TheBibleNet: Psalm 134

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

134:1 SHIR HA MA'ALOT HINEH BARACHU ET YHVH KOL AVDEY YHVH HA OMDIM BE VEIT YHVH BA LEYLOT

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת הִנֵּה בָּרֲכוּ אֶת יְהוָה כָּל עַבְדֵי יְהוָה הָעֹמְדִים בְּבֵית יְהוָה בַּלֵּילוֹת

KJ: (A Song of degrees.) Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.

BN (tongue-in-cheek translation): A Song for the Ascent. {N} Behold, bless YHVH, all you who work for YHVH, {N} who work in the Temple on night-shift.

SHIR HA MA'ALOT: Technically, based on the closing phrase of this verse, this should not be called by this title, because they have already ascended, and arrived.

HINEH: What does "behold" mean anyway? A magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. "See!" "Here it is!" Abracadabra. This feels to me more like a rallying-cry. "Let's go do it!" Though actually, from the closing phrase of this verse, they already are.

AVDEY YHVH: Could mean "worshippers", but we know that there were no prayer services in the Temple between Ma'ariv and Shacharit. So these are either the janitors, the security guards, or those other night-watchmen, the really important night-watchmen, the ones who were making a nightly map of the heavens, noting down the changing positions of the constellations, the planets, the appearance of new stars and comets, the disappearances of the supernovae, and interpreting all the "messages" that these "angels" were sending. A thousand years of nightly mapping, from Shelomoh's time to the destruction in 70 CE, and it had already started long, long before Shelomoh built the Temple. You can't map the stars by day after all - or not until modern times, with space travel and Hubble's telescope.

An interesting perspective though, which I'll bet you had never considered before - the extent to which the Bible, and all the religious scriptures of the ancient world, were dependent upon night-work, and the high status afforded to those who undertook it - the Guilds of Prophets especially.

And is this then the Psalm that they would have sung, the Haka of the guild apprentices, before setting out on their nightly twelve-hour journey through the Am Tuat?

And if it is not this, then it can only be the pilgrims, arrived in Yeru-Shala'im, permitted to sleep in the courtyard, but too superstitious in such a place to lie down and sleep.

134:2 SE'U YEDECHEM KODESH U VARACHU ET YHVH

שְׂאוּ יְדֵכֶם קֹדֶשׁ וּבָרֲכוּ אֶת יְהוָה

KJ: Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

BN: Lift up your hands as an act of holiness, and bless YHVH.

SE'U YEDECHEM: This is a description of the posture adopted while reciting the blessing: either arms stretched out in front of the body, palms upwards; or, as per the ilustration, the hands raised, elbows bent, above the head, and the fingers spread to make the letter Sheen (ש).

But surely that latter is associated with the YEVARECHECHA, the Priestly Blessing, and that would not be made in the darkness of early evening, or at any time of the night before Ayelet ha-Shachar - the words of the blessing make it obvious why not. So perhaps this Psalm is itself the blessing. The point is, the guild apprentices and their livery-masters are about to begin holy work, and so it requires a holy ceremony first. And then see verse 3, which is a different YEVARECHECHA from the familiar priestly blessing.

KODESH: This is not in the dative, and usually "the Temple" would be written with a definite article, so the KJ translation has to be wrong on both counts.

134:3 YEVARECHECHA YHVH MI TSI'ON OSEH SHAMAYIM VA ARETS

יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה מִצִּיּוֹן עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ

KJ: The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

BN: May YHVH bless you here in Tsi'on, YHVH who made the heavens and the Earth. {P}

YEVARECHECHA: And here, following my comments in the previous verse, here is a variation the Priestly Blessing. Is the Psalm being recited in the Hasmonean era, when the Polytheon has been replaced by the Omnideity - in which case a blessing is a blessing is a blessing, YHVH's at any time of day or night?

And why is this so short a Psalm? Because this is all that was required. The gathering together of the night-shift workers, a moment of solemnity, an acknowledgement by them of the sanctity of their work, and a blessing by the priest-on-duty. And then, let's go see if there are any important messages in the celestial horoscope.

End of the collection known as the Shirey Ma'alot.

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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