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
BOOK FIVE?
In theory, this is the first Psalm of Book Five, and I raise the question because it is yet another of the history-catechisms, though its agenda appears to be slightly different; which is to say: Psalm 105 catalogued the history of the Covenants and the beginning of the Exodus tale; Psalm 106 resumed at that point, mostly listing the various calumnies of the ancestors, and preaching repentance; this Psalm describes all the previous occasions of repentance, and tells how wonderful the deity was in response. So the three appear to be a threesome, and if so, then the division by books must be erroneous.
For more on this see my notes at the start of Psalms 42 and 73.
Either way, the message of repentance is about to be reinforced. Thanks will be given. And after the vileness and hypocrisy of 106, this is a rather pleasant poem of complex word-games and choruses and rhymes, without the flagellation, without the misanthropy, without the brainwashing (save only the rather condescending-patronising-arrogant last verse). In which case, once again, I ask why is it not regarded as being in the same book? We need to hunt down some other factor, for which none of the usual signposts are available, because there is no title, no dedication, no descriptor.
KJ (King James translation): O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
BN (BibleNet translation): Give thanks to YHVH, for he is good, for his care for his people is eternal.
And does this verse also serve as phrase-and-responsa, as suggested for Psalms 105 and 106?
107:2 YOMRU GE'ULEY YHVH ASHER GE'ALAM MI YAD TSAR
KJ: Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
BN: So let those who YHVH has redeemed, who he has redeemed from the hand of sorrow...let them say...
107:3 U ME ARATSOT KIBTSAM MI MIZRACH U MI MA'ARAV MI TSAPHON U MI YAM
KJ: And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
BN: And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea.
KJ: They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
BN: They wandered in the desert, and through the wilderness; they found no city in which they could live.
Which appears to be resuming the historical account at precisely the point where Psalm 106 left off, somewhere around Numbers 20-25, though the manner of syory-telling makes it difficult to be more precise.
KJ: Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
BN: Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted inside them.
But I also find myself questioning my statement at the opening of the last note. Is this a resumption of the historical narrative, or have we gone back a stage before that, to the mythological tale, before it was transformed into pseudo-history? The language of the next several verses is poetical, universal, metaphorical, where the Exodus and Numbers fragments speak of precise places, precise people, precise incidents.
107:6 VA YITS'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YATSIYLEM
KJ: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
BN: Then they cried out to YHVH in their distress, and he delivered them from their troubles.
TSAR: See my note to verse 2.
MI METSUKOTEYHEM: Or MIM'TSUKOTEYHEM? The same in verses 13, 19 and 28. But is this intended as a chorus, or merely a line that gets repeated with minor variations - YITS'AKU here and in verse 28, but YIZ'AKU in verses 13 and 19? Amidst the complexity of word-games, an equal complexity of choruses (should that be chori?) is not difficult to imagine.
107:7 VA YADRIYCHEM BE DERECH YESHARAH LALECHET EL IR MOSHAV
KJ: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
BN: And he led them on a straight path, that they might get to a city which they could inhabit.
107:8 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
The end, for the moment, of the history-lesson; if it was indeed that. And if verse 1 was not the response-line through those verses, then this certainly appears to be the refrain at the end of it. Seven verses then (a logical number in a Psalm to YHVH); after which the pattern repeats as verse 15, five more and it repeats at verse 21; then 31 - but in fact this should be laid out and counted accordingly; and it may be affected by what seems to be an alternate chorus in verses 6, 13, 19 and 28
[Homework for school and study-groups: lay out the Psalm, in just one language, but colour-coded, one colour for each chorus, another for the main text, to see how this might work as a choral responsa]
107:9 KI HISBIY'A NEPHESH SHOKEKAH VE NEPHESH RE'EVAH MIL'E TOV
KJ: For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
BN: For he satisfied the longing soul, and the hungry soul he filled with goodness.
107:10 YOSHVEY CHOSHECH VE TSALMAVET ASIYREY ANI U VARZEL
KJ: Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
BN: Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in iron...
ANI U VARZEL: Is that an example of Zeugma?
107:11 KI HIMRU IMREY EL VA ATSAT ELYON NA'ATSU
KJ: Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
BN: Because they rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the wise counsel of the Most High.
HIMRU: An immensely significant word in the Exodus tale, and one that has scarcely been addressed by any of the scholars, Jewish, Christian or secular, these past two thousand and more years. The third of the leaders was Mir-Yam, who takes her name from the Bitter Waters of the Sinai desert, mere springs and oases in those days, but still very salty, and therefore very bitter, and she by all appearances the goddess of those waters, or at the very least her High Priestess (see my notes throughout the Book of Exodus). And, at the same time, the journey through the wilderness is interrupted by acts of rebellion, whether that of Korach and his co-conspirators, or Aharon with the Golden Calf, or simply the continuous failure of the Beney Yisra-El to conform to the requirements of obedience of the deity. Endless bitter responses (rebellion) in a desert of bitter waters. And the connection? HIMRU. From the root MARAH (מָרָה). Meaning "to be bitter". Meaning "to rebel".
ATSAT...NA'ATSU: Sounds like a noun and a verb from the same root; but in fact, not so. ATSAT with an Ayin, NA'ATSU with an Aleph. Two completely different roots. Word-games!
KJ: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
BN: Therefore he humbled their heart with troubles; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
AMAL: The trouble with rendering this as "labour," or even "travail", as several translations do, is that it infers work, which then infers the slavery of Mitsrayim, and that is not the intention; other than the metal and wood workers, who made the Mishkan, the one thing the Beney Yisra-El did not do through their forty years in the wilderness, was any sort of work. So, after the "labour" and "travail" of all that commentary, I shall translate AMAL as "trouble".
KJ: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
BN: And they cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he saved them in their distress.
TSAR: See my note to verse 2
YIZ'AKU... See my note to verse 6; the only variation is that YITS'AKU there becomes YIZ'AKU here. Though that is also interesting on an entirely different level; as noted just a couple of Psalms back, there is a variation on the name of Av-Ram and Sarah's son, which is usually Yitschak, but sometimes Yischak, effectively the same variation as here: I wonder if this, like the Av-Ram/Av-Raham and Sarah/Sarai variants, were simply matters of dialect (how do you pronounce "scone", or "either", or "neither", or "both" [as in Ian Botham]; and do you say "you" or "thou"..?)
YOSHIYEM: As with YITS'AKU and YIZ'AKU,so YOSHIYEM here is echoed in the opening word of the following verse.
107:14 YOTSIY'EM ME CHOSHECH VE TSALMAVET U MOSROTEYHEM YENATEK
KJ: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
BN: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and tore off their chains.
