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
Or perhaps Book Five should be begun here, not at 101 or 106 (the division into books is, anyway, a post-Biblical superimposition, so it really doesn't matter where, or even if).
Once again KJ has merged verse 1 into the title, renumbering afterwards accordingly.
Psalm 108:2-6 turns out to be a repetition with very minor variations of Psalm 57:8-12, and Psalm 108:7-14 a repetition of Psalm 60:7-14.
108:1 SHIR MIZMOR LE DAVID
KJ (King James translation): (A Song or Psalm of David.) O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
KJ (108:1): as above.
108:3 URAH HA NEVEL VE CHINOR A'IYRAH SHACHAR
KJ (108:2): Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
NEVEL: See my notes on this in the essay on Biblical musical instruments.
CHINOR: Ditto. The same root yields Kineret, one of the names for the Sea of Galilee; so-called because it is vaguely harp-shaped.
SHACHAR: At least two of the previous Psalms were set at Ayelet ha Shachar. Shacharit, the morning sacrifices in the Temple, like the morning prayers in synagogue today, take their name from this.
108:4 ODECHA VA AMIM YHVH VA AZAMERCHA BAL UMIYM
KJ (108:3): I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
BAL UMIYM: I am using the Sar Shalom (a Christian evengelical site) edition for my Yehudit text, and this has to be either an error of the Masoretes which they have inherited, or a typing error in that text: BA LE'UMIM (בַּלְאֻמִּים) is what is intended. Checking traditional Jewish texts such as Sefaria, Mechon-Mamre, it is BA LE'UMIM... but then, another of the Christian versons, BibleHub, has the same error as Sar Shalom (yet both have it correct in translation). For the Jewish readings, see my notes at Psalm 57:10.
108:5 KI GADOL ME'AL SHAMAYIM CHASDECHA VE AD SHECHAKIM AMITECHA
KJ (108:4): For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
KJ (108:5): Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;
KJ (108:6): That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.
BN: That your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer me.
All three key terms are included in the same verse: YEDIYDEYCHA, HOSHIY'AH, YEMIYNCHA: YEDIDEYCHA "the beloved one", the Earth-god, though it is also the full name that is abbreviated into his priest-king surrogate, David the Mashiyach: HOSHIY'AH; the "redeemer" or Messiah, which is the role of the deity exclusively: and the Bin-Yamin, "the one who sits on the right hand", for which take the phrase from "though" to "Mashiyach" and transplant it to here.
Tradition claims this Psalm as "of" David, but YEDIYDEYCHA is a play on David's full name (YEDID-YAH), and he would not refer to himself in the 3rd person; confirming again the conviction that LE is always to and never of.
ANENI in this version, 1st person singular; ANENU in the Psalm 60 version, 1st person plural. The difference simply because one is a prayer being recited by the individual, or just the prayer-leader, the other by the congregation as a group.
108:8 ELOHIM DIBER BE KADSHO E'ELOZAH ACHALKAH SHECHEM VE EMEK SUKOT AMADED
KJ (108:7): God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
BN: Elohim has spoken in his holiness, "I shall be victorious; I shall divide Shechem, and share out the valley of Sukot."
E'ELOZAH: Aleph-Ayin is almost unique here; perfectly correct though: 1st person future tense prefix is an Aleph, and the verb that follows happens to have an Ayin first letter; the translation however makes it future conditional, which may not be correct.
The SHECHEM was the royal portion of the sacrifice, as well as being the name of a city; likewise Sukot is a harvest festival as well as the name of a caravanserai: so a deliberate double-meaning in both cases, and the second half of the verse could equally correctly be translated as "I will share out the sacrifices, and distribute the harvest". However the verses that follow confirm that the intention here is literal-geographic (and in one case literal-littoral!), rather than metaphorical-symbolic.
KJ (108:8): Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
108:10 MO'AV SIYR RACHTSI AL EDOM ASHLIYCH NA'ALI ALEY PHELESHET ETRO'A
KJ (108:9) Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
BN: Mo-Av is my washpot; on Edom I shall cast my shoe; over Peleshet I shall cry aloud.
I commented earlier that all these places were intended literally, not metaphorically; yet, in fact, the Psalmist does then add a second layer, a figurative layer, enabling some rather contemptuous derogations of the surrounding nations.
KJ (108:10): Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
BN: Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
108:12 HA LO ELOHIM ZENACHTANU VE LO TETS'E ELOHIM BE TSIV'OTEYNU
KJ (108:11): Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
BN: Have you not rejected us, Elohim? Are you not going out as Commander-in-Chief?
