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
132:1 SHIR HA MA'ALOT ZECHOR YHVH LE DAVID ET KOL UNOTO
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת זְכוֹר יְהוָה לְדָוִד אֵת כָּל עֻנּוֹתוֹ
KJ: A Song of degrees. LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions:
Mechon-Mamre translation: A Song of Ascents. {N} LORD, remember unto David all his affliction;
Sar Shalom translation: [A Song of Ascents.] YHVH, remember for David all his affliction;
BN (literal translation, word-by-word, option a): Song of the Ascents. Remember YHVH to David, and all his afflictions...
BN (literal translation, word-by-word, option a): Song of the Ascents. Remember YHVH to David, and all his afflictions...
Self-evidently all four of these translations cannot be correct. And actually I'm not sure that any of them are. Word-order is key here, and the fact that the next verse begins with a preposition functioning as a conjunction, "which he swore"... so this verse must also be read as an incomplete sentence.
ZECHOR: Could this be "remind", rather than "remember"?
LE DAVID: Is this a reminder "to David", or "to YHVH"?
UNOTO: Why is the Vav softened? Why is this not AVONOTO? More importantly, how do you "swear" an affliction? "All his afflictions which he swore to YHVH" makes absolutely no sense. "All his vows", yes; so is it possible that UNOTO is not from ANAH - "affliction" after all? LA'ANOT = "to cry out", and is used for "to reply" - cf Exodus 15:21 - and even for "to sing", probably, in the instance of 1 Samuel 21:12, because he was singing Psalms like this one. And if this is LA'ANOT, rather than "his afflictions", then the Vav hasn't actually been softened; it is what it is meant to be.
BN (preferred translation): A Song for the Ascent. YHVH, remind David of what he sang out to you...
Though if I am correct in this rendition, then the kubuts (triple-dot) beneath the initial Ayin should probably be a patach or a kamets, and the word pronounced ANOTO - click here for an explanation of these vowel-equivalents.
132:2 ASHER NISHB'A LA YHVH NADAR LA AVIYR YA'AKOV
KJ: How he sware unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;
BN: ...the vows he swore to YHVH, that he pledged to the Mighty One of Ya'akov:
NISHBA...NADAR: NISHB'A takes us to Be'er Shev'a, "the well of the oath", and is a much fuller commitment than a mere pledge, though how exactly it is different from a "vow" is less easy to determine. But at the start of Yom Kippur, at Kol Nidre, it is these that are annulled prior to the ceremonies of confession and forgiveness; the oaths never are.
AVIYR: Interesting word! One of the key lessons for any would-be translator, any literary critic or historian, is that of regional dialects. So we might find the name Dio, Dios, Dieu, Deus, Theos, Gott and God, and assume that they are different names; when in fact they are the same name, the same deity, in Italian, Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, German and English respectively. So there is Brahma, Av-Ram, Av-Raham, Ibrahim, Jupiter, Ar-Thur, Phádraig and Aviyram (Abiram in most English renditions), all of whom are the "mightiest" (AVIYR on this occasion) of all the deities, the father-creator himself, literally "Great Father"... merely dialect variations, or sometimes language variations, of the same name.
YA'AKOV: I have asked this before, but still do not have an answer: what criteria, if any, existed then, or exist now, to determine when to say Yisra-El and when Ya'akov?
132:3 IM AVO BE OHEL BEITI IM E'ELEH AL ERES YETSU'AI
KJ: Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;
BN: "Until I enter the tent of my own house, until I lie down on the bed that has been prepared for me...
IM: This is a conditional "if", not an unconditional "surely"? But he is making a vow, and the "if" is the "conditions" in that sense of the word; so it is an equivalent of the "whereas" clause in the language of contemporary lawyers: click here. Better though to translate IM as"until" - read on until the sentence is complete, which is the end of verse 5, and you will see why. But this is the NADAR, the "pledge", made without any pressure, in quotation marks.
