thy name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints. {P}

AKAVEH: Yes, it does mean "wait", but I think it has to have another meaning that we are missing, because every time the verb has been used I have found myself thinking that this can't be what it means.

At the end we have to ask: what makes this a Maskil, a teaching-Psalm? Is it simply advice to the apprentices in the Beney Korach, the sort of platitudes we headmasters dole out with tedious regularity at morning assembly: now boys, learn to be good. This is the story of a very bad man. You don't want to grow up like him.

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