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
No title, no descriptor, no dedication, though the Septuagint assigns 91, 93-97, 101 and 104 to David; the remainder in Book Four are anonymous. The opening phrase suggests that it is of the same genre, probably the same period, as Psalm 103, and the content, language, tone etc throughout endorse this assumption. The first and last lines also add weight to that: the phrase BARACHI NAPHSHI in particular.
104:1 BARACHI NAPHSHI ET YHVH YHVH ELOHAI GADALTA ME'OD HOD VE HADAR LAVASHTA
בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת יְהוָה יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי גָּדַלְתָּ מְּאֹד הוֹד וְהָדָר לָבָשְׁתָּ
KJ (King James translation): Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
BN (BibleNet translation): Let my soul bless YHVH. {N} YHVH, my god, you are quite magnificent; you are clothed with glory and with majesty.
BARACHI NAPHSHI: See my notes on this in Psalm 103.
LAVASHTA: Remember that the gods in the Biblical world were simply the forces of Nature, articulated in mythological form. So, in Psalm 103, the author looked up into the skies and blessed the magnificence of the stars and planets. Now, looking down at the Earth itself, spring trees or summer flowers or perhaps the gorgeous orange of a fox that just ran by, or the wings of an eagle or falcon flying overhead...
There are pieces of writing (Shelley's "Call To Freedom" worked for me as one such) which even as you read them you can hear them as a song. The repetition of YHVH here makes an obvious line-break, the I-I-I endings provide rhyme, but also cadence, rhythm, syncopation at the third instance, ME'OD-HOD has an awkwardness that could easily be sung out, allowing music to create a space, but which can't so easily be chanted out in a regulated mantra, or recited out as poetry.
I mention this only because other Psalms which were accompanied inform of us that in their titles, SHIR, MIZMOR, LA MENATSE'ACH AL MANGINOT etc, and because there are definitely Psalms which were not instrumentally accompanied, or sung, or even cantillated, but performed a capella.
104:2 OTEH OR HA SALMAH NOTEH SHAMAYIM KA YERIYAH
LAVASHTA: Remember that the gods in the Biblical world were simply the forces of Nature, articulated in mythological form. So, in Psalm 103, the author looked up into the skies and blessed the magnificence of the stars and planets. Now, looking down at the Earth itself, spring trees or summer flowers or perhaps the gorgeous orange of a fox that just ran by, or the wings of an eagle or falcon flying overhead...
There are pieces of writing (Shelley's "Call To Freedom" worked for me as one such) which even as you read them you can hear them as a song. The repetition of YHVH here makes an obvious line-break, the I-I-I endings provide rhyme, but also cadence, rhythm, syncopation at the third instance, ME'OD-HOD has an awkwardness that could easily be sung out, allowing music to create a space, but which can't so easily be chanted out in a regulated mantra, or recited out as poetry.
I mention this only because other Psalms which were accompanied inform of us that in their titles, SHIR, MIZMOR, LA MENATSE'ACH AL MANGINOT etc, and because there are definitely Psalms which were not instrumentally accompanied, or sung, or even cantillated, but performed a capella.
104:2 OTEH OR HA SALMAH NOTEH SHAMAYIM KA YERIYAH
עֹטֶה אוֹר כַּשַּׂלְמָה נוֹטֶה שָׁמַיִם כַּיְרִיעָה
KJ: Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
BN: You cover yourself with light as with a garment; you stretch out the heavens like a curtain;
Classic Psalmist technique: the line split in two equal and echoing fragments (the technical term is an "alexandrine", though clearly this dates much earlier), form and language mirrored like faces seen in a mirror (i.e. reversal included).
Once again I have to chastise the translators, myself included. It is not sufficient to take the meanings of the words in one language and simply find an equivalent in another language. Words have cultural backgrounds - though that isn't the issue here. Words are anagrams comprised of letters, and if the same letters are compounded into two or more anagrams in a verse or line, that needs to be equivalated too, or a key level of the text has been ignored. Internal rhyme ditto. Plays on words ibid. So, here, OTEH-NOTEH cannot simply be overlooked, nor the 4-word/4-word split of the line, nor the HA-KA in the 3rd word, nor the SALMAH-YERIYAH rhyme (though it may be forgiveable to overlook the prolix syllable in both SHAMAYIM and YERIYHAH, if they are indeed prolix: we can't know as we don't have the music; it is entirely possible that they are there to create a path towards a crescendo or a modulation - the added syllable is an old trick of the songwriters for achieving both of these).