OHEL BEITI: Not necessarily a literal tent - though the Ark was kept in one in Yeru-Shala'im for several months after its arrival there - but a figure of speech that allows us to understand that this is a Psalm about David's aspiration to build the Temple (Beit ha Mikdash, the holy house) as a "residence" (Mishkanot in verse 5) for the Ark of the Covenant (Ohel Mo'ed), for which see verse 8.
132:4 IM ETEN SHENAT LE EYNAI LE APH'APAI TENUMAH
KJ: I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
BN: "I will not allow my eyes to close, nor slumber to come to my eyelids...
IM: And in this and the next verse the voluntarily self-imposed "conditions" which complete the "whereas". "Until.... I will not".
132:5 AD EMTSA MAKOM LA YHVH MISHKANOT LA AVIYR YA'AKOV
KJ: Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
BN: "...until I have found a place for YHVH, dwelling-places for the Mighty One of Ya'akov."
MISHKANOT: Why plural? There was only ever one Mishkan. Wasn't there?
And why, if these reciters are going up the steps to the Temple, does YHVH need to remind David of his pledge (verse 1)? The pledge has been fulfilled. The conditions have been met. He is lying on his bed even now, his eyelids closed in peaceful slumber.
132:6 HINEH SHEMA'ANUHAH VE EPHRATAH METSA'NUHA BISDEY YA'AR
KJ: Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.
BN: Yes indeed, we heard about it in Ephrat; we found it in the field of the wood.
EPHRATAH: As in Beit Lechem Ephratah, David's birthplace? Named as Perat on some occasions, as Ephratah on others, it is the river that we call Euphrates (probably Perat was the river and Ephrat the surrounding region). But if it is Bethlehem, then this verse is most definitely equivalating David with Tammuz - Beit Lechem Ephratah meaning "the house of the corn-god of the Euphrates", who was Tammuz.
BISDEY YA'AR: As abstruse a phrase as any in the entire Bible. As a general rule woods are woods and fields are fields, and while there may be a clearing in the woods, or a small copse in a field, they are not usually amalgamated in this manner. So there has to be something figurative going on here. Rashi rekons it alludes to Genesis 49:27, where Bin-Yamin is described as "a ravenous wolf"; but I think this is just a pretext to point out that Yeru-Shala'im is thought of by most people as being in Yehudah, because the whole land became known as Yehudah after 722 BCE, but actually Yeru-Shala'im is in the tribal territory of Bin-Yamin, which has huge mythological as well as theological and political significance.
But "heard of" what, and "found" what? Presumably the "singing" of that pledge. And maybe this is why they have made pilgrimage: the anniversary of the founding perhaps. For it is definitely open and functioning: see the very next verse. Or maybe this is the song at the very opening, the Chanukat ha Bayit, and the scholars have never realised it.
132:7 NAVO'AH LE MISHKENOTAV NISHTACHAVEH LA HADOM RAGLAV
KJ: We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
BN: Let us go into his dwelling-place; let us prostrate ourselves before his throne.
NISHTACHAVEH: Not "worship", which could be any form of prayer, and would be BE NA'AVOD if that was the intention; this is specifically prostration, face-down, fully flat, on the SHETACH, the floor.
LA HADOM RAGLAV: This is used today as part of the liturgy (click here for the full list), sung when the Scrolls are returned to the Ark after reading on a Saturday morning; the next three verses are also sung then (though nobody prostrates themselves).
KJ: Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.
BN: Arise, YHVH, to your resting-place; you, and the ark of your strength.
ARON: And logical enough that these should be recited when the scrolls are returned to the Ark, the ARON in the synagogue being the post-Temple equivalent of the Mishkan, the place where the Torah scrolls are kept.
And if this were the moment when the Mishkan was taken out of its Davidic tent, and taken into the newly ribbon-cut Temple, then, yes, remind David of his pledge, and the conditions that he self-imposed, because here we are now, YHVH, right here, right now, fulfilling them - are the words of this verse not the obvious ones to sing at precisely this historic moment? And the next verse even more so.