Whereas this is not a chorus, merely a reference back to a verse (verse 10) that used the same vocabulary and concepts, but here taking the concept further [so perhaps it should be colour-coded differently in the homework exercise].
MOSROTEYHEM: From the same root that gave ASIYREY at verse 10.
107:15 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
Second chorus, or possibly the third; see my note to verses 8, 21 and 31.
107:16 KI SHIBAR DALTOT NECHOSHET U VERICHEY VARZEL GIDE'A
KJ: For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
BN: For he has smashed the brass gates, and ripped open the iron bars.
107:17 EVILIM MI DERECH PISH'AM U ME AVONOTEYHEM YIT'ANU
KJ: Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
BN: Crazed because of the manner of their transgression, and afflicted because of their iniquities...
EVILIM: Don't you just love these coincidences of language, entirely arbitrary and unconnected in any way at all, except that they happen to look and sound alike. "Evil" in English, "foolish" in Yehudit, though I guess behaving foolishly tends to lead to evil, and being evil is very foolish... see Job 5:2 and 3, and the second half of either Proverbs 10:8 or 10:10 (no that's just me being foolish, but well-meaningly, not evilly).
PISH'AM: For the difference between a Pesha and a Mechilah and an Avon and a Chet, see my notes at Exodus 9:27.
107:18 KOL OCHEL TETA'EV NAPHSHAM VA YAGIY'U AD SHA'AREY MAVET
KJ: Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
BN: Their soul abhors every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death...
Anorexia or bulimia? I ask because this, and the previous verse, appear to speak, albeit in a rather ancient form, of "psychological" problems, rather more than physical or spiritual or political or military ones, of famine of the soul rather than of the land. Echoing my comment at verse 5.
107:19 VA YIZ'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YOSHIY'EM
KJ: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
BN: They cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he relieved them of their distresses;
YIZ'AKU... See my note to verses 6 and 13; this repeats 13 without variation.
107:20 YISHLACH DEVARO VE YIRPA'EM VIYMALET MI SHECHIYTOTAM
KJ: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
BN: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their graves.
The Sar Shalom text has a Nun at the end of this and the next several verses, all the way to 25; in the Yehudit, but not in the English; I presume that it is either an editorial oversight, or they know something the rest of us don't, but I need to check with other texts before I can determine that...
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
KJ: And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
107:23 YORDEY HA YAM BA ANIYOT OSEY MELA'CHAH BE MAYIM RABIM
KJ: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
BN: They who go down to the sea in ships, who conduct business across the oceans...
One of those famous phrases that everybody seems to know but no one has a clue why they know it, what it means, or even where it comes from. I can only answer the last of these.
The phrase also has the feeling of an opening line; is this a new section?
Given that the entire west coast of Kena'an is the Mediterranean, and that the Phoenicians to the immediate north, and later the Greeks to the immediate north-west, as well as the Phoenician-colonised islands through the Med (Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia...) were all major sea-trading peoples from very early times, it is somewhat odd that the Beney Yisra-El never were, at any point in their history. Indeed, other than mentions of sea-monsters and mythological floods, the one and only tale in all the Bible that takes place, and that very briefly, at sea, is Yonah, and that was an Aramaic tale of the sea-god Oannes, imported later on, probably by the Samaritans.
107:24 HEMAH RA'U MA'ASEY YHVH VE NIPHLE'OTAV BI METSULAH
KJ: These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
BN: They saw the works of YHVH, and his wonders along the sea-bed;
BI METSULAH: Or BIM'TSULAH? Note how this pattern too repeats throughout the Psalm. I am uncomfortable translating this as "the deep", because that suggests TEHOM, which this is not (however, see verse 26, where it is). And having gone for "along the sea-bed" as my translation, it strikes me that this is much truer of the southern waters, around Eilat at the tip of the Red Sea, which is a magnificent coral reef, than it is of the boringly sand-and-stone bottom of the Mediterranean (and see again my note at verse 3, which this seems to confirm).
Or maybe it is TEHOM. The description of the actions of the sea-god in the verses about to follow definitely endorses my wondering if this is part of the much older mythology, a pre-Judaic, probably Kena'ani Creation hymn. And of course the original of YONAH, the Phoenician deity Oannes...
107:25 VA YOMER VA YA'AMED RU'ACH SE'ARAH VA TEROMEM GALAV
KJ: For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
BN: For he spoke, and the storm-wind rose up, and lifted up its waves.
Which does sound like Oannes (Jonah), or Yam, the Kena'ani sea-god, whose serpent was also named Liv-Yatan.
107:26 YA'ALU SHAMAYIM YERDU TEHOMOT NAPHSHAM BE RA'AH TITMOGAG
KJ: They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
BN: They climbed up to the heavens, they went down to the deeps; their soul melted away because of trouble;
YA'ALU: Who are "they"? The syntax and grammar, following on from the previous verse, infer "the waves", but do waves have souls? And can they really cimb that high, even in the heaviest storm?
RA'AH: KJ translates this as "trouble", yet this is the word for "evil", and they don't have this qualm elsewhere. What kind of "evil" is this inferring anyway?
107:27 YACHOGU VE YANU'U KA SHIKUR VE CHOL CHACHMATAM TITBAL'A
KJ: They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
BN: They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up...
Two consecutive verses ending on an out-of-syntax Hitpa'el. Does that happen because the music, the rhythm requires it?
107:28 VA YITS'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM U METSUKOTEYHEM YOTSIY'EM
KJ: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
BN: They cried to El in their distress, and he brought them out of their difficulties.
EL: Not YHVH.
KJ: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
BN: He turned the storm into calm, so that its waves were still.
And no need to throw a prophet overboard to achieve that! But at least it does confirm that all these verses have been about the storm-at-sea, not humans; so perhaps is it the tale of Yonah, or Moby-Dick, or the Ancient Mariner.
107:30 VA YISMECHU CHI YISHTOKU VA YANCHEM EL MECHOZ CHEPHTSAM
KJ: Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
BN: Then were they glad because they were quiet, and he led them to their desired haven.
107:31 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
KJ: Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
BN: Exalt him, too, at the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
BI KEHAL: Or BIK'HAL?
YEHALELUHU: The masculine version/equivalent of HALELU YAH.
107:33 YASEM NEHAROT LE MIDBAR U MOTSA'EY MAYIM LE TSIMA'ON
KJ: He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
BN: He turns rivers into wadis, and springs of water into thirsty ground...
Why suddenly the negative way round? But see verse 35, where it is turned back again, and probably that answers my question: Nature can and does do both, so state it in the negative first, the positive second, acknowledging thereby the negative, but ending - and I would presume the music does the same - on the tonic or the dominant, rather than the sub-dominant, to reinforce the message.
