TheBibleNet: Psalm 118

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

The first four verses are simple, tuneful, patterned, almost a nursery rhyme; were they used as a refrain/chorus? There is no Nun after them, but it feels as if there should be.

The tone, pace, rhythm changes radically at verse 5, what was an easy chant becoming prosaic; but only for that one verse.

Verse 6 establishes a new pattern, in an again-different tone, pace, rhythm, rhyme: longer phrases, slower cadences, deeper emotion. 6 and 7 parallel, 8 and 9 parallel; 10, 11 and 12 use that technique whose name I can never remember, where words become key words and are re-used: AMIYLAM and SEVAVUNI here - Anadiplosis, it's in the essay on "Poetical Forms and Techniques used in the Psalms", as per the link.

Language is also becoming denser as the word-games become more complex, and mythological allusions are introduced (verse 12); we have risen from the nursery at the start, through the key stages, and are approaching A level (AP level if you're American) at speed (James Joyce does exactly the same with the development of English in the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter in "Ulysses").

The Nun at the end of verse 12 then moves us into an entirely different mode, using the language of mythology (which is the K-8 stage of human development), as a route into the abstract (which is the 9+ stage of human development, not findable earlier than the 6th century BCE): concepts such as Justice...

Verse 21 also seems to want a Nun (not a Selah, that's only for the music), moving back into pure chant, simple melody... and it may be of interest to non-shul-goers to learn that, when singing Hallel at the new moon (note that this is the fifth of the modern Hallel psalms) most congregations either only sing the opening first four verses, and then jump to singing again from 21 onwards, leaving out the middle verses altogether, or reciting the middle verses as prose, or as cantillation.

I have paused my commentary at this point, but there are notes in the text that pick up many of the further variations and developments.

No title, no dedication, no descriptor.

118:1 HODU LA YHVH KI TOV KI LE OLAM CHASDO

הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה כִּי טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

KJ (King James translation): O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

BN (BibleNet translation): Give thanks to YHVH, for he is good, for his loving-kindness is eternal.

We have seen the first half of this opening verse on two previous occasions: 106 (Psalm 106:1 is also mirrored in 1 Chronicles 16:34), and 107:1 (also with Hallelu-Yah), and we will find it yet one more time when we get to 136:1. Always the opening line, so can we define this as a genre? I would suggest "Thanks-giving Psalms", but there are many more of those than the ones that begin HODU LA YHVH.

118:2 YOMAR NA YISRA-EL KI LE OLAM CHASDO

יֹאמַר נָא יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

KJ: Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

BN: Let Yisra-El now say that his loving-kindness is eternal.

But didn't Yisra-El just say it, by reciting that first verse? Then, as suggested above, perhaps these four verses are not for recital now, but are a range of choruses, to be alternated as responses to each of the prose verses from 5 to 20.

118:3 YOMRU NA VEIT AHARON KI LE OLAM CHASDO

יֹאמְרוּ נָא בֵית אַהֲרֹן כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

KJ: Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

BN: Let the house of Aharon now say that his loving-kindness is eternal.

118:4 YOMRU NA YIR'EY YHVH KI LE OLAM CHASDO

יֹאמְרוּ נָא יִרְאֵי יְהוָה כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

KJ: Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

BN: Let those who fear YHVH say that his loving-kindness is eternal.

(my asterisk, to make the separation I have explained above; it is not in the original)

118:5 MIN HA METSAR KARA'TI YAH ANANI VA MERCHAV YAH

מִן הַמֵּצַר קָרָאתִי יָּהּ עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ

KJ: I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

BN: Out of my direst straits I called upon Yah, and Yah answered me with her vast magnificence.

METSAR: We have encountered TSAR many times in these Psalms, meaning "distress" or "troubles" (and regularly mistranslated by the KJ as "enemies"). The root is TSARAR, and here it is rendered as a noun formed in the Pi'el, where TSAR is a noun formed in the Pa'al, making it even more intense and burdensome.

YAH: The goddess of the full moon, and thereby the Madonna; not the father-sky god.

HA MERCHAV: Literally the village square, or the main plaza inside the city gate, but this is intended figuratively, the "dire straits" on the one hand, the "open place" on the other.

The other version of "Dire Straits" can be found by clicking here. I have always assumed the name was taken from this verse, though I have no evidence to support that assertion.

118:6 YHVH LI LO IYRA MAH YA'ASEH LI ADAM

יְהוָה לִי לֹא אִירָא מַה יַּעֲשֶׂה לִי אָדָם

KJ: The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

BN: YHVH is with me; I have no fear. What can Humankind do to me?

