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
Further to the list that I included at the beginning of Psalm 81, which was based on the listing in the Septuagint, I can now add (because I have only just learned it), that Mishnah (Tamid, 7:13) assigns the same Psalms for
the daily Temple service (save only day two, where it gives Psalm 48 rather than 14), and tells us that Psalm 82 was for the morning
sacrifice of the third day.
"The following is a list of each daily psalm that the Levites would recite in the Temple. On the first day of the week they would recite the psalm beginning: “A psalm of David. The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world and all who live in it” (Psalms, chapter 24). On the second day they would recite the psalm beginning: “A song; a psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised in the city of God, on His sacred mountain” (Psalms, chapter 48). On the third day they would recite the psalm beginning: “A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the divine assembly; among the judges He delivers judgment” (Psalms, chapter 82). On the fourth day they would recite the psalm beginning: “O Lord God, to Whom vengeance belongs, God to Whom vengeance belongs, shine forth” (Psalms, chapter 94). On the fifth day they would recite the psalm beginning: “For the leader; upon the Gittith, a psalm of Asaph. Sing for joy to God, our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob” (Psalms, chapter 81). On the sixth day they would recite the psalm beginning: “The Lord reigns: He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, girded with strength” (Psalms, chapter 93). On Shabbat they would recite the psalm beginning: “A psalm, a song for Shabbat day” (Psalms, chapter 92). This is interpreted as a psalm, a song for the future, for the day that will be entirely Shabbat and rest for everlasting life."
For simpicity, here again is the list from Psalm 81, which I have now added on the pages for each of these Psalms:
Day One (Sunday) Psalm 24
Day Two (Monday) Psalm 14 (or 48 - see my notes at Psalm 82)
Day Three (Tuesday) Psalm 82
Day Four (Wednesday) Psalm 94:1-95:3
Day Five (Thursday) Psalm 81
Day Six (Friday) Psalm 93
Day Seven (Saturday) Psalm 92
מִזְמוֹר לְאָסָף אֱלֹהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת אֵל בְּקֶרֶב אֱלֹהִים יִשְׁפֹּט
KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm of Asaph.) God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
BN (BibleNet translation): An accompanied song, for Asaph. {N} Elohim stands in the congregation of El; he judges with the gods.
EL... ELOHIM: Complex word-games on the several meanings and uses of these two words. See my note to Psalm 81:10, but this is EL as "force of Nature", with both EL and ELOHIM anthropomorphised as metaphors. But ELOHIM is understood on this occasion to have the sense of "mighty hero", and is placed alongside YISHPOT, which is the root of SHOPHTIM, "The Book of Judges"; there the "Judges" tend to be demi-gods or Titans, priests or secular rulers, rather than magistrates or court justices. So the entire vocabulary of cultural hierarchy and societal organisation is incorporated, and we must wait to see which aspect of this vastness will become the focus of the poem.
82:2 AD MATAI TISHPETU AVEL U PHENEY RESHA'IM TIS'U (SELAH)
עַד מָתַי תִּשְׁפְּטוּ עָוֶל וּפְנֵי רְשָׁעִים תִּשְׂאוּ סֶלָה
KJ: How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
BN: How long will you judge unjustly, and respect the persons of the wicked? Selah
AD MATAI: Yesha-Yah's famous question (Isaiah 6:11), for at least the second time in these Asaph Psalms (plus the two AD MAHs). We have to wonder, was Yesha-Yah quoting when he used the phrase or did the editors of these Psalms in Ezra's time add the quote from Yesha-Yah?
And is this the deity questioning the human judges, or the human questioning divine judgement? If the latter, it provides an answer to the deity in several of the previous Psalms - we are just as upset about your inconsistent behaviour, occasional tyranny, general bullying and apparent cruelty, as you are about ours. Compare Yonah under the gourd at Ninveh (Nineveh), or Av-Raham demanding justice at Sedom.