132:9 KOHANECHA YILBESHU TSEDEK VE CHASIYDEYCHA YERANENU
KJ: Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.
BN: Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and your pious followers shout for joy.
And the formal ordination of the priesthood in its new role, as Temple priesthood.
132:14 ZOT MENUCHATI ADEY AD POH ESHEV KI IVITIYHA
KJ: This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
BN: "This shall be my resting-place for ever; here I will dwell; for I have desired it....
Paralleling David's slumber in verse 4 and 5.
132:15 TSEYDAH BARECH AVARECH EVYONEYHA ASBIY'A LACHEM
KJ: I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.
BN: "I will bless her provision abundantly; I will give her needy bread in plenty...
The national "fruit" (as per verse 12) added to the royal and priestly "fruit" of verse 11.
BARECH AVARECH: I think there is more to this play-on-words than just "provision"; the point is that the provision of the Temple will be sacrificial, and therefore "blessed".
EVYONEYHA: Does something of the same order happen with this? The metaphorising continues in the next verse.
BN (preferred translation): A Song for the Ascent. YHVH, remind David of what he sang out to you...
Though if I am correct in this rendition, then the kubuts (triple-dot) beneath the initial Ayin should probably be a patach or a kamets, and the word pronounced ANOTO - click here for an explanation of these vowel-equivalents.
132:2 ASHER NISHB'A LA YHVH NADAR LA AVIYR YA'AKOV
אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַיהוָה נָדַר לַאֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב
KJ: How he sware unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;
BN: ...the vows he swore to YHVH, that he pledged to the Mighty One of Ya'akov:
NISHBA...NADAR: NISHB'A takes us to Be'er Shev'a, "the well of the oath", and is a much fuller commitment than a mere pledge, though how exactly it is different from a "vow" is less easy to determine. But at the start of Yom Kippur, at Kol Nidre, it is these that are annulled prior to the ceremonies of confession and forgiveness; the oaths never are.
AVIYR: Interesting word! One of the key lessons for any would-be translator, any literary critic or historian, is that of regional dialects. So we might find the name Dio, Dios, Dieu, Deus, Theos, Gott and God, and assume that they are different names; when in fact they are the same name, the same deity, in Italian, Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, German and English respectively. So there is Brahma, Av-Ram, Av-Raham, Ibrahim, Jupiter, Ar-Thur, Phádraig and Aviyram (Abiram in most English renditions), all of whom are the "mightiest" (AVIYR on this occasion) of all the deities, the father-creator himself, literally "Great Father"... merely dialect variations, or sometimes language variations, of the same name.
YA'AKOV: I have asked this before, but still do not have an answer: what criteria, if any, existed then, or exist now, to determine when to say Yisra-El and when Ya'akov?
132:3 IM AVO BE OHEL BEITI IM E'ELEH AL ERES YETSU'AI
אִם אָבֹא בְּאֹהֶל בֵּיתִי אִם אֶעֱלֶה עַל עֶרֶשׂ יְצוּעָי
KJ: Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;
BN: "Until I enter the tent of my own house, until I lie down on the bed that has been prepared for me...
IM: This is a conditional "if", not an unconditional "surely"? But he is making a vow, and the "if" is the "conditions" in that sense of the word; so it is an equivalent of the "whereas" clause in the language of contemporary lawyers: click here. Better though to translate IM as"until" - read on until the sentence is complete, which is the end of verse 5, and you will see why. But this is the NADAR, the "pledge", made without any pressure, in quotation marks.
OHEL BEITI: Not necessarily a literal tent - though the Ark was kept in one in Yeru-Shala'im for several months after its arrival there - but a figure of speech that allows us to understand that this is a Psalm about David's aspiration to build the Temple (Beit ha Mikdash, the holy house) as a "residence" (Mishkanot in verse 5) for the Ark of the Covenant (Ohel Mo'ed), for which see verse 8.