118:7 YHVH LI BE OZRAI VA ANI ER'EH VE SON'AI

יְהוָה לִי בְּעֹזְרָי וַאֲנִי אֶרְאֶה בְשֹׂנְאָי

KJ: The LORD taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

BN: YHVH is with me as my aide, and I shall stare down those who hate me.

118:8 TOV LACHASOT BA YHVH MI BETO'ACH BA ADAM

טוֹב לַחֲסוֹת בַּיהוָה מִבְּטֹחַ בָּאָדָם

KJ: It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

BN: It is better to flee to YHVH than to trust in Humankind.

TOV: There is a comparative, as well as a superlative form, in Yehudit. YOTER TOV for "better", HA CHI TOV for "best", though I confess that I cannot think of a single example of their usage in the Tanach. Nevertheless, with "TOV... MI", the MI infers a comparative: "good... than", simply doesn't make sense. So "good" here translates as "better".

LACHASOT: Many translators render this as "to take refuge in..."; but I don't like "refuge" as the translation here, because there were refuge cities in those days, and the word for them is MIKLAT. LACHASOT is really about the fleeing, the running away from the cause of the METSAR, rather than where you run to for asylum.

Given the track-record of the deity, and his willingness to NICHRETAH, this has to be the most pessimistically misanthropic statement ever recorded!

Or does that prize go to the next verse?

118:9 TOV LACHASOT BA YHVH MI BETO'ACH BINDIYVIM

טוֹב לַחֲסוֹת בַּיהוָה מִבְּטֹחַ בִּנְדִיבִים

KJ: It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.

BN: It is better to flee to YHVH than to place one's trust in the generosity of one's fellow humans.

Since when are NEDIYVIM princes? The root is NADAV = "generous". (Didn't we ask this question in an earlier Psalm?) "Generous" is understood to be a "noble" virtue, so it came to be used for the princes, merited or otherwise.

118:10 KOL GOYIM SEVAVUNI BE SHEM YHVH KI AMIYLAM

כָּל גּוֹיִם סְבָבוּנִי בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה כִּי אֲמִילַם

KJ: All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.

BN: All nations compass me about; truly, in the name of YHVH, I will cut them off.

SEVAVUNI: Yisra-El surrounded by enemy states, in Biblical times as well as modern; Jews enclosed in ghettoes through the years of exile.

AMIYLAM: aural word play on AM = "people" (aural, not visual: AM = "people" is spelled with an Ayin - ע, not an Aleph - א). An English equivalent might be "I will dispeople them".

Except that this fails to denote what precisely is being "cut off". The root of AMIYLAM is MUL. This is circumcision, not military conquest.

118:11 SABUNI GAM SEVAVUNI BE SHEM YHVH KI AMIYLAM

סַבּוּנִי גַם סְבָבוּנִי בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה כִּי אֲמִילַם

KJ: They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

BN: They shut me in and then they lay siege to me; truly, in the name of YHVH, I will cut them off.

SABUNI... SEVAVUNI: No, this cannot be translated as KJ has done. The two words come from the same root, but the branches are different, and that has to be reflected in the translation.

118:12 SABUNI CHIDVORIM DO'ACHU KE ESH KOTSIM BE SHEM YHVH KI AMIYLAM

סַבּוּנִי כִדְבוֹרִים דֹּעֲכוּ כְּאֵשׁ קוֹצִים בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה כִּי אֲמִילַם

KJ: They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

BN: They shut me in the way they hive bees, the way they put out bush-fires; {N} verily, in the name of the LORD I will cut them off.

CHIDVORIM: Or CHI DEVORIM?

Bees and bush-fires, the one resolved by drawing it into a hive, and closing the entrance; the latter by creating a MERCHAV around it, an open space with nothing flammable, so that it dies out of its own accord. So verse 5 is made manifest.

But choosing bees for your image is never random in the ancient world, because it always infers the mythological, whether you want it to or not (tell your child you've been pottering about the library shelves, looking for something for them to read... and you may well have come home with Alice or Frodo, but you raised an expectation). Bees could only have been deliberate, in the earliest, the original version of this probably Kena'ani Psalm, but some of that has been partially lost, or only partially retained, in the Yisra-Eli redaction.

The bees are associated with Devorah, whose tumuli (or tholoi really) were beehive shaped, and therefore uterine.

The bees are also the makers of honey, which goes with the milk in the land of promise. And why milk and honey? Because they are provided, free of work and free of cost, by Mother Nature. You don't even need to cook them or in any way modify them when you take them home. Just enjoy.

And circumcision is the human symbol of the covenant that gave that land of promise as an inheritance.

