TheBibleNet: Psalm 101

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

But now a significant shift of mood and tone... though not of length. No title, just the dedication ("to" David, not "by" David), and the description, Mizmor, "to be sung with musical accompaniment". The probability is that, when a Psalm was dedicated to David in this manner, Mizmor meant the Biblical precursor of a Paul Simon or a Cat Stevens, one man on his own, playing the equivalent of an accoustic guitar - the lute, lyre or harp - and singing either entirely solo, or possibly with female backing vocalists for the harmonies.

101:1 LE DAVID MIZMOR CHESED U MISHPAT ASHIYRAH LECHA YHVH AZAMERAH

לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר חֶסֶד וּמִשְׁפָּט אָשִׁירָה לְךָ יְהוָה אֲזַמֵּרָה

KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm of David.) I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.

BN (BibleNet translation): A Psalm of David. I will sing of loving-kindness and of justice; to you, YHVH, I will play and sing.

Cf Bob Dylan, "Forever Young" (which is actually Dylan's reworking of the Yom Kippur prayer "Viyehi Ratson”, for which see my detailed exegesis on pp43/4 of "Day of Atonement"), and "Viyehi Rastson" translates into English as "If It Be Your Will", though in fact Leonard Cohen's song with that name is taken from another part of the Yom Kippur liturgy, and the Sephardic liturgy at that, the section known as "U-ve-chen" (again see "Day of Atonement; this time pages 124/5). Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" likewise... but enough examples.

101:2 ASKIYLAH BE DERECH TAMIM MATAI TAVO ELAI ET'HALECH BE TAM LEVAVI BE KEREV BEITI

אַשְׂכִּילָה בְּדֶרֶךְ תָּמִים מָתַי תָּבוֹא אֵלָי אֶתְהַלֵּךְ בְּתָם לְבָבִי בְּקֶרֶב בֵּיתִי

KJ: I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

BN: I will use my knowledge of what it means to be upright when I walk along the street. When will you come to me? {N} I will act in the full sincerity of my heart even as I walk about my house.

My translation is somewhat extended, but necessary to capture the full ambivalences of the words used here, each one rich in philosophical and theological meaning.

ASKIYLAH: From the same root that gives us HASKALAH (Enlightenment), and the genre of Psalm known as a Maskil, or "teaching-Psalm". The base-root also gives us SECHEL, which is "common sense" rather than "intellectual wisdom". The sense here is "I shall try to use my brain..."

BA DERECH: And of course he should be able to, if he has been following the statutes and ordinances, because the very first instruction given to his father by his grandfather was the Shema, which includes the lines "VE SHINANTEM LE VANECHA, VE DIBARTA BAM, BE SHIVTECHA BE VEITECHA U VE LECHTECHA BA DERECH... and you shall teach them to your children, by speaking of them constantly, when you sit in your house, as you walk along the street..."

LEVAVI: What is the difference between LEV and LEVAV? In the plural LEV always becomes LEVAV, as in the latter lines of the Shema, and probably the same allusion to it is intended as with BA DERECH. But in the Shema it is plural because it refers to many people, each of whom has one heart, where this - and again in verse 4 - is just the single narrator.

BEITI: Generally BEIT in a context such as this one is the shrine, not the home. We see this, for example, in Bethany, which is BEIT ANATOT, "the shrine of Anat", and Bethlehem, which is Beit Lechem Ephratah, "the shrine of the corn-god of the Euphrates". But here he really does mean the home, making it clear that he will not practice hypocricy, doing one thing in public, another thing in private.

ET'HALECH: My last comment is endorsed by this very uncommon use of the Hitpa'el form of HALACH = "to go". It conveys a sense of "walking about inside oneself", which is probably why most translators introduce the word "integrity" here, though it is not a stated term in the verse; it also leads us to the term HALACHAH, which is precisely the code of statutes and ordinances that the Shema insists must be taught "as you walk along the road".

101:3 LO ASIYT LE NEGED EYNAI DEVAR BELIYA'AL ASOH SETIM SAN'E'TI LO YIDBAK BI

לֹא אָשִׁית לְנֶגֶד עֵינַי דְּבַר בְּלִיָּעַל עֲשֹׂה סֵטִים שָׂנֵאתִי לֹא יִדְבַּק בִּי

KJ: I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

BN: I will set no base thing before my eyes; {N} I hate things being done crookedly; no such charge shall be levelled against me.