132:4 IM ETEN SHENAT LE EYNAI LE APH'APAI TENUMAH
אִם אֶתֵּן שְׁנַת לְעֵינָי לְעַפְעַפַּי תְּנוּמָה
KJ: I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
BN: "I will not allow my eyes to close, nor slumber to come to my eyelids...
IM: And in this and the next verse the voluntarily self-imposed "conditions" which complete the "whereas". "Until.... I will not".
132:5 AD EMTSA MAKOM LA YHVH MISHKANOT LA AVIYR YA'AKOV
עַד אֶמְצָא מָקוֹם לַיהוָה מִשְׁכָּנוֹת לַאֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב
KJ: Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
BN: "...until I have found a place for YHVH, dwelling-places for the Mighty One of Ya'akov."
MISHKANOT: Why plural? There was only ever one Mishkan. Wasn't there?
And why, if these reciters are going up the steps to the Temple, does YHVH need to remind David of his pledge (verse 1)? The pledge has been fulfilled. The conditions have been met. He is lying on his bed even now, his eyelids closed in peaceful slumber.
132:6 HINEH SHEMA'ANUHAH VE EPHRATAH METSA'NUHA BISDEY YA'AR
הִנֵּה שְׁמַעֲנוּהָ בְאֶפְרָתָה מְצָאנוּהָ בִּשְׂדֵי יָעַר
KJ: Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.
BN: Yes indeed, we heard about it in Ephrat; we found it in the field of the wood.
EPHRATAH: As in Beit Lechem Ephratah, David's birthplace? Named as Perat on some occasions, as Ephratah on others, it is the river that we call Euphrates (probably Perat was the river and Ephrat the surrounding region). But if it is Bethlehem, then this verse is most definitely equivalating David with Tammuz - Beit Lechem Ephratah meaning "the house of the corn-god of the Euphrates", who was Tammuz.
BISDEY YA'AR: As abstruse a phrase as any in the entire Bible. As a general rule woods are woods and fields are fields, and while there may be a clearing in the woods, or a small copse in a field, they are not usually amalgamated in this manner. So there has to be something figurative going on here. Rashi rekons it alludes to Genesis 49:27, where Bin-Yamin is described as "a ravenous wolf"; but I think this is just a pretext to point out that Yeru-Shala'im is thought of by most people as being in Yehudah, because the whole land became known as Yehudah after 722 BCE, but actually Yeru-Shala'im is in the tribal territory of Bin-Yamin, which has huge mythological as well as theological and political significance.
But "heard of" what, and "found" what? Presumably the "singing" of that pledge. And maybe this is why they have made pilgrimage: the anniversary of the founding perhaps. For it is definitely open and functioning: see the very next verse. Or maybe this is the song at the very opening, the Chanukat ha Bayit, and the scholars have never realised it.
132:7 NAVO'AH LE MISHKENOTAV NISHTACHAVEH LA HADOM RAGLAV
נָבוֹאָה לְמִשְׁכְּנוֹתָיו נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לַהֲדֹם רַגְלָיו
KJ: We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
BN: Let us go into his dwelling-place; let us prostrate ourselves before his throne.
NISHTACHAVEH: Not "worship", which could be any form of prayer, and would be BE NA'AVOD if that was the intention; this is specifically prostration, face-down, fully flat, on the SHETACH, the floor.
LA HADOM RAGLAV: This is used today as part of the liturgy (click here for the full list), sung when the Scrolls are returned to the Ark after reading on a Saturday morning; the next three verses are also sung then (though nobody prostrates themselves).
132:8 KUMAH YHVH LIMNUCHATECHA ATAH VA ARON UZECHA
קוּמָה יְהוָה לִמְנוּחָתֶךָ אַתָּה וַאֲרוֹן עֻזֶּךָ
KJ: Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.
BN: Arise, YHVH, to your resting-place; you, and the ark of your strength.
ARON: And logical enough that these should be recited when the scrolls are returned to the Ark, the ARON in the synagogue being the post-Temple equivalent of the Mishkan, the place where the Torah scrolls are kept.