HA LO ELOHIM: KJ adds "thou" in italics, presumably because it too has noticed that the Psalm 60:12 version has ATAH before ELOHIM.
KJ (102:12): Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
108:14 B'ELOHIM NA'ASEH CHAYIL VE HU YAVUS TSAREYNU
KJ (102:13): Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
And if this Psalm is simply a repetition of 57 and 60, plus an opening line to give it a title, WHY DOES IT EXIST, or even need to? Was someone arranging a Shakespeare's Greatest Hits night, and put a bit of Hamlet alongside a bit of Macbeth alongside a bit of Merchant, and someone found the document years later and thought they'd uncovered a "previously unknown" work, and added it to the collection?
שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד
BN (BibleNet translation): A song with musical accompaniment, for David.
108:2 NACHON LIBI ELOHIM ASHIYRAH VA AZAMRAH APH KEVODI
108:2 NACHON LIBI ELOHIM ASHIYRAH VA AZAMRAH APH KEVODI
נָכוֹן לִבִּי אֱלֹהִים אָשִׁירָה וַאֲזַמְּרָה אַף כְּבוֹדִי
KJ (108:1): as above.
BN: My heart is steadfast, Elohim, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, and I will play, to the best of my ability.
NACHON: Used in modern Ivrit simply to mean "correct", and I wonder if here "steadfast" simply means "I have practiced and practiced for hours. I am absolutely ready to perform".
NACHON: Used in modern Ivrit simply to mean "correct", and I wonder if here "steadfast" simply means "I have practiced and practiced for hours. I am absolutely ready to perform".
ELOHIM: Note the name used here: the full polytheon. YHVH will be specifically named in verse 4.
APH KEVODI: An idiom, surely. Added here, not present in 57:8.
APH KEVODI: An idiom, surely. Added here, not present in 57:8.
108:3 URAH HA NEVEL VE CHINOR A'IYRAH SHACHAR
עוּרָה הַנֵּבֶל וְכִנּוֹר אָעִירָה שָּׁחַר
KJ (108:2): Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
BN: Awake, psaltery and harp; I will awake the dawn.
57:9 begins "URAH CHEVODI", which is omitted here.
NEVEL: See my notes on this in the essay on Biblical musical instruments.
CHINOR: Ditto. The same root yields Kineret, one of the names for the Sea of Galilee; so-called because it is vaguely harp-shaped.
SHACHAR: At least two of the previous Psalms were set at Ayelet ha Shachar. Shacharit, the morning sacrifices in the Temple, like the morning prayers in synagogue today, take their name from this.
Note that 57:9 calls on CHEVODI to "awake", rather than the musical instruments, which is much more logical. Chevodi is the sun - see verse 6.
108:4 ODECHA VA AMIM YHVH VA AZAMERCHA BAL UMIYM
אוֹדְךָ בָעַמִּים יְהוָה וַאֲזַמֶּרְךָ בַּל אֻמִּים
KJ (108:3): I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
BN: I will thank you, YHVH, among the people, and I will play my songs to all the nations.
YHVH: Where 57:10 simply wrote ADONAI.
BAL UMIYM: I am using the Sar Shalom (a Christian evengelical site) edition for my Yehudit text, and this has to be either an error of the Masoretes which they have inherited, or a typing error in that text: BA LE'UMIM (בַּלְאֻמִּים) is what is intended. Checking traditional Jewish texts such as Sefaria, Mechon-Mamre, it is BA LE'UMIM... but then, another of the Christian versons, BibleHub, has the same error as Sar Shalom (yet both have it correct in translation). For the Jewish readings, see my notes at Psalm 57:10.
108:5 KI GADOL ME'AL SHAMAYIM CHASDECHA VE AD SHECHAKIM AMITECHA
כִּי גָדוֹל מֵעַל שָׁמַיִם חַסְדֶּךָ וְעַד שְׁחָקִים אֲמִתֶּךָ
KJ (108:4): For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
BN: For your care for your people is greater than the heavens, and your truth extends beyond the skies.
ME'AL SHMAYIM: AD SHAMAYIM at Psalm 57:11, which is rather less extensive.
ME'AL SHMAYIM: AD SHAMAYIM at Psalm 57:11, which is rather less extensive.
I know what this verse means in language, but I do not really know what it means in concept (fortunately I am not a theologian, nor a clergyman, nor a man of faith, so I do not need to; but as a translator and commentator, writing this while a volcano erupts in one place, a flood caused by a hurricane decimates another, and my mum's best friend is struck down by an aneurism at 64, it is frustratingly equivocal).
