TheBibleNet: Psalm 124

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 base technique of this Psalm is used elsewhere in Yisra-Eli liturgy. Dayeynu, for example, at the Pesach seu'dah (festival meal): but there are also uses of repetition of key words, parallelisms, verbal/phrasal anagrams...

124:1 SHIR HA MA'ALOT LE DAVID LULEY YHVH SHE HAYAH LANU YO'MAR NA YISRA-EL

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד לוּלֵי יְהוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ יֹאמַר נָא יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: (A Song of degrees of David.) If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;

BN: A Song for the Ascent; for David. {N} "If it had not been YHVH who was for us...". Let Yisra-El now say...

DAVID: Without the extra Yud inexplicably added two Psalms ago by the Masorete.

Is this an unfinished sentence? Or is the first phrase in fact a title? In which case it is both. I have tretaed it as such, and placed it in quotation marks accordingly, as well as adding three dots for its unfinishedness: the continuation appears to go on until the end of verse 5.

124:2 LULEY YHVH SHE HAYAH LANU BE KUM ALEYNU ADAM

לוּלֵי יְהוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ בְּקוּם עָלֵינוּ אָדָם

KJ: If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

BN: If it had not been YHVH who was for us, when men rose up against us...

LULEY: Repeating the title, and thereby confirming that this is what it is.

124:3 AZAI CHAYIM BELA'UNU BA CHAROT APAM BANU

אֲזַי חַיִּים בְּלָעוּנוּ בַּחֲרוֹת אַפָּם בָּנוּ

KJ: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

BN: Then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us.

AZAI: We would say AZ today. And so too most Biblical occurrences. So was this an archaic form, a later form, a poetic vaYehuditriant? Or perhaps an indication of the conditional mode, which doesn't really exist as a grammatical construct in Yehudit, yet is clearly in use here?

124:4 AZAI HA MAYIM SHETAPHUNU NACHLAH AVAR AL NAPHSHENU

אֲזַי הַמַּיִם שְׁטָפוּנוּ נַחְלָה עָבַר עַל נַפְשֵׁנוּ

KJ: Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

BN: Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have Hebrewed our souls.

AVAR: Self-evidently my translation here is incorrect, but nonetheless irresistible. The historical reference, after all, is to the miracle at the Reed Sea, when the Beney Yisra-El, known pejoratively by the Egyptians as Habiru, were in flight. The Beney Yisra-El never refer to themselves as Habiru (Hebrews), but only use it when others are speaking about them; and when the verb AVAR is used, more often than not it is chosen over several alternatives because the context similarly alludes.

NAPHSHENU: Translating this as "souls" is accurate, because the word has that meaning; but NEPHESH CHAI is a "living creature", and the intention here is clearly physical not spiritual. The same in the next verse, where I have chosen to translate it as "bodies".

124:5 AZAI AVAR AL NAPHSHENU HA MAYIM HA ZEYDONIM

אֲזַי עָבַר עַל נַפְשֵׁנוּ הַמַּיִם הַזֵּידוֹנִים

KJ: Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

BN: Then the proud waters would have swept over our bodies.

ZEYDONIM: It is not obvious what makes water "proud", in the sense of "arrogant" or simply "full of self-esteem". When the mortar on a brick building is "proud", it rises above the level surface of the bricks, rather than being smoothed off. So perhaps this is a description of the height of the waves.

124:6 BARUCH YHVH SHE LO NETANANU TEREPH LE SHINEYHEM

בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה שֶׁלֹּא נְתָנָנוּ טֶרֶף לְשִׁנֵּיהֶם

KJ: Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

BN: Blessed be YHVH, who did not give us as prey to their jowls.

This verse really should be in common usage! Note (yet again!) that the Biblical form blesses in the 3rd person, impersonally, where blessings in Talmudic Judaism (70CE until today) are always in the second person, direct and personal: "Baruch atah YHVH, Blessed are you, YHVH..."

124:7 NAPHSHENU KE TSIPOR NIMLETAH MI PACH YOKSHIM HA PACH NISHBAR VA ANACHNU NIMLATNU

נַפְשֵׁנוּ כְּצִפּוֹר נִמְלְטָה מִפַּח יוֹקְשִׁים הַפַּח נִשְׁבָּר וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִמְלָטְנוּ

KJ: Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

BN: Our soul escaped like a bird from the fowlers' snare; {N} the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

We really need to have experienced the royal hunt with the falcon if we are to appreciate the sublimity of this image.

ANOCHI becomes ANI, ANACHNU becomes ANU; sometimes; not here; what are the rules for that and when did the development first arise?

124:8 EZRENU BE SHEM YHVH OSEH SHAMAYIM VA ARETS

עֶזְרֵנוּ בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ

KJ: Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

BN: Our help is in the name of YHVH, who made the heavens and the Earth. {P}

This is a variation on... Psalm 23? 121:1 and 2? both?

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Psalms:

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