I take the Selah on this occasion to be a colon at the end of the formal "apologia" (which therefore requires a double-bar in the music; but that way around): the statement of the thesis, which occupies all but the opening dedication of the first two verses. The Psalm proper starts in verse 3.
82:3 SHIPHTU DAL VE YATOM ANI VE RASH HATSDIYKU
KJ: Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
BN: Judge the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
To what degree, if any, should we see the Asaph Psalms as a single work, subdivided so to speak into chapters, with an intellectual sequence that can be followed through: the condemnation of Yisra-El for its weaknesses, sins, failures, in the first of these; now the beginnings of a positive retort: this is what you need to do to get it right? I need to go back and follow that thought through, and may well end up deleting this paragraph.
82:4 LETU DAL VE EVYON MI YAD RESHA'IM HATSIYLU
KJ: Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
BN: Rescue the poor and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
Karl Marx, circa 900 BCE! "No more zero-hours contracts".
82:5 LO YAD'U VE LO YAVIYNU BA CHASHECHA YIT'HALACHU YIMOTU KOL MOSDEY ARETS
KJ: They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
BN: They do not know, and they do not understand; they go about in darkness; {N} all the foundations of the Earth are moved.
CHASHECHA: What is the difference between this and CHOSHECH? Is it in fact a feminine, and we can therefore deduce (as I did in my notes to Genesis 1), that before the Big Bang of Genesis 1 the pre-Cosmos was ruled by several deities, one of whom was named Choshech, Darkness; and now we can add that, in a world that depends on the androgyny of the male-female, there must also be a female Chashecha. It is entirely logical.
YIMOTU: I have this note, left blank, several times already! And I am sticking to it. We shall not be moved!
82:6 ANI AMARTI ELOHIM ATEM U VENEY ELYON KULCHEM
KJ: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
BN: I said: You are gods, all of you are sons of Elyon.
If this is addresing the gods, as it appears to be doing, then it is pure polytheism; if not, it matters not... but if it is, then I believe it may be the only occasion in the Tanach where Elohim is treated as a normal rather than a multiple plural, using ATEM rather than ATAH.
And if it is addressing the gods, then it answers my question from verse 2.
ELYON: See the link. El, Elohim and now Elyon.
82:7 ACHEN KE ADAM TEMUTUN U CHE ACHAD HA SARIM TIPOLU
KJ: But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
BN: Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
But this infers "God is Dead"... well, maybe not yet, but that even the gods die... and that surely cannot be; not atheism, not anti-theism, not Nihilism, in a Temple Psalm, of this epoch... But if so, then we cannot accept our reading of verse 6 as an answer to the question in verse 2; and this must be an attack on the human judges, which may be the ones who sit bewiggged in court... but SHOPHTIM suggests a broader leadership, tribal chieftains, kings even, and the senior civil servants and clergy who advise them. And if so, this is precisely the sort of attack on despotism that led several of the Prophets to be exiled, stoned to death, assassinated...
82:8 KUMAH ELOHIM SHAPHTAH HA ARETS KI ATAH TINCHAL BE CHOL HA GOYIM
KJ: Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
BN: Arise, you gods, judge the Earth; for you shall possess all the nations. {P}
KUMAH: And so the human demi-gods are finally rejected, and the deity is now evoked, called upon to provide what Humans are seemingly incapable, or narcissistically unwilling, to provide for themselves. Tsedakah. Justice.
ELOHIM: And this time it is a plurality of gods, the Omnideity itself, the Multiple Plural. This cannot be translated as KJ has done, or it completely misses the key point. Nowhere in Jewish liturgy, ancient or modern, is there a more self-consciously polytheistic prayer.
82:3 SHIPHTU DAL VE YATOM ANI VE RASH HATSDIYKU
שִׁפְטוּ דַל וְיָתוֹם עָנִי וָרָשׁ הַצְדִּיקוּ
KJ: Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
BN: Judge the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
To what degree, if any, should we see the Asaph Psalms as a single work, subdivided so to speak into chapters, with an intellectual sequence that can be followed through: the condemnation of Yisra-El for its weaknesses, sins, failures, in the first of these; now the beginnings of a positive retort: this is what you need to do to get it right? I need to go back and follow that thought through, and may well end up deleting this paragraph.