And if this were the moment when the Mishkan was taken out of its Davidic tent, and taken into the newly ribbon-cut Temple, then, yes, remind David of his pledge, and the conditions that he self-imposed, because here we are now, YHVH, right here, right now, fulfilling them - are the words of this verse not the obvious ones to sing at precisely this historic moment? And the next verse even more so.
132:9 KOHANECHA YILBESHU TSEDEK VE CHASIYDEYCHA YERANENU
כֹּהֲנֶיךָ יִלְבְּשׁוּ צֶדֶק וַחֲסִידֶיךָ יְרַנֵּנוּ
KJ: Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.
BN: Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and your pious followers shout for joy.
And the formal ordination of the priesthood in its new role, as Temple priesthood.
The Psalm is built in echoes; this one will reverberate at verse 16.
YERANENU: Cheering, as the ribbon is cut? Why not?
132:10 BA AVUR DAVID AVDECHA AL TASHEV PENEY MESHIYCHECHA
KJ: For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed.
BN: For your servant David's sake, do not turn not away from the face of your anointed.
MESHIYCHECHA: Re-affirmation, if you needed it (Christians have been getting it completely wrong for two thousand years), that David is MASHIYACH, the earthly king, not MOSHI'A, the divine redemption, which will be found in verse 16 and is exclusively in the hands of the deity.
132:11 NISHBA YHVH LE DAVID EMET LO YASHUV MIMENAH MI PERI VITNECHA ASHIT LE CHIS'E LACH
KJ: The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
BN: YHVH swore to David in truth; he will not go back on his word: {N} "I will grant you a dynasty...
NISHBA YHVH: Reversing the pledge in verses 1 and 2.
MI PERI...LACH: And who is it that has the job of cutting the ribbon? Who is the anointed MASHIYACH who fulfilled the pledge on David's behalf? Why, the "fruit of his loins" who bears his father's name, Yedid-Yah, but has now taken the king-name, in honour of the city that also bears it, SHELOMOH, Solomon.
132:12 IM YISHMERU VANEYCHA BERIYTI VE EDOTI ZO ALAMDEM GAM BENEYHEM ADEY AD YESHVU LE CHIS'E LACH
KJ: If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.
BN: "If your children will keep my covenant and my testimony - which I will teach them - {N} then their children too will be granted a permanent dynasty."
IM: Throwing back the conditional, so that the second half of this Psalm fully echoes its first half. Interesting to see the deity and his anointed doing contract finalisation in this very pseudo-legalistic manner!
Do I need to retell that story of the four lambs, of the failed coups of Av-Shalom and Adoni-Yah, of the Prophet Natan refusing David permission to build the Temple, but agreeing that he could purchase the site, the threshing-floor of Ornah, and undertake the preparations? It's all in City of Peace, volume 2. And the latter chapters of the second book of Samuel.
132:13 KI VACHAR YHVH BE TSI'ON IVAH LE MOSHAV LO
KJ: For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
BN: For YHVH has made his choice in Tsi'on; he has desired it for his habitation.
132:10 BA AVUR DAVID AVDECHA AL TASHEV PENEY MESHIYCHECHA
בַּעֲבוּר דָּוִד עַבְדֶּךָ אַל תָּשֵׁב פְּנֵי מְשִׁיחֶךָ
KJ: For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed.
BN: For your servant David's sake, do not turn not away from the face of your anointed.
MESHIYCHECHA: Re-affirmation, if you needed it (Christians have been getting it completely wrong for two thousand years), that David is MASHIYACH, the earthly king, not MOSHI'A, the divine redemption, which will be found in verse 16 and is exclusively in the hands of the deity.
132:11 NISHBA YHVH LE DAVID EMET LO YASHUV MIMENAH MI PERI VITNECHA ASHIT LE CHIS'E LACH
נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָה לְדָוִד אֱמֶת לֹא יָשׁוּב מִמֶּנָּה מִפְּרִי בִטְנְךָ אָשִׁית לְכִסֵּא לָךְ
KJ: The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
BN: YHVH swore to David in truth; he will not go back on his word: {N} "I will grant you a dynasty...