107:34 ERETS PERI LI MELECHAH ME RA'AT YOSHVEY VAH
KJ: A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
BN: A fruitful land into a salty waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
LI MELECHAH: Or LIM'LECHAH? The key here is read as the Dead Sea, though if this were still the Mosaic tale, in the wilderness of Sinai, those "bitter waters" we associated with Mir-Yam earlier...
107:35 YASEM MIDBAR LA AGAM MAYIM VE ERETS TSIYAH LE MOTSA'EY MAYIM
KJ: He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.
BN: He turns the wadi back into a pool of water, and the dry land gushes water once again.
107:36 VA YOSHEV SHAM RE'EVIM VA YECHONENU IR MOSHAV
KJ: And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation;
BN: And he settles the hungry there, so that they can start to build a permanent habitation;
IR MOSHAV: How many repeats of that phrase? It makes me wonder if this wasn't written at the time when the transition from nomadism to the sedentary life was taking place. With the exception of Lot for a brief moment at Sedom, at no point in the Torah do the Beney Yisra-El live in towns and villages, though they often have dealings with townspeople - and not always positively, such as the tale of the rape of Dinah and the revenge of Shim'on and Levi. The tales in the Book of Judges mostly echo this, and are one of several reasons why I place Judges alongside Genesis chronologically. The Book of Joshua destroys many towns and villages, and shares out the rebuilding, but we don't get much actual inhabitation until the Book of Samuel.
107:37 VA YIZRE'U SADOT VA YIT'U CHERAMIM VA YA'ASU PERI TEVU'AH
KJ: And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
BN: And sow fields, and plant vineyards, which yield crops for harvesting.
107:38 VA YEVARACHEM VA YIRBU ME'OD U VEHEMTAM LO YAM'IT
KJ: He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.
BN: He blesses them, so that they may increase their numbers many times over, and not suffer a diminution of their cattle.
LO YAM'IT: That is one very cool piece of word-play: "they don't decrease"; but change one tiny sound, one tiny spelling, and you would have LO YAMUT, "they don't die".
107:39 VA YIM'ATU VA YASHOCHU ME OTSER RA'AH VE YAGON
KJ: Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
BN: Again, they are diminished and dwindle away through oppression of evil and sorrow.
The last word of the previous verse becomes the first word of this one (which is itself a form of increase, and therefore poetically role-models its own paradigm! though it is also playing "reverse of the nagative-positive" from above). This sort of play is constant ( I would say "key" to this Psalm, but we cannot know which key it is in, so that word-game isn't available!) throughout this Psalm:"variations on a theme", in the lexicon of 19th century music.
Again a Nun in the Yehudit but not the English.
Again the ebb and flow of life and Nature are being played off against each other: YHVH natan YHVH lakach - the gods give and the gods take away (Job 1:21). But with the ebb and flow of good and bad human behaviour as the determining force.
107:40 SHOPHECH BUZ AL NEDIYVIM VA YAT'EM BE TOHU LO DARECH
KJ: He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
BN: He pours contempt upon the philanthropic, and causes them to wander in the wasteland, where there are no paths.
NEDIYVIM: From the root NADAV, which is a type of unfiltered cigarette generously given away for free to soldiers and members of kibbutzim; no, sorry, that was NADIV, and "generously" may have applied to the "giving" but did not to the tobacco, which, as far as anyone could tell, was the sweepings from the floor when the sellable cigarettes had been made. But still very "noble" and "philanthropic" of the "princes" of Dubek to give them. As to which of those meanings is intended here...
107:41 VA YESAGEV EVYON ME ONI VA YASEM KA TSON MISHPACHOT
KJ: Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.
BN: Yet he raises the needy above their affliction, and shepherds his families like a flock.
ONI: Why is that not ONAM? ONI is 1st person singular, is it not? Or might it be AVONI - but that is still in the wrong person.
107:42 YIR'U YESHARIM VE YISMACHU VE CHOL AVLAH KAPHTSAH PIYHA
KJ: The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
BN: The upright see it, and are glad; and all iniquity stops her mouth.
I don't undersand what the second half of this verse is saying. But the scholars all tell me to go and look at the Book of Job, and especially 5:16 and 22:19. And clearly, when you get there, they are right - but what does this do for the source, let alone the date, of the Psalm? Not earlier than the 6th century BCE and, given its Babylonian origins, probably after the exile, and therefore late 6th century - but the tone, manner and style are so similar to that of the Prophet Zechar-Yah (click here for more on this), it could very easily be two centuries later even than that.
107:43 MI CHACHAM VE YISHMAR ELEH VE YITBONENU CHASDEY YHVH
KJ: Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
BN: Whoever is wise, and observes these things, let them consider the care-and-compassion of YHVH. {P}
And whosoever does not agree with me is, by definition, stupid: I really hate that sort of preaching, whether from the clergy or the politicians or the ordinary folk.
YISHMAR...YITBONENU: Odd switch from singular to plural.
This Psalm is also one of the models for mediaeval piyyut: word repetitions, phrase repetitions, musical games, every sort of sudoku and mahjong and scrabble the mind can play with: to the extent that meaning may actually be less significant than the quality of the game.
One final observation before beginning, because it should impact on your reading of the tale: Yom Yeru-Shala'im, Jerusalem Day, marks the anniversary of the
capture of the Old City in the 6-Day War. So special is the day that Full
Hallel is recited in synagogues throughout the Jewish world, not just in Yisra-El, and Psalm 107 is appended as the completion of the service.
107:1 HODU LA YHVH KI TOV KI LE OLAM CHASDO
הֹדוּ לַיהוָה כִּי טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ
KJ (King James translation): O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
BN (BibleNet translation): Give thanks to YHVH, for he is good, for his care for his people is eternal.
And again I have to ask, because the opening line here mirrors the opening line of Psalm 106 (and also Psalms 118:1
and 136:1, and much more interestingly still 1 Chronicles 16:34), save only the dropping here of the opening Halelu-Yah.
And does this verse also serve as phrase-and-responsa, as suggested for Psalms 105 and 106?
107:2 YOMRU GE'ULEY YHVH ASHER GE'ALAM MI YAD TSAR
יֹאמְרוּ גְּאוּלֵי יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר גְּאָלָם מִיַּד צָר
KJ: Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
BN: So let those who YHVH has redeemed, who he has redeemed from the hand of sorrow...let them say...
TSAR: No, and again no, for what must be the 5th or 6th time at least. A TSAR is not an "enemy": "the one who causes me distress", which is a literal translation, can as easily be your spouse, your parent, your child, your best friend, your boss, and the distress impacts upon but does not negativise the love you also have for them. In Yiddish TSURES, from the plural TSAROT, but with a strong Ashkenazi pronunciation.