82:4 LETU DAL VE EVYON MI YAD RESHA'IM HATSIYLU
לְּטוּ דַל וְאֶבְיוֹן מִיַּד רְשָׁעִים הַצִּילוּ
KJ: Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
BN: Rescue the poor and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
Karl Marx, circa 900 BCE! "No more zero-hours contracts".
82:5 LO YAD'U VE LO YAVIYNU BA CHASHECHA YIT'HALACHU YIMOTU KOL MOSDEY ARETS
לֹא יָדְעוּ וְלֹא יָבִינוּ בַּחֲשֵׁכָה יִתְהַלָּכוּ יִמּוֹטוּ כָּל מוֹסְדֵי אָרֶץ
KJ: They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
BN: They do not know, and they do not understand; they go about in darkness; {N} all the foundations of the Earth are moved.
CHASHECHA: What is the difference between this and CHOSHECH? Is it in fact a feminine, and we can therefore deduce (as I did in my notes to Genesis 1), that before the Big Bang of Genesis 1 the pre-Cosmos was ruled by several deities, one of whom was named Choshech, Darkness; and now we can add that, in a world that depends on the androgyny of the male-female, there must also be a female Chashecha. It is entirely logical.
YIMOTU: I have this note, left blank, several times already! And I am sticking to it. We shall not be moved!
82:6 ANI AMARTI ELOHIM ATEM U VENEY ELYON KULCHEM
אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי אֱלֹהִים אַתֶּם וּבְנֵי עֶלְיוֹן כֻּלְּכֶם
KJ: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
BN: I said: You are gods, all of you are sons of Elyon.
If this is addresing the gods, as it appears to be doing, then it is pure polytheism; if not, it matters not... but if it is, then I believe it may be the only occasion in the Tanach where Elohim is treated as a normal rather than a multiple plural, using ATEM rather than ATAH.
And if it is addressing the gods, then it answers my question from verse 2.
ELYON: See the link. El, Elohim and now Elyon.
82:7 ACHEN KE ADAM TEMUTUN U CHE ACHAD HA SARIM TIPOLU
אָכֵן כְּאָדָם תְּמוּתוּן וּכְאַחַד הַשָּׂרִים תִּפֹּלוּ
KJ: But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
BN: Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
But this infers "God is Dead"... well, maybe not yet, but that even the gods die... and that surely cannot be; not atheism, not anti-theism, not Nihilism, in a Temple Psalm, of this epoch... But if so, then we cannot accept our reading of verse 6 as an answer to the question in verse 2; and this must be an attack on the human judges, which may be the ones who sit bewiggged in court... but SHOPHTIM suggests a broader leadership, tribal chieftains, kings even, and the senior civil servants and clergy who advise them. And if so, this is precisely the sort of attack on despotism that led several of the Prophets to be exiled, stoned to death, assassinated...
82:8 KUMAH ELOHIM SHAPHTAH HA ARETS KI ATAH TINCHAL BE CHOL HA GOYIM
קוּמָה אֱלֹהִים שָׁפְטָה הָאָרֶץ כִּי אַתָּה תִנְחַל בְּכָל הַגּוֹיִם
KJ: Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
BN: Arise, you gods, judge the Earth; for you shall possess all the nations. {P}
KUMAH: And so the human demi-gods are finally rejected, and the deity is now evoked, called upon to provide what Humans are seemingly incapable, or narcissistically unwilling, to provide for themselves. Tsedakah. Justice.
ELOHIM: And this time it is a plurality of gods, the Omnideity itself, the Multiple Plural. This cannot be translated as KJ has done, or it completely misses the key point. Nowhere in Jewish liturgy, ancient or modern, is there a more self-consciously polytheistic prayer.
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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