118:13 DACHOH DECHIYTANI LINPOL VA YHVH AZARANI

דַּחֹה דְחִיתַנִי לִנְפֹּל וַיהוָה עֲזָרָנִי

KJ: Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.

BN: You thrust at me in your anger, that I might fall; but YHVH rescued me.

DACHOH DECHIYTANI: Word-play in the same manner as SABUNI... SEVAVUNI. Is this a Davidic allusion to the javelin of King Sha'ul, thrown at him on two occasions (1 Samuel 18:11 and 19:10), both missing?

And DO'ACHU in the previous verse; unconnected by meaning or root, but not by sound or appearance.

118:14 AZI VE ZIMRAT YAH VA YEHI LI LIYSHU'AH

עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה

KJ: The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

BN: Yah is my strength and the music that I play; and [s]he has become my salvation.

VA YEHI: Once again I question the masculinity, and presume that this was a later emendation of a previously feminine text - the mythological allusion in verse 12, which triggers all the language in the following verses, is key to this: Devorah was a bee-goddess, and it is clearly she - death as an aspect of fertility - who is being celebrated here. My guess is that the original Psalm would have said VA TEHI.

The second half of this verse can also be found in verse 21, below.

118:15 KOL RINAH VIYSHU'AH BE AHALEY TSADIYKIM YAMIN YHVH OSAH CHAYIL

קוֹל רִנָּה וִישׁוּעָה בְּאָהֳלֵי צַדִּיקִים יְמִין יְהוָה עֹשָׂה חָיִל

KJ: The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.

BN: The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; YHVH's right hand does valiantly.

YEMIN: And the right-hand of YHVH is the Earth, in the form of Tammuz-David-Jesus, so the full trinity is now present.

118:16 YEMIN YHVH ROMEMAH YEMIN YHVH OSAH CHAYIL

יְמִין יְהוָה רוֹמֵמָה יְמִין יְהוָה עֹשָׂה חָיִל

KJ: The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.

BN: YHVH's right hand is exalted; YHVH's right hand performs valiantly.

118:17 LO AMUT KI ECHEYEH VA ASAPER MA'ASEY YAH

לֹא אָמוּת כִּי אֶחְיֶה וַאֲסַפֵּר מַעֲשֵׂי יָהּ

KJ: I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.

BN: I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Yah.

Such an important moment this, for scholars of the ancient world! Yehudit has two very similar verbs, LEHIYOT and LECHIYOT, the former meaning "to be", the latter "to exist". What really is the difference (existence preceding or succeeding essence perhaps, but that is a 20th century CE, not a 10th century BCE concept)? From Lehiyot comes the name YHVH, metaphorically the male aspect of the godhead, materially the universe in its purest form: let us call it "essence". From LECHIYOT come both CHAYAH and CHAVAH, the former meaning "all living creatures", the latter being the mother-goddess Eve herself. And which does this verse use? LECHIYOT, not LEHIYOT: female essence, not male, though the Redacted text claims it back as male through the Omnideity.

If there is any occasion when we can really see what the Kena'ani originals of some of these Psalms must have been, to whom dedicated, and about whom, this is the supreme occasion.

118:18 YASOR YISRANI YAH VE LA MAVET LO NETANANI

יַסֹּר יִסְּרַנִּי יָּהּ וְלַמָּוֶת לֹא נְתָנָנִי

KJ: The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.

BN: Yah has chastened me severely; but [s]he has not given me over to death.

YASOR YISRANI: One more for our list of double-words, and no, it isn't the double-use of the same root here that I am meaning, but the repetition of the "soreness" from verse 13 - there it was the divine "soreness" that prompted the chastising, here it is the diving chastising that leaves the human "sore".

118:19 PIT'CHU LI SHA'AREY TSEDEK AVO VAM ODEH YAH

פִּתְחוּ לִי שַׁעֲרֵי צֶדֶק אָבֹא בָם אוֹדֶה יָהּ

KJ: Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:

BN: Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will come; I will give thanks to the Lady.

SHA'AREY TSEDEK: A different sort of double-meaning this time. Metaphorically this is the provision of a table of values so that the human can fulfil the covenant through righteous behaviour. But there are also the gates of the Temple, to which humans go to give their thanks (and to say sorry for their failures to fulfil the metaphorical, on Yom Kippur, at Ne'ilah).

I should have asked this many Psalms ago: but: why is the Hey in Yah sometimes medugash?

118:20 ZEH HA SHA'AR LA YHVH TSADIYKIM YAVO'U VO

זֶה הַשַּׁעַר לַיהוָה צַדִּיקִים יָבֹאוּ בוֹ

KJ: This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.

BN: This is the gate of YHVH, through which the righteous shall come in.