And what is most bizarre about this repeated error, is that KJ knows it is an error - see the chorus in verses 6, 13, 19 and 28 where it translates TSAR correctly as "trouble".
YOMRU: The verse began with this, but then breaks off to explain who "they" are, ending at an incomplete point of a statement: "let them say..." at the start; but "let them say" what? But the next verse continues to explain who they are, as does verse 4, and 5, and on for a long while yet.
YOMRU: The verse began with this, but then breaks off to explain who "they" are, ending at an incomplete point of a statement: "let them say..." at the start; but "let them say" what? But the next verse continues to explain who they are, as does verse 4, and 5, and on for a long while yet.
So I return to my contention that this is line-and-responsa: that this verse, and the ensuing, was recited or sung by the prayer-leader, and that verse 1 will now be chanted by the congregation, and the same again for every verse, unless an alternative refrain should happen to be introduced along the way.
KJ takes an alternate view, adding the word "so" as an endorsement of verse 1. But "adding" is the key: nothing in the Yehudit endorses that interpretation.
107:3 U ME ARATSOT KIBTSAM MI MIZRACH U MI MA'ARAV MI TSAPHON U MI YAM
וּמֵאֲרָצוֹת קִבְּצָם מִמִּזְרָח וּמִמַּעֲרָב מִצָּפוֹן וּמִיָּם
KJ: And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
BN: And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea.
YAM: It is always interesting to see which four words are used for the compass points, because there are variations, and those variations may be helpful in dating the piece, and they may even be helpful in geographically locating the piece. In one recent Psalm the south was given as Yamin, which is really the right hand side, which we would think of as east, because our compass tilts that way. Negev for south can only happen in northern Yisra-El. And then there is Yam, which is surely the Great Sea, the Mediterranean, to the west if you are in Yisra-El... but the west in this verse is the sunset, the Ma'arav, contrasted with the sunrise for the east, the Mizrach, and Yam fills the one remaining gap, which is "the south", and which therefore has to mean the Red Sea... Given the narrowness of the land of Kena'an (barely 60 miles from Yericho to Yafo), anyone living from Yericho northwards would think of the Mediterranean if you mentioned the sea, where down in the desert of Yehudah they might well have never been near the Med, because of the Pelishtim occupying the intervening lands...
Or is it even possible that this was one of the Psalms written during the captivity in Bavel (Babylon)? Psalm 137 is the best-known of these, and YAM as the south would be the Persian Gulf.
107:4 TA'U VA MIDBAR BIYSHIYMON DARECH IR MOSHAV LO MATSA'U
107:4 TA'U VA MIDBAR BIYSHIYMON DARECH IR MOSHAV LO MATSA'U
תָּעוּ בַמִּדְבָּר בִּישִׁימוֹן דָּרֶךְ עִיר מוֹשָׁב לֹא מָצָאוּ
KJ: They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
BN: They wandered in the desert, and through the wilderness; they found no city in which they could live.
BIYSHIYMON: Psalm 106:14, and my note there makes the Numbers allusion much more precise: click here. Previously I have questioned the pointing, and thence the pronunciation, of this word. YESHIYMON is one of the names for the desert, and "wilderness" is probably accurate, because there are sand deserts and scrub deserts and barren regions - as the Inuit have multiple names for snow, because they need to make the distinctions, so Yehudit has multiple descriptors for these endlessly varied empty places. But the pointing and spelling here raises an entirely different question, which is why I have included a tribal map. Shim'on (Simeon), the eldest son of Ya'akov, inherited the family home at Be'er Sheva, and it is precisely the desert region that came to be known, tribally, as SHIM'ON, and geographically as YESHIYMON. SHIM'ON the name is spelled with an Ayin (ע), absent from YESHIYMON; and yet, aurally... It is a very odd coincidence, and perhaps one or other is a late alteration, to enable or to remove the cosmological connection with the ancient Shaman or priest-wizard.
107:5 RE'EVIM GAM TSEME'IM NAPHSHI BAHEM TIT'ATAPH
107:5 RE'EVIM GAM TSEME'IM NAPHSHI BAHEM TIT'ATAPH
רְעֵבִים גַּם צְמֵאִים נַפְשָׁם בָּהֶם תִּתְעַטָּף
KJ: Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
BN: Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted inside them.
But I also find myself questioning my statement at the opening of the last note. Is this a resumption of the historical narrative, or have we gone back a stage before that, to the mythological tale, before it was transformed into pseudo-history? The language of the next several verses is poetical, universal, metaphorical, where the Exodus and Numbers fragments speak of precise places, precise people, precise incidents.
And if it is mythological, from the imagery: does the Mosaic journey through the wilderness become an allegorical journey through the Underworld, the kingdom that will become Sha'ul and David's later on? Forty years, where other versions tend to forty days; but forty is about the symolic number, not the calendar attachment.
107:6 VA YITS'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YATSIYLEM
וַיִּצְעֲקוּ אֶל יְהוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם מִמְּצוּקוֹתֵיהֶם יַצִּילֵם
KJ: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
BN: Then they cried out to YHVH in their distress, and he delivered them from their troubles.
TSAR: See my note to verse 2.
MI METSUKOTEYHEM: Or MIM'TSUKOTEYHEM? The same in verses 13, 19 and 28. But is this intended as a chorus, or merely a line that gets repeated with minor variations - YITS'AKU here and in verse 28, but YIZ'AKU in verses 13 and 19? Amidst the complexity of word-games, an equal complexity of choruses (should that be chori?) is not difficult to imagine.
107:7 VA YADRIYCHEM BE DERECH YESHARAH LALECHET EL IR MOSHAV
וַיַּדְרִיכֵם בְּדֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה לָלֶכֶת אֶל עִיר מוֹשָׁב
KJ: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
BN: And he led them on a straight path, that they might get to a city which they could inhabit.
Actually he led them on a most labyrinthine zigzag path!
107:8 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
יוֹדוּ לַיהוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
The end, for the moment, of the history-lesson; if it was indeed that. And if verse 1 was not the response-line through those verses, then this certainly appears to be the refrain at the end of it. Seven verses then (a logical number in a Psalm to YHVH); after which the pattern repeats as verse 15, five more and it repeats at verse 21; then 31 - but in fact this should be laid out and counted accordingly; and it may be affected by what seems to be an alternate chorus in verses 6, 13, 19 and 28
[Homework for school and study-groups: lay out the Psalm, in just one language, but colour-coded, one colour for each chorus, another for the main text, to see how this might work as a choral responsa]
107:9 KI HISBIY'A NEPHESH SHOKEKAH VE NEPHESH RE'EVAH MIL'E TOV
כִּי הִשְׂבִּיעַ נֶפֶשׁ שֹׁקֵקָה וְנֶפֶשׁ רְעֵבָה מִלֵּא טוֹב
KJ: For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
BN: For he satisfied the longing soul, and the hungry soul he filled with goodness.