But alas, chastising will not help. All too often, as now, the language of arrival simply does not contain the anagram or homophone or rhyme equivalents of the language of departure. So, instead, there is commentary.
Well worth a paragraph of commentary on the Primum Mobile and Aristotelian/Ptolemaic constructs of the universe as well; but the links make it unnecessary. Enough to add that a construct such as the "curtain of the heavens" takes us well into Hasmonean times, and cannot be any earlier.
Well worth a paragraph of commentary on the Primum Mobile and Aristotelian/Ptolemaic constructs of the universe as well; but the links make it unnecessary. Enough to add that a construct such as the "curtain of the heavens" takes us well into Hasmonean times, and cannot be any earlier.
104:3 HA MEKAREH VA MAYIM ALIYOTAV HA SAM AVIM RECHUVO HA MEHALECH AL KANPHEY RU'ACH
הַמְקָרֶה בַמַּיִם עֲלִיּוֹתָיו הַשָּׂם עָבִים רְכוּבוֹ הַמְהַלֵּךְ עַל כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ
KJ: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
BN: You set out the beams of your upper chambers among the elements; {N} you make the clouds your chariot; you walk on the wings of the wind;
Odysseus' boat charting its twelve-stop course back to Ithaca is indeed the same journey that Ra takes in his boat in the Am-Tuat to get back to the eastern horizon after setting on the western; but the portrait of the ocean is not; at least a thousand years of scientific and religious evolution separate them. We are following the sun across the northern sky, but Homer would not have regarded the primordial ocean as a "curtain" or a "ceilinged chamber". 4th century BCE at the very earliest.
MAYIM: As at the Creation, in Genesis 1, we need to read MAYIM as "elements", even though the word is also used for "water". Which is why I wrote "primordial ocean" in my last paragraph.
RECHUVO: Helios! Or Phaeton (whose story is identical to that of Icarus). Or really No'ach, in this Jewish context - for what else is the journey of his Ark, if not the sun's journey across the southern sky, "setting" - his name means "coming to rest" - on Mount Ararat? The other half of the Odyssey and the Am-Tuat: the daytime journey from the eastern rising to the setting in the west.
(Though we should also note that such a journey does not get described this way from Yisra-El. Sunrise over the Mo-Avi hills and Arabia, sunset in the Mediteranean; so the No'ach story must have been imported from Mesopotamia, or beyond.)
104:4 OSEH MAL'ACHAV RUCHOT MESHARTAV ESH LOHET
104:4 OSEH MAL'ACHAV RUCHOT MESHARTAV ESH LOHET
עֹשֶׂה מַלְאָכָיו רוּחוֹת מְשָׁרְתָיו אֵשׁ לֹהֵט
KJ: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
BN: You make the winds your messengers, the flaming fire your minister.
MAL'ACHAV RUCHOT: The Mal'ach as an angel is Zoroastrian, introduced into the Jewish world circa 536 BCE, when the Persians defeated the Babylonians and liberated the Yehudim. But those angels were the light from the stars, their messages read horoscopally; while these are the winds.
ESH LOHET: With each new image added to this poem, I find myself drawn ever more back to Genesis 1-2, the founding version of Creation in the Tanach. We shall see still more comparable imagery as we continue, to the extent that it becomes a kind of secondary glosz on that account, and as such very useful to read this when you are reading that, as well as vice-versa.
In this case, the ESH LOHET alludes to the LAHAT HA CHEREV HA MIT'HAPECHET LISHMOR ET DERECH ETS HA CHAYIM, "the fire-wheel which rotated and rotated, guarding the way to the Tree of Life", usually translated in Genesis 3:24 as a "flaming sword", though the original, in Sanskrit, was a Svastika, and was, as the Britannica entry at the link informs us, not a symbol of Nazi hatred, but one of "prosperity and good fortune".
In this case, the ESH LOHET alludes to the LAHAT HA CHEREV HA MIT'HAPECHET LISHMOR ET DERECH ETS HA CHAYIM, "the fire-wheel which rotated and rotated, guarding the way to the Tree of Life", usually translated in Genesis 3:24 as a "flaming sword", though the original, in Sanskrit, was a Svastika, and was, as the Britannica entry at the link informs us, not a symbol of Nazi hatred, but one of "prosperity and good fortune".