108:6 RUMAH AL SHAMAYIM ELOHIM VE AL KOL HA ARETS KEVODECHA
רוּמָה עַל שָׁמַיִם אֱלֹהִים וְעַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדֶךָ
KJ (108:5): Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;
BN: Rise high into the heavens, Elohim; and may your glory shine over all the Earth.
VE AL: The conjunction added here. Note that the equivalent line in Psalm 57 is a chorus, where here it stands alone.
Why is this translated as "exalted", which would be "yitgadal", as in the Kaddish? Does that come from King James or Jerome?
Just to be clear, from verse 2, this is the dawn, the deity is the sun itself, bringing all of Creation back to life, which is why it is the full Elohim that are being invoked, and nothing to do with exaltation: the "glory" is the magnificence of warmth and light: "please let it be a sunny day".
108:7 LEMA'AN YECHALTSUN YEDIYDEYCHA HOSHIY'AH YEMIYNCHA VA ANENI
108:7 LEMA'AN YECHALTSUN YEDIYDEYCHA HOSHIY'AH YEMIYNCHA VA ANENI
לְמַעַן יֵחָלְצוּן יְדִידֶיךָ הוֹשִׁיעָה יְמִינְךָ וַעֲנֵנִי
KJ (108:6): That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.
BN: That your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer me.
Psalm 108:7-14, as noted above, is in fact a repetition of Psalm 60:7-14; as with verses 2-6 above, which repeat 57:8-12, I can see no purpose in repeating most of the notes as well, so click the link and follow the text there. I will however note any variations, and include some of the more interesting commentary: such as the fact that...
All three key terms are included in the same verse: YEDIYDEYCHA, HOSHIY'AH, YEMIYNCHA: YEDIDEYCHA "the beloved one", the Earth-god, though it is also the full name that is abbreviated into his priest-king surrogate, David the Mashiyach: HOSHIY'AH; the "redeemer" or Messiah, which is the role of the deity exclusively: and the Bin-Yamin, "the one who sits on the right hand", for which take the phrase from "though" to "Mashiyach" and transplant it to here.
Tradition claims this Psalm as "of" David, but YEDIYDEYCHA is a play on David's full name (YEDID-YAH), and he would not refer to himself in the 3rd person; confirming again the conviction that LE is always to and never of.
ANENI in this version, 1st person singular; ANENU in the Psalm 60 version, 1st person plural. The difference simply because one is a prayer being recited by the individual, or just the prayer-leader, the other by the congregation as a group.
108:8 ELOHIM DIBER BE KADSHO E'ELOZAH ACHALKAH SHECHEM VE EMEK SUKOT AMADED
אֱלֹהִים דִּבֶּר בְּקָדְשׁוֹ אֶעְלֹזָה אֲחַלְּקָה שְׁכֶם וְעֵמֶק סֻכּוֹת אֲמַדֵּד
KJ (108:7): God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
BN: Elohim has spoken in his holiness, "I shall be victorious; I shall divide Shechem, and share out the valley of Sukot."
E'ELOZAH: Aleph-Ayin is almost unique here; perfectly correct though: 1st person future tense prefix is an Aleph, and the verb that follows happens to have an Ayin first letter; the translation however makes it future conditional, which may not be correct.
The SHECHEM was the royal portion of the sacrifice, as well as being the name of a city; likewise Sukot is a harvest festival as well as the name of a caravanserai: so a deliberate double-meaning in both cases, and the second half of the verse could equally correctly be translated as "I will share out the sacrifices, and distribute the harvest". However the verses that follow confirm that the intention here is literal-geographic (and in one case literal-littoral!), rather than metaphorical-symbolic.
108:9 LI GIL'AD LI MENASHEH VE EPHRAYIM MA'OZ ROSHI YEHUDAH MECHOKEKI
לִי גִלְעָד לִי מְנַשֶּׁה וְאֶפְרַיִם מָעוֹז רֹאשִׁי יְהוּדָה מְחֹקְקִי
KJ (108:8): Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
BN: Gil'ad is mine, Menasheh is mine; Ephrayim too is the defence of my head; Yehudah is my sceptre.
Why these? Gil'ad is the region where half of Menasheh, along with Re'u-Ven
and Gad claimed their inheritance. Menasheh and Ephrayim were the sons of Yoseph. But see my note at Psalm 60:9 (which adds a conjunction between GIL'AD and MENASHEH).