NISHBA YHVH: Reversing the pledge in verses 1 and 2.
MI PERI...LACH: And who is it that has the job of cutting the ribbon? Who is the anointed MASHIYACH who fulfilled the pledge on David's behalf? Why, the "fruit of his loins" who bears his father's name, Yedid-Yah, but has now taken the king-name, in honour of the city that also bears it, SHELOMOH, Solomon.
132:12 IM YISHMERU VANEYCHA BERIYTI VE EDOTI ZO ALAMDEM GAM BENEYHEM ADEY AD YESHVU LE CHIS'E LACH
אִם יִשְׁמְרוּ בָנֶיךָ בְּרִיתִי וְעֵדֹתִי זוֹ אֲלַמְּדֵם גַּם בְּנֵיהֶם עֲדֵי עַד יֵשְׁבוּ לְכִסֵּא לָךְ
KJ: If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.
BN: "If your children will keep my covenant and my testimony - which I will teach them - {N} then their children too will be granted a permanent dynasty."
IM: Throwing back the conditional, so that the second half of this Psalm fully echoes its first half. Interesting to see the deity and his anointed doing contract finalisation in this very pseudo-legalistic manner!
Do I need to retell that story of the four lambs, of the failed coups of Av-Shalom and Adoni-Yah, of the Prophet Natan refusing David permission to build the Temple, but agreeing that he could purchase the site, the threshing-floor of Ornah, and undertake the preparations? It's all in City of Peace, volume 2. And the latter chapters of the second book of Samuel.
132:13 KI VACHAR YHVH BE TSI'ON IVAH LE MOSHAV LO
כִּי בָחַר יְהוָה בְּצִיּוֹן אִוָּהּ לְמוֹשָׁב לוֹ
KJ: For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
BN: For YHVH has made his choice in Tsi'on; he has desired it for his habitation.
TSI'ON: I always refer to Psalm 137 when trying to explain Zionism, especially to those who do not understand that their anti-Zionism is fundamentally a form of anti-Semitism that refuses from embarrassment to speak its name. But then there is this, which makes the same case very differently, but, in its way, even more strongly. "I am not anti-English, I just don't think Anglo-Saxons should be allowed to live in Great Britain" is the Psalm 137 parallel. "I am not anti-Church of England, I just don't believe they should be allowed to have an abbey in Westminster" is the parallel here.
IVAH: (and again in the next verse). According to Gesenius, who usually knows, there is an Aramaic word AVAH, spelled with the same initial Aleph, and still used in Arabic (though now with the Persian script), which means, extraordinary coincidence, "to lodge" or "to dwell".
132:14 ZOT MENUCHATI ADEY AD POH ESHEV KI IVITIYHA
זֹאת מְנוּחָתִי עֲדֵי עַד פֹּה אֵשֵׁב כִּי אִוִּתִיהָ
KJ: This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
BN: "This shall be my resting-place for ever; here I will dwell; for I have desired it....
Paralleling David's slumber in verse 4 and 5.
132:15 TSEYDAH BARECH AVARECH EVYONEYHA ASBIY'A LACHEM
צֵידָהּ בָּרֵךְ אֲבָרֵךְ אֶבְיוֹנֶיהָ אַשְׂבִּיעַ לָחֶם
KJ: I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.
BN: "I will bless her provision abundantly; I will give her needy bread in plenty...
The national "fruit" (as per verse 12) added to the royal and priestly "fruit" of verse 11.
BARECH AVARECH: I think there is more to this play-on-words than just "provision"; the point is that the provision of the Temple will be sacrificial, and therefore "blessed".
EVYONEYHA: Does something of the same order happen with this? The metaphorising continues in the next verse.
And if this were the opening ceremony of the First Temple, then this is exactly the speech we would expect the surrogate-for-the-deity (either the king or more likely the Kohen Gadol) to make.