An entirely unnecessary verse, if YAH is indeed simply another name for YHVH.

At this point, in modern liturgy, yet another Nun is implied by the shift in tone, and certainly in tune, of the following verses; the modern hymn continues through verse 25, then changes again, but only for a single verse.

118:21 ODECHA KI ANIYTANI VA TEHI LI LIYSHU'AH

אוֹדְךָ כִּי עֲנִיתָנִי וַתְּהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה

KJ: I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

BN: I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me, and have become my salvation.

118:22 EVEN MA'ASU HA BONIM HAYETAH LE ROSH PINAH

אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה

KJ: The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

BN: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone.

These are the HA BONIM from which the youth movement Habonim takes its name.

And this also the ROSH PINAH from which my local Jewish school in Edgware, where I grew up, and the town in the hills of Korazim, adjacent to my own kibbutz (which happened to be a Habonim kibbutz), which took the brunt of the daily Syrian artillery bombardment in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, took their name.

But the cornerstone of which Temple? The Solomonic First, around 950 BCE, or the Zeru-Bavel Second, around 450 BCE? Has to be the former. Though it might well have been an even earlier, non-Yisra-Eli shrine, previously.

118:23 ME ET YHVH HAYETAH ZOT HI NIPHLA'T BE EYNEYNU

מֵאֵת יְהוָה הָיְתָה זֹּאת הִיא נִפְלָאת בְּעֵינֵינוּ

KJ: This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

BN: This was YHVH's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

118:24 ZEH HA YOM ASAH YHVH NAGIYLAH VE NISMECHAH VO

זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה יְהוָה נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ

KJ: This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

BN: This is the day which YHVH has made; we will rejoice and be glad on it.

ZEH HA YOM: Which day? New moon? New year? The answer that is now given is Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, and this is one of the Hallel Psalms sung on that day - further evidence that this was originally a hymn more to Yah than YHVH, or at least equally. But was it always Rosh Chodesh? We have no way of knowing, but we do know that there were different Psalms sung on Rosh Chodesh, and as Hallel, in previous times and places. See my essay on Hallel in "A Myrtle Among Reeds".

118:25 ANA YHVH HOSHIY'AH NA ANA YHVH HATSLIYCHAH NA

אָנָּא יְהוָה הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא אָנָּא יְהוָה הַצְלִיחָה נָּא

KJ: Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

BN: Please, YHVH, save us, now! Please, YHVH, give us prosperity, now!

Yet another implied Nun in the modern liturgy; this verse has a radically different tune, and an even more radically different mood, than any other part of this Psalm. And for for just this single verse.

If you have ever heard the pious Chasidim chanting "Messiah Now" ("Mashiyach Achshav"), this is the verse they are sourcing. Click here to hear it. And note that what they want is Mashiyach, not Moshi'a. The former is a human role-model anointed as national leader; the latter comes only from the deity.

118:26 BARUCH HA BA BE SHEM YHVH BERACHNUCHEM MI BEIT YHVH

בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה בֵּרַכְנוּכֶם מִבֵּית יְהוָה

KJ: Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

BN: Blessed be he who comes in the name of YHVH; we bless you from this shrine of YHVH.

118:27 EL YHVH VA YA'ER LANU ISRU-CHAG BA AVOTIM AD KARNOT HA MIZBE'ACH

אֵל יְהוָה וַיָּאֶר לָנוּ אִסְרוּ חַג בַּעֲבֹתִים עַד קַרְנוֹת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ

KJ: God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

BN: YHVH is the force of life, and he has given us light; arrange the festival procession with boughs, right up to the horns of the altar.

AVOTIM: Boughs needs explaining, in conjunction with "he who comes" in the previous verse. The seven-year cycle of sacred kingship... but read J.G Frazer, and you will get the full explanation.

ISRU-CHAG: But Rosh Chodesh was not a Chag - Pesach, Shavu'ot and Sukot are the three Chagim. So this may have become Hallel for Rosh Chodesh in modern times, but this verse at least held it on another occasion (though the first and last of those Chagim fall on the day of the full moon, the Yah of the month!).

118:28 ELI ATAH VE ODECHA ELOHAI AROMEMECHA

אֵלִי אַתָּה וְאוֹדֶךָּ אֱלֹהַי אֲרוֹמְמֶךָּ

KJ: Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.

BN: You are my god, and I will give thanks to you; you are my god, I will exalt you.

118:29 HODU LA YHVH KI TOV KI LE'OLAM CHASDO

הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה כִּי טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

KJ: O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

BN: Give thanks to YHVH, for he is good, for his loving-kindness is eternal. {P}

The last verse returning us to the start.

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Psalms:

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