All of which also takes us back again to the Persian Medes, who were Aryans out of India, and brought that fire-wheel with them - the connection that drew Hitler into using it as his symbol.
104:5 YASAD ERETS AL MECHONEYHA BAL TIMOT OLAM VA ED
יָסַד אֶרֶץ עַל מְכוֹנֶיהָ בַּל תִּמּוֹט עוֹלָם וָעֶד
KJ: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
BN: You established the Earth on its foundations, that it should remain unmoveable for ever and ever;
We have encountered the phrase "I shall not be moved" on numerous occasions in these Psalms, and wondered what it meant. The ancients appear to have understood many aspects of science, but clearly this was not one of them (though there are still many, in the Christian world especially, who insist that the Earth is flat, and static, at the centre of the Cosmos). I suggested the need for some work on the Primum Mobile and Aristotelian/Ptolemaic constructs of the universe, back in verse 2 when the heavens were described as a curtain; even more necessary now. The alternative, as I have also stated several times before, requires a translation of Copernicus' banned work, "De Rerum Orbium Coelestium..." - click here.
104:6 TEHOM KALVUSH KISIYTO AL HARIM YA'AMDU MAYIM
תְּהוֹם כַּלְּבוּשׁ כִּסִּיתוֹ עַל הָרִים יַעַמְדוּ מָיִם
KJ: Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
BN: You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the elements rose higher than the mountains.
TEHOM: See the link.
MAYIM: This is hugely important to our understanding of Creation in Genesis 1. The Earth is created out of "the deep", which was the infinite void and darkness of pre-Creation. But Earth (upper case E) is first of all "waters", which is to say "primary elements", that have not yet become manifest in physical form as earth (lower case E). Those "waters" rise up to establish the "heavens" (skies"), after which there will be a separation (the Earth's atmosphere to us, the solidity of sky to them, described as a "curtain"). So the rain and dew and mist are some of those primal waters, coming back down to Earth from the heavens (modern science would not entirely disagree with that).
104:7 MIN GA'ARAT'CHA YENUSUN MIN KOL RA'AMCHA YECHAPHEZUN
MAYIM: This is hugely important to our understanding of Creation in Genesis 1. The Earth is created out of "the deep", which was the infinite void and darkness of pre-Creation. But Earth (upper case E) is first of all "waters", which is to say "primary elements", that have not yet become manifest in physical form as earth (lower case E). Those "waters" rise up to establish the "heavens" (skies"), after which there will be a separation (the Earth's atmosphere to us, the solidity of sky to them, described as a "curtain"). So the rain and dew and mist are some of those primal waters, coming back down to Earth from the heavens (modern science would not entirely disagree with that).
104:7 MIN GA'ARAT'CHA YENUSUN MIN KOL RA'AMCHA YECHAPHEZUN
מִן גַּעֲרָתְךָ יְנוּסוּן מִן קוֹל רַעַמְךָ יֵחָפֵזוּן
KJ: At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
BN: At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of your thunder they rushed away.
GA'ARAT'CHA...RA'AMCHA: So the primary source of the "fear" of the gods lies purely in Nature: earthquakes, thunder, avalanches, forest fires, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, lightning...
But who are the "they" here? Look again at my link to Tehom.
104:8 YA'ALU HARIM YERDU VEKA'OT EL MEKOM ZEH YASADETA LAHEM
104:8 YA'ALU HARIM YERDU VEKA'OT EL MEKOM ZEH YASADETA LAHEM
יַעֲלוּ הָרִים יֵרְדוּ בְקָעוֹת אֶל מְקוֹם זֶה יָסַדְתָּ לָהֶם
KJ: They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
BN: The mountains rose, the valleys sank down - to the place which you had determined for them;
YASADETA LAHEM: The source of the occult superstition known as "intelligent design".
104:9 GEVUL SAMTA BAL YA'AVORUN BAL YESHUVUN LECHASOT HA ARETS
גְּבוּל שַׂמְתָּ בַּל יַעֲבֹרוּן בַּל יְשׁוּבוּן לְכַסּוֹת הָאָרֶץ
KJ: Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
BN: You created a boundary beyond which they may not cross, lest they return and cover the Earth.