LO ASIYT: Is this in the 2nd person feminine or 1st masculine? The same question applies to ATSMIYT in verse 5 and again in verse 8.

BELIYA'AL: Is this the same word as Belial? For which see my note at Deuteronomy 13:14, though it is also entirely plausible that the original was Bli-El, "without any god", a Biblical equivalent of "atheist".

LO YIDBAK LI: Clearly an idiom, and therefore it needs a modern equivalent for its translation.

101:4 LEVAV IKESH YASUR MIMENI RA LO ED'A

לֵבָב עִקֵּשׁ יָסוּר מִמֶּנִּי רָע לֹא אֵדָע

KJ: A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.

BN: A corrupt heart will turn away from me; I will not know evil.

IKESH: See Deuteronomy 32:5, but especially 2 Samuel 22:27, which has the "purity" as well as the "corruption".

YASUR: Isn't this the wrong way around? Shouldn't it be he, the pure heart, who turns away from the corrupt one? But no, it is definitely this way around. As though the very power of his purity will compel the "corrupt" to turn away.

RA LO ED'A: This could be interpreted as KJ and others have done, but it could also be a furthering of the personal integrity statement, which is how I have chosen to render it: "I will not know evil" in the sense of refusing to commit anything, or even be connected with anything, that could be described as such. I like this better, because it is an expression of personal responsibility, which is a making of choices about the Yetser ha Tov and the Yetser ha Ra, where the alternative translation allows Evil with an upper case E to be an exterior force, and that is not really a Jewish construct.

101:5 MELOSHNI VA SETER RE'EHU OTO ATSMIYT GEVAH EYNAYIM U RECHAV LEVAV OTO LO UCHAL

מְלוֹשְׁנִי בַסֵּתֶר רֵעֵהוּ אוֹתוֹ אַצְמִית גְּבַהּ עֵינַיִם וּרְחַב לֵבָב אֹתוֹ לֹא אוּכָל

KJ: Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

BN: Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him I will destroy; {N} I cannot abide people who parade their self-importance in a manner that is pure arrogance.

MELOSHNI: Or possibly MELASHNI and the Vav is a Masoretic addition in error. The root either way is LASHON, which is the tongue, and it endorses my YETSER HA TOV and YETSER HA RA comment above, because this is LASHON HA RA, which is "scandal-mongering", "gossip", or the general toiletries of the tabloid press.

ATSMIYT: Who is speaking here? It does not appear to be the deity, and yet, "destroy", is that not what the deity does, rather than a human being who has just committed himself to integrity? Or are we mistranslating the word ATSMIYT? And if it is correct, when did the change from human voice to divine voice happen in the Psalm? Verse 3, 4? It changes their meaning entirely if it is so.

101:6 EYNAI BE NE'EMNEY ERETS LASHEVET IMADI HOLECH BE DERECH TAMIM HU YESHARTENI

עֵינַי בְּנֶאֶמְנֵי אֶרֶץ לָשֶׁבֶת עִמָּדִי הֹלֵךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ תָּמִים הוּא יְשָׁרְתֵנִי

KJ: Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

BN: My eyes are fixed on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; {N} he who walks the way of integrity, he shall minister to me.

But this surely can only be the deity speaking? Or might it be the king, his earthly representative? A very despotic king, if it is one.

101:7 LO YESHEV BE KEREV BEITI OSEH REMIYAH DOVER SHEKARIM LO YIKON LE NEGED EYNAI

לֹא יֵשֵׁב בְּקֶרֶב בֵּיתִי עֹשֵׂה רְמִיָּה דֹּבֵר שְׁקָרִים לֹא יִכּוֹן לְנֶגֶד עֵינָי

KJ: He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

BN: He who practices deceit shall not dwell in my house; {N} he who speaks falsehood shall not come into my purview.

101:8 LA BEKARIM ATSMIYT KOL RISH'EY ARETS LEHACHRIT ME IR YHVH KOL PO'ALEY AVEN

לַבְּקָרִים אַצְמִית כָּל רִשְׁעֵי אָרֶץ לְהַכְרִית מֵעִיר יְהוָה כָּל פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן

KJ: I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

BN: Every day when I get up I will destroy all the wicked of the land, {N} in order to cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of YHVH. {P}

LA BEKARIM: And not just any deity, but specifically the sun-god, and the inference, yet again, of YEVARECHECHA, positioned at the very end of the Psalm, right where we might expect a closing Baruchah (blessing).

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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