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
Again KJ merges verse 1 into the title, shifting the verse numbers afterwards accordingly.
70:1 LA MENATSE'ACH LE DAVID LEHAZKIR
KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.) Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD.
BN (provisional translation): For the Artistic Director. In Memoriam. To David.
For who was the MENATSE'ACH, see my note at Psalm 51:1.
LEHAZKIR: Hiphil or causative declension: but, is this establishing a memorial to some person or event, or is this a memorial of David, rather than addressed to David? Hopefully this will become evident as we read on. See also Psalm 38, which shares the genre.
70:2 ELOHIM LEHATSIYLENI YHVH LE EZRATI CHUSHAH
KJ (70:1): as above
BN (provisional translation): Elohim, to deliver me, YHVH, to help me, make haste.
I have translated this literally, to demonstrate that the Yehudit text actually makes no sense as it stands. However: if we do as KJ has done, and merge verse 1 into the title, LEHAZKIR becomes attached to ELOHIM, while the second Hiphil verb, LEHATSIYLENI, becomes attached to the second of the named deities, and thus shifts its meaning to "to remind the deity", which does indeed make sense, and the Psalm becomes a petitionary invocation.
BN (1&2 combined): For the Artistic Director. To David. A reminder to Elohim to deliver me, to YHVH to help me, and speedily.
And this revised translation will be confirmed and endorsed by the closing verse of the Psalm - with one interesting variation: the absence of YHVH on that occasion.
A perfect parallelism into the bargain!
70:3 YEVOSHU VE YACHPERU MEVAKSHEY NAPHSHI YISOGU ACHOR VE YIKALMU CHAPHETSEY RA'ATI
KJ (70:2): Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.
70:4 YASHUVU AL EKEV BASHTAM HA OMRIM HE'ACH HE'ACH
KJ (70:3): Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.
Cf Psalm 35:21 and 25, 40:16, Job 39:25, Isaiah 44:16. And is there a root for this word, or is it purely onomatapoeic?
70:5 YASIYSU VE YISMECHU BECHA KOL MEVAKSHEYCHA VE YOMRU TAMID YIGDAL ELOHIM OHAVEY YESHU'ATECHA
KJ (70:4): Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
YEVSHU... YASHUVU... YASIYSU: the opening word of each of the last 3 verses; all about the sounds, even before the meanings.
ELOHIM: Note that, with this Psalm as with virtually all the Part 2 collection, we are in a world of polytheism.
70:6 VA ANI ANI VE EVYON ELOHIM CHUSHAH LI EZRI U MEPHALTI ATAH YHVH AL TE'ACHAR
KJ (70:5): But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.
BN: But I am poor and needy; Elohim, make haste to me; {N} you are my help and my deliverer; YHVH, do not delay. {P}
ANI ANI: We have seen this play on words several times before (in the previous Psalm, indeed), ANI meaning "I" followed by ANI meaning "poor"; impossible to translate into English, though perhaps Milton could have said "I am eyeless and without ego", which would have been even cleverer than this one.
CHUSHAH: repeating the petition in verses 1 and 2, and confirming that there is no "memorial" intended in this Psalm, but only a "reminder" to the deity - and isn't that a lovely euphemism!
AL TE'ACHAR: and just in case the deity, or indeed you the reader, have not got the Davidic message, here is an extra little prod.
I wonder if it is just coincidence that the first reference to YHVH, in verse 2, came at the end, and felt unnecessary, as though it had been added on; and here the reference follows the Nun break, as though it too was an addendum, appended years, maybe centuries, after the penning of the original.
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
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