104:10 HA MESHALE'ACH MA'YANIM BA NECHALIM BEYN HARIM YEHALECHUN
הַמְשַׁלֵּחַ מַעְיָנִים בַּנְּחָלִים בֵּין הָרִים יְהַלֵּכוּן
KJ: He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
BN: You it is who sent the springs out into the valleys; they run between the mountains;
Nature. Nature. Nothing but pure Nature.
104:11 YASHKU KOL CHAYETO SADAI YISHBERU PHERA'IM TSEMA'AM
יַשְׁקוּ כָּל חַיְתוֹ שָׂדָי יִשְׁבְּרוּ פְרָאִים צְמָאָם
KJ: They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
BN: They provide water for every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst.
104:12 ALEYHEM OPH HA SAMAYIM YISHKON MI BEYN APHA'IM YITNU KOL
עֲלֵיהֶם עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם יִשְׁכּוֹן מִבֵּין עֳפָאיִם יִתְּנוּ קוֹל
BN: Beside them dwell the birds of the heavens; they sing amid the branches.
104:13 MASHKEH HARIM ME ALIYOTAV MI PERI MA'ASEYCHA TISBA HA ARETS
מַשְׁקֶה הָרִים מֵעֲלִיּוֹתָיו מִפְּרִי מַעֲשֶׂיךָ תִּשְׂבַּע הָאָרֶץ
KJ: He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
BN: You water the mountains from your upper chambers; the Earth is full of the fruit of your works.
MASHKEH HARIM: I must confess that I rather like that picture of the deity, standing on his heavenly balcony with a watering-can, irrigating his pot-plants by hand.
104:14 MATSMIYACH CHATSIR LA BEHEMAH VE ESEV LA AVODAT HA ADAM LEHOTS'I LECHEM MIN HA ARETS
מַצְמִיחַ חָצִיר לַבְּהֵמָה וְעֵשֶׂב לַעֲבֹדַת הָאָדָם לְהוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ
BN: You make the grass grow for the cattle, and the herbs for the use of Man, {N} so that he may bring bread out of the Earth.
BEHEMAH: As we encountered TEHOM a few verses ago, so we should have expected to meet his counterpart eventually: and here he is. BEHEMOT the jurassic earth-creature, and TAHAMAT or TIAMAT, aka LEV-YATAN (Leviathan) - for whom see verse 26 - the jurassic sea-creature. The red and white dragons in the lore of the Cymry.
LEHOTS'I: A recognition that there is a human role in all of this: the gods (Nature) may have enabled the Emmer wheat to evolve, but bread requires human beings first to cultivate, then to harvest, then to modify the crop (see "Ancestry of the Patriarch 2", around 7000 BCE).
104:15 VE YAYIN YESAMACH LEVAV ENOSH LE HATS'HIL PANIM MI SHAMEN VE LECHEM LEVAV ENOSH YIS'AD
וְיַיִן יְשַׂמַּח לְבַב אֱנוֹשׁ לְהַצְהִיל פָּנִים מִשָּׁמֶן וְלֶחֶם לְבַב אֱנוֹשׁ יִסְעָד
KJ: And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
BN: And wine that makes the heart of man glad, making the face brighter than oil, {N} and bread that stays man's heart.
YAYIN: Biblical wine appears to have been more of honey than of grape, rather more mead than wine.
LEVAV: I have commented on this many times (see Psalm 101:2 for an example), but did not wonder, as this verse makes me do, whether in fact the distinction between LEV and LEVAV was that the ancients regarded the LEV as the source of thought, in the same way that we have invented the metaphor of the Psyche, or "mind", whereas LEVAV was unquestionably the heart, the purely physical and sensational.
104:16 YISBE'U ATSEY YHVH ARZEY LEVANON ASHER NAT'A
יִשְׂבְּעוּ עֲצֵי יְהוָה אַרְזֵי לְבָנוֹן אֲשֶׁר נָטָע
KJ: The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
BN: YHVH's trees are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted...
ARZEY LEVANON: But these are not just any cedars, or any random trees that the poet decided to opt for: the cedars of Levanon were the ones cut down to build the Solomonic Temple.
104:17 ASHER SHAM TSIPARIM YEKANENU CHASIYDAH BEROSHIM BEITAH
אֲשֶׁר שָׁם צִפֳּרִים יְקַנֵּנוּ חֲסִידָה בְּרוֹשִׁים בֵּיתָהּ
KJ: Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
BN: ... in which the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir-trees are her home.