107:10 YOSHVEY CHOSHECH VE TSALMAVET ASIYREY ANI U VARZEL
יֹשְׁבֵי חֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת אֲסִירֵי עֳנִי וּבַרְזֶל
KJ: Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
BN: Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in iron...
YOSHVEY: Past tense or present?
TSALMAVET: See Psalm 23:4.
TSALMAVET: See Psalm 23:4.
ANI U VARZEL: Is that an example of Zeugma?
107:11 KI HIMRU IMREY EL VA ATSAT ELYON NA'ATSU
כִּי הִמְרוּ אִמְרֵי אֵל וַעֲצַת עֶלְיוֹן נָאָצוּ
KJ: Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
BN: Because they rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the wise counsel of the Most High.
HIMRU: An immensely significant word in the Exodus tale, and one that has scarcely been addressed by any of the scholars, Jewish, Christian or secular, these past two thousand and more years. The third of the leaders was Mir-Yam, who takes her name from the Bitter Waters of the Sinai desert, mere springs and oases in those days, but still very salty, and therefore very bitter, and she by all appearances the goddess of those waters, or at the very least her High Priestess (see my notes throughout the Book of Exodus). And, at the same time, the journey through the wilderness is interrupted by acts of rebellion, whether that of Korach and his co-conspirators, or Aharon with the Golden Calf, or simply the continuous failure of the Beney Yisra-El to conform to the requirements of obedience of the deity. Endless bitter responses (rebellion) in a desert of bitter waters. And the connection? HIMRU. From the root MARAH (מָרָה). Meaning "to be bitter". Meaning "to rebel".
ATSAT...NA'ATSU: Sounds like a noun and a verb from the same root; but in fact, not so. ATSAT with an Ayin, NA'ATSU with an Aleph. Two completely different roots. Word-games!
IMREY: "words", but different from the DAVAR, which is the Word - the former are the commandments, the latter Nature itself.
EL...ELYON: Not YHVH. Which either makes this a very ancient Yevusi (Jebusite) hymn, adopted and adapted by the later Beney Yisra-El, or a Second Temple adding of the name El Elyon to the Omnideity (or both, of course). Which is the more likely? Actually it can only be the latter, because this is not history but pseudo-history, the transformation of the mythological explanations of the universe through the metaphors of deities, into something that could allow the established legends to continue, but in an epoch that now worshipped an Omnideity. The same exactly as Bishop Geoffrey of Monmouth's transformation of the Celtic legends into the pseudo-history of England in the 12th century. And if it were originally Yevusi, why would they make this as their history?
107:12 VA YACHNA BE AMAL LIBAM KASHLU VE EYN OZER
EL...ELYON: Not YHVH. Which either makes this a very ancient Yevusi (Jebusite) hymn, adopted and adapted by the later Beney Yisra-El, or a Second Temple adding of the name El Elyon to the Omnideity (or both, of course). Which is the more likely? Actually it can only be the latter, because this is not history but pseudo-history, the transformation of the mythological explanations of the universe through the metaphors of deities, into something that could allow the established legends to continue, but in an epoch that now worshipped an Omnideity. The same exactly as Bishop Geoffrey of Monmouth's transformation of the Celtic legends into the pseudo-history of England in the 12th century. And if it were originally Yevusi, why would they make this as their history?
107:12 VA YACHNA BE AMAL LIBAM KASHLU VE EYN OZER
וַיַּכְנַע בֶּעָמָל לִבָּם כָּשְׁלוּ וְאֵין עֹזֵר
KJ: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
BN: Therefore he humbled their heart with troubles; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
AMAL: The trouble with rendering this as "labour," or even "travail", as several translations do, is that it infers work, which then infers the slavery of Mitsrayim, and that is not the intention; other than the metal and wood workers, who made the Mishkan, the one thing the Beney Yisra-El did not do through their forty years in the wilderness, was any sort of work. So, after the "labour" and "travail" of all that commentary, I shall translate AMAL as "trouble".
EYN OZER: But see verse 1 (and innumerable other places!), which told us that his mercy and loving-kindness and care and compassion for his people are eternal, from the infinite beginning to the infinite end.... apparently there were exceptions.
Or wait, no, that isn't what this meant; they go to YHVH in the next verse, and of course he helps. What this means is: there were no humans to help, Mosheh was too busy, Aharon was inept, Miriam was dealing with her skin problems (Numbers 12:10), the priests were untrained, the tribal elders were corrupt. And so...
107:13 VA YIZ'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YOSHIY'EM
107:13 VA YIZ'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YOSHIY'EM
וַיִּזְעֲקוּ אֶל יְהוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם מִמְּצֻקוֹתֵיהֶם יוֹשִׁיעֵם
KJ: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
BN: And they cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he saved them in their distress.
TSAR: See my note to verse 2
YIZ'AKU... See my note to verse 6; the only variation is that YITS'AKU there becomes YIZ'AKU here. Though that is also interesting on an entirely different level; as noted just a couple of Psalms back, there is a variation on the name of Av-Ram and Sarah's son, which is usually Yitschak, but sometimes Yischak, effectively the same variation as here: I wonder if this, like the Av-Ram/Av-Raham and Sarah/Sarai variants, were simply matters of dialect (how do you pronounce "scone", or "either", or "neither", or "both" [as in Ian Botham]; and do you say "you" or "thou"..?)
YOSHIYEM: As with YITS'AKU and YIZ'AKU,so YOSHIYEM here is echoed in the opening word of the following verse.
107:14 YOTSIY'EM ME CHOSHECH VE TSALMAVET U MOSROTEYHEM YENATEK
יוֹצִיאֵם מֵחֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת וּמוֹסְרוֹתֵיהֶם יְנַתֵּק
KJ: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
BN: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and tore off their chains.
Whereas this is not a chorus, merely a reference back to a verse (verse 10) that used the same vocabulary and concepts, but here taking the concept further [so perhaps it should be colour-coded differently in the homework exercise].
MOSROTEYHEM: From the same root that gave ASIYREY at verse 10.
107:15 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
יוֹדוּ לַיהוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
Second chorus, or possibly the third; see my note to verses 8, 21 and 31.
107:16 KI SHIBAR DALTOT NECHOSHET U VERICHEY VARZEL GIDE'A
כִּי שִׁבַּר דַּלְתוֹת נְחֹשֶׁת וּבְרִיחֵי בַרְזֶל גִּדֵּעַ
KJ: For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
BN: For he has smashed the brass gates, and ripped open the iron bars.
