TheBibleNet: Psalm 125

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

125:1 SHIR HA MA'ALOT HA BOT'CHIM BA YHVH KE HAR TSI'ON LO YIMOT LE OLAM YESHEV

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת הַבֹּטְחִים בַּיהוָה כְּהַר צִיּוֹן לֹא יִמּוֹט לְעוֹלָם יֵשֵׁב

KJ: (A Song of degrees.) They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

BN: A Song for the Ascent. {N} Those who trust in YHVH are like Mount Tsi'on, which cannot be moved, but will abide for ever.

Clearly that first phrase does not belong in the verse, but is a title, or at least a descriptive sub-title. What does it mean? In addition to the steps described in my notes to Psalm 120, the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im was built with a ramp up to the Golden Altar (see my notes at Exodus 20:22), primarily used because sheep and goats and cattle aren't good at climbing stairs, but also for the ancient stick-equivalent of wheelchair access; and for the general "aliyah" (from the same root), which may be the "going-up" to Yisra-El itself, if you live in the Diaspora, or the "going-up!" to Yeru-Shala'im, if you live elsewhere in the Yishuv, or the "going-up" to the Temple, which in those days was on the summit of a high hill, Mount Mor-Yah (centuries of building, layer upon layer, have rather flattened it today, but approach the Old City towards the Jaffa Gate by way of the Kidron Valley and the height is still very evident); or specifically, here, either the fifteen-step ascent from the Women's Court to the Men's, or the "going-up" to the sacrificial altar once you are inside the Men's Court. The Shirey Ma'alot could be sung in any of these contexts; we can only (and then only sometimes) work out which one is intended by the words themselves.

We can also note that all of these Shirey Ma'alot have to be post-Davidic, because there was no Temple until after his death.

LO YIMOT: In the ancient understanding of the world, the Earth stood absolutely still at the centre of the Cosmos, while the heavens circumambulated around it; we witnessed this in several of the earlier Psalms (e.g. Psalm 1:3, 21:8...). So, using the same idea, but now as a metaphor, Mount Tsi'on in Yeru-Shala'im, where YHVH and the Yisra-Eli king who represents him on Earth are both housed... and elsewhere we have seen the same metaphor applied to faith in YHVH (Psalm 10:6 for example).

125:2 YERU-SHALA'IM HARIM SAVIV LAH VA YHVH SAVIV LE AMO ME ATA21:8H VE AD OLAM

יְרוּשָׁלַםִ הָרִים סָבִיב לָהּ וַיהוָה סָבִיב לְעַמּוֹ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם

KJ: As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

BN: Just as Yeru-Shala'im is surrounded by hills, {N} so YHVH encompasses his people, from now until eternity.

SAVIV: As noted above, the Earth static at the centre, the heavens circumambulating around it.

125:3 KI LO YANU'ACH SHEVET HA RESHA AL GORAL HA TSADIYKIM LEMA'AN LO YISHLECHU HA TSADIYKIM BE AVLATAH YEDEYHEM

כִּי לֹא יָנוּחַ שֵׁבֶט הָרֶשַׁע עַל גּוֹרַל הַצַּדִּיקִים לְמַעַן לֹא יִשְׁלְחוּ הַצַּדִּיקִים בְּעַוְלָתָה יְדֵיהֶם

KJ: For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.

BN: For the rod of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, {N} lest the righteous dip their hands in that iniquity.

SHEVET: Yes, it means a rod, but it also means "a tribe", in precisely the same way that a CEO today will talk of his "staff" and not mean the stick he occasionally uses, albeit metaphorically, to berate his colleagues, but the tribe of them, from the janitors to the secretaries and clerks to the PR dept and the delivery-drivers.

125:4 HEYTIYVAH YHVH LA TOVIM VE LIYSHARIM BE LIBOTAM

הֵיטִיבָה יְהוָה לַטּוֹבִים וְלִישָׁרִים בְּלִבּוֹתָם

KJ: Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.

BN: Do good, YHVH, to the good, and to those who are upright in their hearts.

Is this the antithesis of MUNAFIQUN?

125:5 VE HA MATIM AKALKALOTAM YOLIYCHEM YHVH ET PO'ALEY HA AVEN SHALOM AL YISRA-EL

וְהַמַּטִּים עַקַלְקַלּוֹתָם יוֹלִיכֵם יְהוָה אֶת פֹּעֲלֵי הָאָוֶן שָׁלוֹם עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

BN: But as for those who turn aside, and go their crooked ways, YHVH will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. {N} Peace be upon Yisra-El. {P}

PO'ALEY HA AVEN: A much-repeated phrase in these Psalms, but I sincerely do not believe that it appeared with the definite article before now, or am I just foolishly misremembering?

Either way it is worth pointing out another of the many oddities of Yehudit grammar. The definite article in genitive-compounds is always attached to the second word, which is really the "wrong" word. "The workers of iniquity" in English, but "po'alim" is "workers" and "aven" is "iniquity", so this literally translates as "workers of the iniquity".

I am trying to work out the chronology of these Shirey Ma'alot. The number of verses ought to coincide with the number of steps, if they are being recited inside the Temple, or the number of Stations, if it is the pilgrimage from the city walls to the Temple entrance. Go back and look at the previous Shirey Ma'alot; are those with eight verses really seven and a title? Bear in mind that the verse-form used here does not necessarily coincide with the verse-form of the original, which would not have been written down in this structure: can we detect the stages from the internal structure of the song?

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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