CHASIYDAH: Word-play - we hear constantly about YHVH's CHESED, his "compassionate commitment", his "loving-kindness", and about his CHASIDIM, his "pious followers". And this is not it, this is not the same word; this is CHESED, the stork. Yet the two are spelled exactly the same, and the choice of such a word cannot have been anything but deliberate.
BEROSHIM: And slightly less overtly, but the word-play continues with this too. Add an ALEPH, which actually does not change the sound at all, and you have RO'SH (ראש), the head or source, whence BE RE'SHIT, "in the beginning", that source of all life which the previous Psalm assured us would still be there at the end too, the élan vital, the Primum Mobile, the Universal Pulse, the opening word, or should that be Word, of the Book of Genesis.
104:18 HARIM HA GEVOHIM LA YE'ELIM SELA'IM MACHSEH LA SHEPHANIM
הָרִים הַגְּבֹהִים לַיְּעֵלִים סְלָעִים מַחְסֶה לַשְׁפַנִּים
KJ: The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
BN: The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the conies.
HARIM: Hills, or mountains?
MACHSEH: Refuge, or hiding-place?
104:19 ASAH YARE'ACH LE MO'ADIM SHEMESH YADA MEVO'O
HARIM: Hills, or mountains?
MACHSEH: Refuge, or hiding-place?
104:19 ASAH YARE'ACH LE MO'ADIM SHEMESH YADA MEVO'O
עָשָׂה יָרֵחַ לְמוֹעֲדִים שֶׁמֶשׁ יָדַע מְבוֹאוֹ
KJ: He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
BN: You made the moon for the cycles of the calendar; the sun knows when it is time to set.
MO'ADIM: The Jewish calendar, like the Muslim, remains lunar to this day, the first and fifteenth days of each month providing the principle holy days; and, as we know from Genesis 1, "it was evening and then morning" for the full cycle of the day - where our solar calendar begins in the morning, and ends in the evening - because the moon, not the sun, rules the calendar. All Jewish festivals, all Jewish days, begin when the sun sets, at moonrise, and not when it rises, at moonset.
104:20 TASHET CHOSHECH VIYHI LAILAH BO TIRMOS KOL CHAYETO YA'AR
תָּשֶׁת חֹשֶׁךְ וִיהִי לָיְלָה בּוֹ תִרְמֹשׂ כָּל חַיְתוֹ יָעַר
KJ: Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
BN: You created darkness, and night came into existence, in which all the beasts of the forest creep forth.
TASHET: There are several very different words used for Creation in the Genesis tale, because Creation happens in many different ways. Creation from nothingness, modification of existing forms, creation of something entirely new out of something that already exists, etc: see my notes to Genesis 1 and 2 for the full explanation and detail of this.
104:21 HA KEPHIYRIM SHO'AGIM LA TAREPH U LEVAKESH ME EL ACHLAM
הַכְּפִירִים שֹׁאֲגִים לַטָּרֶף וּלְבַקֵּשׁ מֵאֵל אָכְלָם
KJ: The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
BN: The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from El.
EL: Is that a whoops moment by the scribe, forgetting to change EL to YHVH? Or is it the élan vital being evoked again, the deity as metaphor? If the former, then we can declare this a very ancient hymn [partially!] updated by the Ezraic Redactor, or later - but we will need more evidence.
104:22 TIZRACH HA SHEMESH YE'ASEPHUN VE EL ME'ONOTAM YIRBATSUN
תִּזְרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ יֵאָסֵפוּן וְאֶל מְעוֹנֹתָם יִרְבָּצוּן
KJ: The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
BN: The sun rises, they slink away, and couch in their dens.
TE'ASEPHUN... YIRBATSUN: And curiously enough, just when we asked for more evidence, the text heard and responded. Two verbs employing a truly archaic grammatical form. Or else they are gerunds, and we need to translate this verse as "the sun rises, they are slunked away and their dens lay them down"; which really doesn't work, does it! And besides, the active form here parallels MECHASEH, SHO'AGIM, et al, in the previous verses, YETS'E et al in the ensuing.