107:17 EVILIM MI DERECH PISH'AM U ME AVONOTEYHEM YIT'ANU
אֱוִלִים מִדֶּרֶךְ פִּשְׁעָם וּמֵעֲוֹנֹתֵיהֶם יִתְעַנּוּ
KJ: Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
BN: Crazed because of the manner of their transgression, and afflicted because of their iniquities...
EVILIM: Don't you just love these coincidences of language, entirely arbitrary and unconnected in any way at all, except that they happen to look and sound alike. "Evil" in English, "foolish" in Yehudit, though I guess behaving foolishly tends to lead to evil, and being evil is very foolish... see Job 5:2 and 3, and the second half of either Proverbs 10:8 or 10:10 (no that's just me being foolish, but well-meaningly, not evilly).
PISH'AM: For the difference between a Pesha and a Mechilah and an Avon and a Chet, see my notes at Exodus 9:27.
107:18 KOL OCHEL TETA'EV NAPHSHAM VA YAGIY'U AD SHA'AREY MAVET
כָּל אֹכֶל תְּתַעֵב נַפְשָׁם וַיַּגִּיעוּ עַד שַׁעֲרֵי מָוֶת
KJ: Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
BN: Their soul abhors every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death...
Anorexia or bulimia? I ask because this, and the previous verse, appear to speak, albeit in a rather ancient form, of "psychological" problems, rather more than physical or spiritual or political or military ones, of famine of the soul rather than of the land. Echoing my comment at verse 5.
107:19 VA YIZ'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM MI METSUKOTEYHEM YOSHIY'EM
וַיִּזְעֲקוּ אֶל יְהוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם מִמְּצֻקוֹתֵיהֶם יוֹשִׁיעֵם
KJ: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
BN: They cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he relieved them of their distresses;
YIZ'AKU... See my note to verses 6 and 13; this repeats 13 without variation.
107:20 YISHLACH DEVARO VE YIRPA'EM VIYMALET MI SHECHIYTOTAM
יִשְׁלַח דְּבָרוֹ וְיִרְפָּאֵם וִימַלֵּט מִשְּׁחִיתוֹתָם
KJ: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
BN: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their graves.
The Sar Shalom text has a Nun at the end of this and the next several verses, all the way to 25; in the Yehudit, but not in the English; I presume that it is either an editorial oversight, or they know something the rest of us don't, but I need to check with other texts before I can determine that...
Four and a half years later, returning to this at last... Sefaria does not have the Nun; Mechon-Mamre does not either, but both have a half of a square bracket - or is that a reversed Nun? - at verses 23 through 28, which apparently is a "parsing tag". I confess that I have never encountered this before, in this form, but have found a completely incomprehensible explanation of it here, and an even more so here. I also remain uncertain as to whether the Nun here, and the parsing tag there, are the same, or different.
107:21 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
107:21 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
יוֹדוּ לַיהוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
Second chorus; see note to verses 8, 15 and 31.
107:22 VE YIZBECHU ZIVCHEY TODAH VIYSAPRU MA'ASAV BE RINAH
Second chorus; see note to verses 8, 15 and 31.
107:22 VE YIZBECHU ZIVCHEY TODAH VIYSAPRU MA'ASAV BE RINAH
וְיִזְבְּחוּ זִבְחֵי תוֹדָה וִיסַפְּרוּ מַעֲשָׂיו בְּרִנָּה
KJ: And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
BN: And let them offer the thanksgiving sacrifices, and celebrate his works with singing.
For a full list of the types and times of sacrifice, click here.
107:23 YORDEY HA YAM BA ANIYOT OSEY MELA'CHAH BE MAYIM RABIM
יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם בָּאֳנִיּוֹת עֹשֵׂי מְלָאכָה בְּמַיִם רַבִּים
KJ: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
BN: They who go down to the sea in ships, who conduct business across the oceans...
One of those famous phrases that everybody seems to know but no one has a clue why they know it, what it means, or even where it comes from. I can only answer the last of these.
The phrase also has the feeling of an opening line; is this a new section?
Given that the entire west coast of Kena'an is the Mediterranean, and that the Phoenicians to the immediate north, and later the Greeks to the immediate north-west, as well as the Phoenician-colonised islands through the Med (Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia...) were all major sea-trading peoples from very early times, it is somewhat odd that the Beney Yisra-El never were, at any point in their history. Indeed, other than mentions of sea-monsters and mythological floods, the one and only tale in all the Bible that takes place, and that very briefly, at sea, is Yonah, and that was an Aramaic tale of the sea-god Oannes, imported later on, probably by the Samaritans.
107:24 HEMAH RA'U MA'ASEY YHVH VE NIPHLE'OTAV BI METSULAH
הֵמָּה רָאוּ מַעֲשֵׂי יְהוָה וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו בִּמְצוּלָה
KJ: These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
BN: They saw the works of YHVH, and his wonders along the sea-bed;
Or maybe it is TEHOM. The description of the actions of the sea-god in the verses about to follow definitely endorses my wondering if this is part of the much older mythology, a pre-Judaic, probably Kena'ani Creation hymn. And of course the original of YONAH, the Phoenician deity Oannes...
107:25 VA YOMER VA YA'AMED RU'ACH SE'ARAH VA TEROMEM GALAV
וַיֹּאמֶר וַיַּעֲמֵד רוּחַ סְעָרָה וַתְּרוֹמֵם גַּלָּיו
KJ: For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
BN: For he spoke, and the storm-wind rose up, and lifted up its waves.
Which does sound like Oannes (Jonah), or Yam, the Kena'ani sea-god, whose serpent was also named Liv-Yatan.
107:26 YA'ALU SHAMAYIM YERDU TEHOMOT NAPHSHAM BE RA'AH TITMOGAG
יַעֲלוּ שָׁמַיִם יֵרְדוּ תְהוֹמוֹת נַפְשָׁם בְּרָעָה תִתְמוֹגָג
KJ: They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
BN: They climbed up to the heavens, they went down to the deeps; their soul melted away because of trouble;
YA'ALU: Who are "they"? The syntax and grammar, following on from the previous verse, infer "the waves", but do waves have souls? And can they really cimb that high, even in the heaviest storm?
TITMOGAG: Hitp'ael form, so the root must be MAGAG. Not a root I am familiar with, except in one context, which includes his father, Og Magog - in that case MAG being the earliest known form of what will become MAC when the same people cross the Mediterranean and settle in Hyperborea: "son of". But perhaps there is another meaning, or another root - I shall look it up (the answers are here).
On the other hand, playing word-games as these Psalms so love to do, we go down into the depths, but we end up on the HITMOGAG - a GAG being a roof. Coincidence? Chance? Am I reading things into the text that just aren't there? Maybe.
