TheBibleNet: Psalm 128

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

Another Shir Ma'alot, again very short. There were seven steps to climb inside the Men's Court of the Temple, and among the many speculations about these Psalms is the possibility that anything from one verse of one of these shorter Psalms, to maybe even perhaps all of the seven shortest Psalms, was recited on each step. Which ones? Several have eight verses, with the title probably an unrecited line, uttered by the Leader as a "blessing" before commencing; and seven verses then followed. But this Psalm only has six verses, including the "title". And this, as we have seen from my previous notes, is only one of several speculations (and my notes, below, will demonstrate why it cannot be correct, in the case of this Psalm).

128:1 SHIR HA MA'ALOT ASHREY KOL YER'E YHVH HA HOLECH BIDRACHAV

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת אַשְׁרֵי כָּל יְרֵא יְהוָה הַהֹלֵךְ בִּדְרָכָיו

KJ: (A Song of degrees.) Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.

BN: A Song for the Ascent. {N} Happy are all those who fear YHVH, who walk in his ways.

ASHREY: My usual comment: this is Ashrey, not Baruch, two core concepts in proto-Judaism and Talmudic Judaism, and an error to name one as though it were the other. See the very next verse.

128:2 YEGIY'A KAPEYCHA KI TO'CHEL ASHREYCHA VE TOV LACH

יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ כִּי תֹאכֵל אַשְׁרֶיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ

KJ: For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

BN: When you eat the labour of your hands, it will make you happy, and all will be well with you.

YEGIY'A KAPEYCHA: The things you have made yourself, which would generally mean farming or labouring, but could just as well be the writing of a book or the successful management of a business.

LACH: As a general rule, we can say that the originals of the ASHREY Psalms would have been dedicated to the Lady, rather than the Lord - the root that yields ASHREY also yields ASHERAH - and then masculinised in the period of the Redaction.

But this verse is not being addressed to her; the LACH is the human addressee, the person in the congregation listening to this Psalm, or hopefully singing along with it. And LACH is feminine. So rather more likely the women "coming up" from the Women's Court, than the men on their seven steps.
Unless... and however... this may be explained by insisting, as orthodox Jews generally do, that the use of LACH here is simply an error for LECHA by the Masoretic scribe; LACH is feminine, LECHA masculine, and without the pointing they cannot be told apart, except from the grammatical context, and whatever else is going on around it: for which see the next verse.

128:3 ESHTECHA KE GEPHEN PORIYAH BE YARKETEY VEITECHA BANEYCHA KISHTILEY ZEYTIM SAVIV LE SHULCHANECHA

אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה בְּיַרְכְּתֵי בֵיתֶךָ בָּנֶיךָ כִּשְׁתִלֵי זֵיתִים סָבִיב לְשֻׁלְחָנֶךָ

KJ: Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

BN (traditional translation): Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; {N} your children like olive plants, round about your table.

ESHTECHA: And still, reading this without the pointing, it could go either way. ISH means "man", and is used for "husband", so "your husband" would be ISHTECH; ISHAH, or sometimes ESHET, means "woman", and is used for "wife"..., so this could perfectly well be ISHTECH, and the LACH once again validated. But. Is the fruitful vine the grape, or the pips? "Your husband shall be a fruitful vine" - well, yes, the provider of the seed; the woman is never the vine, but only the fruit, the flower. So this really could go either way.

KISHTILEY: This needs to be understood as KI SHETILEY, with a very heavy ellision.

BN (alternative translation): Your husband shall be like a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; {N} your children like olive plants, round about your table.

And I wonder if the grape vine and the olive branch were chosen by the poet because their fruit, in both cases, is oval.

128:4 HINEH CHI CHEN YEVORACH GAVER YER'E YHVH

הִנֵּה כִי כֵן יְבֹרַךְ גָּבֶר יְרֵא יְהוָה

KJ: Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.

BN: Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears YHVH.

CHEN: Written, this can only mean "thus"; heard, it might have a Chaf (כ) or a Chet (ח), and mean "thus", or mean "grace". And clearly the homophone is intentional.

And a man with a happy wife is always going to regard himself as blessed!

128:5 YEVARECHECHA YHVH MI TSI'ON U RE'EH BE TUV YERU-SHALA'IM KOL YEMEY CHAYEYCHA

יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה מִצִּיּוֹן וּרְאֵה בְּטוּב יְרוּשָׁלִָם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ

KJ: The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

BN: YHVH will bless you from Tsi'on, and you will experience the goodness of Yeru-Shala'im all the days of your life.

YEVARECHECHA: Isn't just a word that happens to be in a verse; this particular word is iconic, and needs to be understood as as allusion. And indeed, it is precisely this priestly blessing that awaits the climbers when they complete their ascent - at the sunmit indeed of Mount Tsi'on.

The phrasing, however, does not feel like a communal chant, but a blessing addressed to the chanters. Perhaps, like the opening line, this is the leader again. Though this could be said of every verse of this Psalm.

MI TSI'ON: YHVH lives, not in the heavens, not in the mind, but in the metaphor of the emptiness behind the Devir (cf 1 Kings 6), the curtain that separates the main courtyard from the Kodesh ha Kodashim, the Holy of Holies - about as far from the chanters as they sing this line as the rood screen from the choir in a Christian cathedral.

128:6 U RE'EH VANIM LE VANEYCHA SHALOM AL YISRA-EL

וּרְאֵה בָנִים לְבָנֶיךָ שָׁלוֹם עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

BN: And see your children's children. Peace be upon Yisra-El! {P}

SHALOM AL YISRA-EL: Second time we’ve had that closure - see Psalm 125:5.

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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