104:23 YETS'E ADAM LE PHA'ALO VE LA AVODATO ADEY AREV
יֵצֵא אָדָם לְפָעֳלוֹ וְלַעֲבֹדָתוֹ עֲדֵי עָרֶב
KJ: Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
BN: Man goes forth to his work and to his labour until evening.
PHA'ALO...AVODATO: Interesting to see those two words used together, and clearly having different meanings. The work organiser in today's world would be called a SADRAN AVODAH, but the workers' bank is BANK HA PO'ALIM - clearly the overlap still hasn't been worked out. The verb structures in Biblical Yehudit, and in modern Ivrit, take their names from PA'AL = action, or NIPH'AL, the passive form: Pi'el for intensive, Hiph'il for causative, Hitpa'el for reflexive, and each with its parallel passive: Pu'al, Huph'al, Nitpa'el (the latter more theoretical than practical, so people generally speak of the 7, not the 8, though we did witness a rare example of the Nitpa'el in one of the earlier Psalms).
104:24 MAH RABU MA'ASEYCHA YHVH KULAM BE CHACHMAH ASIYTA MAL'AH HA ARETS KINYANECHA
מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְהוָה כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ
KJ: O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
BN: How manifold are your works, YHVH! With what wisdom you have made them all; {N} the Earth is full of your creations...
CHACHMAH: Wisdom, rather than intelligence - see my note to verse 8!
KINYANECHA: I have gone for "creations" rather than "creatures" because the inventory of this Psalm includes the inanimate (e.g. mountains) as well as the animate, the flora and arbora as well as the fauna, the seas as much as as the land, the elements as much as the waters.
KINYANECHA: I have gone for "creations" rather than "creatures" because the inventory of this Psalm includes the inanimate (e.g. mountains) as well as the animate, the flora and arbora as well as the fauna, the seas as much as as the land, the elements as much as the waters.
Does this verse merit a comparison with Bil'am's "Mah Tovu" in Numbers 24:5?
104:25 ZEH HA YAM GADOL U RECHAV YADAYIM SHAM REMES VE EYN MISPAR CHAYOT KETANOT IM GEDOLOT
104:25 ZEH HA YAM GADOL U RECHAV YADAYIM SHAM REMES VE EYN MISPAR CHAYOT KETANOT IM GEDOLOT
זֶה הַיָּם גָּדוֹל וּרְחַב יָדָיִם שָׁם רֶמֶשׂ וְאֵין מִסְפָּר חַיּוֹת קְטַנּוֹת עִם גְּדֹלוֹת
KJ: So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
BN: ... and this vast, wide sea {N} in which are creeping things, innumerable, living creatures, both small and great.
"All things bright and beautiful..." - interesting background on that hymn here; but also confirmation that, despite appearances, this Psalm is not its immediate source (though it might well have been the source used by its immediate source).
104:26 SHAM ANIYOT YEHALECHUN LIV-YATAN ZEH YATSARTA LESACHEK BO
"All things bright and beautiful..." - interesting background on that hymn here; but also confirmation that, despite appearances, this Psalm is not its immediate source (though it might well have been the source used by its immediate source).
104:26 SHAM ANIYOT YEHALECHUN LIV-YATAN ZEH YATSARTA LESACHEK BO
שָׁם אֳנִיּוֹת יְהַלֵּכוּן לִוְיָתָן זֶה יָצַרְתָּ לְשַׂחֶק בּוֹ
KJ: There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
BN: There go the ships; there is Liv-Yatan, who you created to play there.
LIV-YATAN: Why do the Masoretes always render this as Liv rather than Lev-Yatan? I wonder if they made the "error" deliberately, to draw us away from associating this LEV with the one in verse 15. (And note that, be mentioning him separately from Tehom, two very different sea-dragons from two very different cultural sources find their ways into the same poem)
And the tone! Almost colloquial, and yet lyrical. This could be Whitman writing "Leaves of Grass", or Gide in "Les Nourritures Terrestres"! Not Wordsworth - he's far too solemn. And "Moby-Dick", self-evidently.
104:27 KULAM ELEYCHA YESABERUN LATET ACHLAM BE ITO
כֻּלָּם אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּן לָתֵת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ
KJ: These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
BN: All of them lined up for your inspection, that you may feed them at the appointed time.
YESABERUN: Two possible meanings of this; I am going for the one in Nehemiah 2:13 and 15. Or see this link.