On the other hand, playing word-games as these Psalms so love to do, we go down into the depths, but we end up on the HITMOGAG - a GAG being a roof. Coincidence? Chance? Am I reading things into the text that just aren't there? Maybe.
But no, the root is MUG, and it does indeed mean "to melt" (cf Exodus 15:15, Joshua 2:9 and 24).
RA'AH: KJ translates this as "trouble", yet this is the word for "evil", and they don't have this qualm elsewhere. What kind of "evil" is this inferring anyway?
107:27 YACHOGU VE YANU'U KA SHIKUR VE CHOL CHACHMATAM TITBAL'A
יָחוֹגּוּ וְיָנוּעוּ כַּשִּׁכּוֹר וְכָל חָכְמָתָם תִּתְבַּלָּע
KJ: They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
BN: They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up...
Two consecutive verses ending on an out-of-syntax Hitpa'el. Does that happen because the music, the rhythm requires it?
107:28 VA YITS'AKU EL YHVH BA TSAR LAHEM U METSUKOTEYHEM YOTSIY'EM
וַיִּצְעֲקוּ אֶל יְהוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם וּמִמְּצוּקֹתֵיהֶם יוֹצִיאֵם
KJ: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
BN: They cried to El in their distress, and he brought them out of their difficulties.
EL: Not YHVH.
YITS'AKU: as in verse 6; see my note there.
107:29 YAKEM SE'ARAH LIDMAMAH VA YECHESHU GALEYHEM
107:29 YAKEM SE'ARAH LIDMAMAH VA YECHESHU GALEYHEM
יָקֵם סְעָרָה לִדְמָמָה וַיֶּחֱשׁוּ גַּלֵּיהֶם
KJ: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
BN: He turned the storm into calm, so that its waves were still.
And no need to throw a prophet overboard to achieve that! But at least it does confirm that all these verses have been about the storm-at-sea, not humans; so perhaps is it the tale of Yonah, or Moby-Dick, or the Ancient Mariner.
107:30 VA YISMECHU CHI YISHTOKU VA YANCHEM EL MECHOZ CHEPHTSAM
וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ כִי יִשְׁתֹּקוּ וַיַּנְחֵם אֶל מְחוֹז חֶפְצָם
KJ: Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
BN: Then were they glad because they were quiet, and he led them to their desired haven.
107:31 YODU LA YHVH CHASDO VE NIPHLE'OTAV LIVNEY ADAM
יוֹדוּ לַיהוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם
KJ: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
BN: Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
And once again the chorus.
107:32 VIYROMEMUHU BI KEHAL AM U VE MOSHAV ZEKENIM YEHALELUHU
107:32 VIYROMEMUHU BI KEHAL AM U VE MOSHAV ZEKENIM YEHALELUHU
וִירֹמְמוּהוּ בִּקְהַל עָם וּבְמוֹשַׁב זְקֵנִים יְהַלְלוּהוּ
KJ: Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
BN: Exalt him, too, at the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
BI KEHAL: Or BIK'HAL?
YEHALELUHU: The masculine version/equivalent of HALELU YAH.
107:33 YASEM NEHAROT LE MIDBAR U MOTSA'EY MAYIM LE TSIMA'ON
יָשֵׂם נְהָרוֹת לְמִדְבָּר וּמֹצָאֵי מַיִם לְצִמָּאוֹן
KJ: He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
BN: He turns rivers into wadis, and springs of water into thirsty ground...
Why suddenly the negative way round? But see verse 35, where it is turned back again, and probably that answers my question: Nature can and does do both, so state it in the negative first, the positive second, acknowledging thereby the negative, but ending - and I would presume the music does the same - on the tonic or the dominant, rather than the sub-dominant, to reinforce the message.
107:34 ERETS PERI LI MELECHAH ME RA'AT YOSHVEY VAH
אֶרֶץ פְּרִי לִמְלֵחָה מֵרָעַת יֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ
KJ: A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
BN: A fruitful land into a salty waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
LI MELECHAH: Or LIM'LECHAH? The key here is read as the Dead Sea, though if this were still the Mosaic tale, in the wilderness of Sinai, those "bitter waters" we associated with Mir-Yam earlier...
107:35 YASEM MIDBAR LA AGAM MAYIM VE ERETS TSIYAH LE MOTSA'EY MAYIM
יָשֵׂם מִדְבָּר לַאֲגַם מַיִם וְאֶרֶץ צִיָּה לְמֹצָאֵי מָיִם
KJ: He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.
BN: He turns the wadi back into a pool of water, and the dry land gushes water once again.
107:36 VA YOSHEV SHAM RE'EVIM VA YECHONENU IR MOSHAV
וַיּוֹשֶׁב שָׁם רְעֵבִים וַיְכוֹנְנוּ עִיר מוֹשָׁב
KJ: And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation;
BN: And he settles the hungry there, so that they can start to build a permanent habitation;
IR MOSHAV: How many repeats of that phrase? It makes me wonder if this wasn't written at the time when the transition from nomadism to the sedentary life was taking place. With the exception of Lot for a brief moment at Sedom, at no point in the Torah do the Beney Yisra-El live in towns and villages, though they often have dealings with townspeople - and not always positively, such as the tale of the rape of Dinah and the revenge of Shim'on and Levi. The tales in the Book of Judges mostly echo this, and are one of several reasons why I place Judges alongside Genesis chronologically. The Book of Joshua destroys many towns and villages, and shares out the rebuilding, but we don't get much actual inhabitation until the Book of Samuel.
107:37 VA YIZRE'U SADOT VA YIT'U CHERAMIM VA YA'ASU PERI TEVU'AH
וַיִּזְרְעוּ שָׂדוֹת וַיִּטְּעוּ כְרָמִים וַיַּעֲשׂוּ פְּרִי תְבוּאָה
KJ: And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
BN: And sow fields, and plant vineyards, which yield crops for harvesting.
107:38 VA YEVARACHEM VA YIRBU ME'OD U VEHEMTAM LO YAM'IT
וַיְבָרֲכֵם וַיִּרְבּוּ מְאֹד וּבְהֶמְתָּם לֹא יַמְעִיט
KJ: He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.
BN: He blesses them, so that they may increase their numbers many times over, and not suffer a diminution of their cattle.
LO YAM'IT: That is one very cool piece of word-play: "they don't decrease"; but change one tiny sound, one tiny spelling, and you would have LO YAMUT, "they don't die".
107:39 VA YIM'ATU VA YASHOCHU ME OTSER RA'AH VE YAGON
וַיִּמְעֲטוּ וַיָּשֹׁחוּ מֵעֹצֶר רָעָה וְיָגוֹן
KJ: Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
BN: Again, they are diminished and dwindle away through oppression of evil and sorrow.