132:16 VE CHOHANEYHA ALBIYSH YESH'A VA CHASIYDEYHA RANEN YERANENU
KJ: I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
BN: "And I will clothe her priests with salvation, while her pious followers shout aloud for joy...
See verse 9.
132:17 SHAM ATSMIYACH KEREN LE DAVID ARACHTI NER LIMSHIYCHI
KJ: There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.
BN: "There I will make the horn of David sprout - I have already commissioned a lamp for my anointed.
ATSMIYACH: Still more "fruit".
KEREN: The allusion is to Exodus 34:29:
LIMSHIYCHI: see my note to verse 10.
132:18 OYEVAV ALBIYSH BOSHET VE ALAV YATSITS NIZRO
KJ: His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.
BN: "His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown shine." {P}
YATSITS: And yet again we are alluded back to the Mosheh legends; twice we have been told how the Kohanim will be clothed, with references to the pious followers immediately afterwards. But how will the pious followers be clothed? With Tsitsit, obviously - see Numbers 15:37 ff.
And the shining crown once again reflects the Mosaic Keren, though today it is the Ner Tamid that hangs by the Ark in every synagogue.
NIZRO: Crown? Kings were anointed with oil, not crowned, so this must be a metaphorical crown. Or does NEZER have a secondary meaning?
132:16 VE CHOHANEYHA ALBIYSH YESH'A VA CHASIYDEYHA RANEN YERANENU
וְכֹהֲנֶיהָ אַלְבִּישׁ יֶשַׁע וַחֲסִידֶיהָ רַנֵּן יְרַנֵּנוּ
KJ: I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
BN: "And I will clothe her priests with salvation, while her pious followers shout aloud for joy...
See verse 9.
132:17 SHAM ATSMIYACH KEREN LE DAVID ARACHTI NER LIMSHIYCHI
שָׁם אַצְמִיחַ קֶרֶן לְדָוִד עָרַכְתִּי נֵר לִמְשִׁיחִי
KJ: There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.
BN: "There I will make the horn of David sprout - I have already commissioned a lamp for my anointed.
ATSMIYACH: Still more "fruit".
KEREN: The allusion is to Exodus 34:29:
And it came to pass, when Mosheh came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Mosheh's hands, when he came down from the mountain, that Mosheh did not know that the flesh on his face was radiating beams of light from talking with him.For this reason I have chosen "sprout" for TSEMACH; The word means "growth", and who can say what form that might have taken; but elsewhere in the Mosheh tales we witnessed the rod of Aharon sprouting, and the context there was also the other key outcome of King David's rule, the formal establishment of the tribal confederacy - see Numbers 17:17ff (Numbers 17:2 ff in the King James version).
LIMSHIYCHI: see my note to verse 10.
132:18 OYEVAV ALBIYSH BOSHET VE ALAV YATSITS NIZRO
אוֹיְבָיו אַלְבִּישׁ בֹּשֶׁת וְעָלָיו יָצִיץ נִזְרוֹ
KJ: His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.
BN: "His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown shine." {P}
YATSITS: And yet again we are alluded back to the Mosheh legends; twice we have been told how the Kohanim will be clothed, with references to the pious followers immediately afterwards. But how will the pious followers be clothed? With Tsitsit, obviously - see Numbers 15:37 ff.
And the shining crown once again reflects the Mosaic Keren, though today it is the Ner Tamid that hangs by the Ark in every synagogue.
NIZRO: Crown? Kings were anointed with oil, not crowned, so this must be a metaphorical crown. Or does NEZER have a secondary meaning?
And finally I need to point out that this Psalm has eighteen verses, but the number is not significant in any way, shape or form, whatsoever. I need to make this statement because the number 18 is believed by some modern Jews to be the number of Life itself, Life being CHAI in Yehudit-Ivrit-Hebrew, and CHAI being the number...
and here is the reason why it is absolute nonsense. The number 18 is Yud-Chet, not Chet-Yud. If you want to make a mystical name out of 18, it should be pronounced YUCH. And if that is how you see Life...
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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