BE ITO: Again a word out of Genesis 1: OT, which accompanies MO'ED, the one the symbolic indicator of the festivity, the other das ding an sich.
104:28 TITEN LAHEM YILKOTUN TIPHTACH YADCHA YISBE'UN TOV
תִּתֵּן לָהֶם יִלְקֹטוּן תִּפְתַּח יָדְךָ יִשְׂבְּעוּן טוֹב
KJ: That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
BN: You provide it for them, they gather it; you open your hand, they are satisfied with its goodness.
YISBE'UN: And this time it is a gerund. Though it also echoes musically YESABERUN in the previous verse (and grammatically; that too is a gerund; and there are more in the next verse).
104:29 TASTIR PANEYCHA YIBAHELUN TOSEPH RUCHAM YIGVA'UN VE EL APHARAM YESHUVUN
תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ יִבָּהֵלוּן תֹּסֵף רוּחָם יִגְוָעוּן וְאֶל עֲפָרָם יְשׁוּבוּן
KJ: Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
BN: You turn your face aside, they vanish; {N} you withdraw their breath, they perish, and return to their dust.
TASTIR PANEYCHA: If you've read this far in these Psalms, you don't need me explaining this yet again.
TASTIR PANEYCHA: If you've read this far in these Psalms, you don't need me explaining this yet again.
104:30 TESHALACH RUCHACHA YIBAR'E'UN U TECHADESH PENEY ADAMAH
תְּשַׁלַּח רוּחֲךָ יִבָּרֵאוּן וּתְחַדֵּשׁ פְּנֵי אֲדָמָה
KJ: Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
BN: You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the Earth.
TESHALACH: uses the Pi'el, which is intensive, not merely active (the difference between "writing" and "scribbling", say); so reinforce the translation. How? There really isn't an English equivalent.
104:31 YEHI CHEVOD YHVH LE OLAM YISMACH YHVH BE MA'ASAV
יְהִי כְבוֹד יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם יִשְׂמַח יְהוָה בְּמַעֲשָׂיו
KJ: The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
BN: May the glory of YHVH endure for ever; let YHVH rejoice in his works!
An entire Psalm without a moan, a complaint, an instance of depression, a negative of any kind from either party. Pure joy and exaltation. But we still have some verses to go - can it make it?
104:32 HA MABIT LA ARETS VA TIR'AD YIG'A BE HARIM VE YE'ESHANU
הַמַּבִּיט לָאָרֶץ וַתִּרְעָד יִגַּע בֶּהָרִים וְיֶעֱשָׁנוּ
KJ: He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
BN: You look at the Earth, and it trembles; you touch the mountains, and they start to smoke.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions - the earliest known form of YHVH, at Sedom, then at Chorev. Or are these merely bushfires?
104:33 ASHIYRAH LA YHVH BE CHAYAI AZAMRAH L'ELOHAI BE ODI
אָשִׁירָה לַיהוָה בְּחַיָּי אֲזַמְּרָה לֵאלֹהַי בְּעוֹדִי
KJ: I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
BN: I will sing to YHVH for as long as I live; I will sing praise to my god for as long I have being.
104:34 YE'ERAV ALAV SIYCHI ANOCHI ESMACH BA YHVH
יֶעֱרַב עָלָיו שִׂיחִי אָנֹכִי אֶשְׂמַח בַּיהוָה
KJ: My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
BN: Let my musing about him be sweet to him; as for me, I will rejoice in YHVH.
104:35 YITAMU CHATA'IM MIN HA ARETS U RESHA'IM OD EYNAM BARACHI NAPHSHI ET YHVH HALELU-YAH
יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים מִן הָאָרֶץ וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת יְהוָה הַלְלוּ-יָהּ
KJ: Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.
BN: Let there be an end to sin upon the Earth, and let there be no more wickedness. {N} Bless YHVH , O my soul. {N} Hallelu-Yah.
BARACHI NAPHSHI: see my previous note.
HALELU-YAH: This Psalm may belong to the epoch of the Omnideity, circa 400 BCE or later, but even its Redactor cannot bring himself to expurgate the female from all of this Creation, because the male simply cannot do it on his own. Note that even the Masoretic text hyphenates this, separating the Yah from the Hallelu; English really ought to do the same.
And picking up my note at verse 31 - yes, it made it!
And picking up my note at verse 31 - yes, it made it!
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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