The last word of the previous verse becomes the first word of this one (which is itself a form of increase, and therefore poetically role-models its own paradigm! though it is also playing "reverse of the nagative-positive" from above). This sort of play is constant ( I would say "key" to this Psalm, but we cannot know which key it is in, so that word-game isn't available!) throughout this Psalm:"variations on a theme", in the lexicon of 19th century music.
Again a Nun in the Yehudit but not the English.
Again the ebb and flow of life and Nature are being played off against each other: YHVH natan YHVH lakach - the gods give and the gods take away (Job 1:21). But with the ebb and flow of good and bad human behaviour as the determining force.
107:40 SHOPHECH BUZ AL NEDIYVIM VA YAT'EM BE TOHU LO DARECH
שֹׁפֵךְ בּוּז עַל נְדִיבִים וַיַּתְעֵם בְּתֹהוּ לֹא דָרֶךְ
KJ: He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
BN: He pours contempt upon the philanthropic, and causes them to wander in the wasteland, where there are no paths.
NEDIYVIM: From the root NADAV, which is a type of unfiltered cigarette generously given away for free to soldiers and members of kibbutzim; no, sorry, that was NADIV, and "generously" may have applied to the "giving" but did not to the tobacco, which, as far as anyone could tell, was the sweepings from the floor when the sellable cigarettes had been made. But still very "noble" and "philanthropic" of the "princes" of Dubek to give them. As to which of those meanings is intended here...
107:41 VA YESAGEV EVYON ME ONI VA YASEM KA TSON MISHPACHOT
וַיְשַׂגֵּב אֶבְיוֹן מֵעוֹנִי וַיָּשֶׂם כַּצֹּאן מִשְׁפָּחוֹת
KJ: Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.
BN: Yet he raises the needy above their affliction, and shepherds his families like a flock.
ONI: Why is that not ONAM? ONI is 1st person singular, is it not? Or might it be AVONI - but that is still in the wrong person.
107:42 YIR'U YESHARIM VE YISMACHU VE CHOL AVLAH KAPHTSAH PIYHA
יִרְאוּ יְשָׁרִים וְיִשְׂמָחוּ וְכָל עַוְלָה קָפְצָה פִּיהָ
KJ: The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
BN: The upright see it, and are glad; and all iniquity stops her mouth.
I don't undersand what the second half of this verse is saying. But the scholars all tell me to go and look at the Book of Job, and especially 5:16 and 22:19. And clearly, when you get there, they are right - but what does this do for the source, let alone the date, of the Psalm? Not earlier than the 6th century BCE and, given its Babylonian origins, probably after the exile, and therefore late 6th century - but the tone, manner and style are so similar to that of the Prophet Zechar-Yah (click here for more on this), it could very easily be two centuries later even than that.
107:43 MI CHACHAM VE YISHMAR ELEH VE YITBONENU CHASDEY YHVH
מִי חָכָם וְיִשְׁמָר אֵלֶּה וְיִתְבּוֹנְנוּ חַסְדֵי יְהוָה
KJ: Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
BN: Whoever is wise, and observes these things, let them consider the care-and-compassion of YHVH. {P}
And whosoever does not agree with me is, by definition, stupid: I really hate that sort of preaching, whether from the clergy or the politicians or the ordinary folk.
YISHMAR...YITBONENU: Odd switch from singular to plural.
AND NOW FOR THE HOMEWORK EXERCISE:
1. Give thanks to YHVH, for he is good, for his care for his people is eternal.
2. So let those who YHVH has redeemed, who he has redeemed from the hand of sorrow...let them say...
3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea.
4. They wandered in the desert, and through the wilderness; they found no city in which they could live.
5. Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted inside them.
6. Then they cried out to YHVH in their distress, and he delivered them from their troubles.
7. And he led them on a straight path, that they might get to a city which they could inhabit.
8. Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
9. For he satisfied the longing soul, and the hungry soul he filled with goodness.
10. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in iron...
11.Because they rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the wise counsel of the Most High.
12. Therefore he humbled their heart with troubles; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13. And they cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he saved them in their distress.
14. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and tore off their chains.
15. Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
16. For he has smashed the brass gates, and ripped open the iron bars.
17. Crazed because of the manner of their transgression, and afflicted because of their iniquities...
18. Their soul abhors every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death...
19. They cried out to YHVH in their trouble, and he relieved them of their distresses;
20. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their graves.
21. Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
22. And let them offer the thanksgiving sacrifices, and celebrate his works with singing.
23. They who go down to the sea in ships, who conduct business across the oceans...
24. They saw the works of YHVH, and his wonders along the sea-bed;
25. For he spoke, and the storm-wind rose up, and lifted up its waves.
26. They climbed up to the heavens, they went down to the deeps; their soul melted away because of trouble;
27. They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up...
28. They cried to El in their distress, and he brought them out of their difficulties.
29. He turned the storm into calm, so that its waves were still.
30. Then were they glad because they were quiet, and he led them to their desired haven.
31. Give thanks to YHVH for his loving-kindness, and for his wonderful works for humanity!
32. Exalt him, too, at the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
33. He turns rivers into wadis, and springs of water into thirsty ground...
34. A fruitful land into a salty waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35. He turns the wadi back into a pool of water, and the dry land gushes water once again.
36. And he settles the hungry there, so that they can start to build a permanent habitation;
37. And sow fields, and plant vineyards, which yield crops for harvesting.
38. He blesses them, so that they may increase their numbers many times over, and not suffer a diminution of their cattle.
39. Again, they are diminished and dwindle away through oppression of evil and sorrow.
40. He pours contempt upon the philanthropic, and causes them to wander in the wasteland, where there are no paths.
41. Yet he raises the needy above their affliction, and shepherds his families like a flock.
42. The upright see it, and are glad; and all iniquity stops her mouth.
43. Whoever is wise, and observes these things, let them consider the care-and-compassion of YHVH.
And if you have done the homework, but really want the A* grade... I noted at the top of this page that verse 1 repeats 1 Chronicles 16:34; that chapter describes the ceremonies when David brought the Ark to Yeru-Shala'im at the second attempt, and installed it in a tent in readiness for the building of the Temple. The same story is also told in 2 Samuel 6, but with many variations, and without the great hymn sung on the occasion in the Chronicles version. And this is my second homework: that hymn, like this triplet of Psalms, recalls all the covenants, all the miracles, all the interventions of the deity, all the human errors... so compare the Chronicles version with the three here, note the many differences (including significant ones that impact on Jewish theology to this day), and ask, last question of all, "which came first?". I am inclined to the view that Psalm 107 was the original, and that the tale of the Mosaic journey was superimposed later on.
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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