Why these? Gil'ad is the region where half of Menasheh, along with Re'u-Ven
and Gad claimed their inheritance. Menasheh and Ephrayim were the sons of Yoseph. But see my note at Psalm 60:9 (which adds a conjunction between GIL'AD and MENASHEH).
108:10 MO'AV SIYR RACHTSI AL EDOM ASHLIYCH NA'ALI ALEY PHELESHET ETRO'A
מוֹאָב סִיר רַחְצִי עַל אֱדוֹם אַשְׁלִיךְ נַעֲלִי עֲלֵי פְלֶשֶׁת אֶתְרוֹעָע
KJ (108:9) Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
BN: Mo-Av is my washpot; on Edom I shall cast my shoe; over Peleshet I shall cry aloud.
A couple of odd differences between the text here and the one at Psalm 60:10. ALEY here is ALAI there, and ETRO'A here is ETROA'I there; which changes the meaning of the sentence radically, the Psalm 60 version making Peleshet do the crying, but this version having the Beney Yisra-El in tears. Which is correct? Probably Psalm 60, buyt only because the double-Ayin here conforms to no known Yehudit grammar, and must therefore be reckoned to be an error, where the Psalm 60 is as per my note there.
I commented earlier that all these places were intended literally, not metaphorically; yet, in fact, the Psalmist does then add a second layer, a figurative layer, enabling some rather contemptuous derogations of the surrounding nations.
108:11 MI YOVILENI IR MIVTSAR MI NACHANI AD EDOM
מִי יֹבִלֵנִי עִיר מִבְצָר מִי נָחַנִי עַד אֱדוֹם
KJ (108:10): Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
BN: Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
MIVTSAR: where Psalm 60:11 has MATSOR (מָצוֹר). In terms of meaning they lead to the same translation, but I do wonder if MIVTSAR doesn't confirm my comment at the end of the last verse, because the capital city of Edom is BATSRAH, which that switch to a Bet homophones.
YOVILENI: And speaking of complex word-games, when Yehoshu'a conquered Yericho, he did so to the sound of seven trumpets of rams' horns, sounding the Jubilee, the Yovel - see Joshua 6:4. So the verb created here is equivalent to "boycott" in English, or one might "gloucester" a person's eyes, à la Shakespeare; and the intention here is conquest, not conversion.
108:12 HA LO ELOHIM ZENACHTANU VE LO TETS'E ELOHIM BE TSIV'OTEYNU
הֲלֹא אֱלֹהִים זְנַחְתָּנוּ וְלֹא תֵצֵא אֱלֹהִים בְּצִבְאֹתֵינוּ
KJ (108:11): Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
BN: Have you not rejected us, Elohim? Are you not going out as Commander-in-Chief?
HA LO ELOHIM: KJ adds "thou" in italics, presumably because it too has noticed that the Psalm 60:12 version has ATAH before ELOHIM.
108:13 HAVAH LANU EZRAT MI TSAR VE SHAV TESHU'AT ADAM
הָבָה לָּנוּ עֶזְרָת מִצָּר וְשָׁוְא תְּשׁוּעַת אָדָם
KJ (102:12): Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
BN: Give us help in our times of trouble; for Man is helpless at providing help.
TSAR: And the word-play with MIVTSAR still works, as it did with MATSOR in the Psalm 60 version.
108:14 B'ELOHIM NA'ASEH CHAYIL VE HU YAVUS TSAREYNU
בֵּאלֹהִים נַעֲשֶׂה חָיִל וְהוּא יָבוּס צָרֵינוּ
KJ (102:13): Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
BN: Through Elohim we shall do valiantly; for he it is who will address our adversities. {P}
YAVUS: Like YOVEL and SHECHEM and MIVTSAR previously, the play on place-names this time is YEVUS, one of the seven hillside towns from which David conurbated Yeru-Shala'im. A Yevus was a threshing-floor, the place where the harvested corn was trodden down to make it usable as flour for bread, and the one in Yeru-Shala'im was purchased by David as the site for the Temple
TSAREYNU: I have played with my translation of this, offering the same meaning, but emnploying a variant alliteration, from the version at 60:14.
And if this Psalm is simply a repetition of 57 and 60, plus an opening line to give it a title, WHY DOES IT EXIST, or even need to? Was someone arranging a Shakespeare's Greatest Hits night, and put a bit of Hamlet alongside a bit of Macbeth alongside a bit of Merchant, and someone found the document years later and thought they'd uncovered a "previously unknown" work, and added it to the collection?
I note again that I have not repeated my commentary from Psalms 57 and 60, so you are recommended to go to them for the parts not dealt with here.
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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