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
3:1 MIZMOR LE DAVID BE VARCHO MI PENEY AV-SHALOM BENO
מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד בְּבָרְחוֹ מִפְּנֵי אַבְשָׁלוֹם בְּנוֹ
KJ (King James translation): A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
BN (BibleNet translation): A Psalm to the Beloved One, concerning his flight from before Av-Shalom his son.
As we will see many times, the opening verse is not in fact the opening verse; and the numbering is therefore false; this is, self-evidently, the title of the piece.
Note that it is usually translated as "A Psalm of David", but LE DAVID does not mean "of"; it means "to". We think of David as a historical figure, and there may well have been one, but like the Greek and Roman heroes, David is primarily a mythological analogy. His full name, like the birth-name of his successor Shelomoh (Solomon - see 2 Samuel 12:24-25), was Yedid-Yah, "the beloved of the moon goddess", so he is the Adonis of Psalm 2, the priest-king who we were called on there to "kiss". As Frazer has explained in "The Golden Bough", the priest-king wrestles with "the Adversary" (see my note on this in the next verse) at the end of his one- or seven-year period of office (seven in the Yisra-Eli), and either yields his throne by losing, or earns a second period of office in victory. The attempted coup by Av-Shalom (2 Samuel 15 ff) reflects this struggle.
Ya'akov (Jacob) thus served either two or four cycles as priest-king to the Aramaean moon-god Lavan (Genesis 29 ff). David served one term at Chevron before conquering Yeru-Shala'im, and survived four full cycles before Av-Shalom (Absalom) staged his unsuccessful coup. David's personal impotence and slow dying during his fifth kingship, which is reflected in the failure of the crop, the drought, the famine, and the unavailing ministrations of Avi-Shag, is recounted in the closing chapters of the second book of Samuel; I mention this now because that key role of the fisher-king, the source of fertility in the crop, will dominate the Book of Psalms.
3:2 YHVH MAH RABU TSARAI RABIM KAMIM ALAI
יְהוָה מָה רַבּוּ צָרָי רַבִּים קָמִים עָלָי
KJ (3:1): Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.
BN: YHVH, how many are there now, who insist on struggling with me? So many who rise up against me.
Internal rhymes: Adonai → Tsarai → Alai; Rabim → Kamim.
TSARAI: The trouble with translating this as "adversaries", as many versions do, is that it implies a very specific concept, which actually is not present here: the "Adversary" named ha-Satan of the Book of Job. TSAR in Psalm 120:1 is used to mean "distress" (see also Genesis 42:21 et al), and it is from this that the Yiddish "tsures" derives, meaning "troubles" in the general sense. But elsewhere TSAR, or TSARAH in the feminine (1 Samuel 1:6), is very specifically "the rival", and David's sister, the mother of his chief-of-staff Yo-Av (Joab) was named Tseru-Yah (1 Samuel 26:6, 2 Samuel 2:13, 1 Chronicles 2:16) [not to be confused with Tseru'ah, the mother of king Yerav-Am (Jeroboam); she is written צרועה in 1 Kings 11:26, and the name has to do with the leprosy associated with Mir-Yam in Numbers 12; but see Leviticus 13 for this].
3:3 RABIM OMRIM LENAPHSHI EYN YESHU'ATAH LO V’ELOHIM (SELAH)
רַבִּים אֹמְרִים לְנַפְשִׁי אֵין יְשׁוּעָתָה לּוֹ בֵאלֹהִים סֶלָה
KJ (3:2): Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
BN: There are many who say to my soul: "There is no salvation for him among the gods." (Selah)
Internal rhymes again: Rabim → Omrim → Elohim.
LE NAPHSHI: Yes, it really does mean "to my soul" - but that is what a prayer is addressing: the invisible existence of a deity, imagined in the heart and mind and soul of Humankind. In the metaphysical era, when the deity is intellectualised and "believed in", the construct changes.
ELOHIM: Throughout the Tanach, Christian translators render both YHVH and Elohim as "God"; but Jews do not believe in "God", which is a dualistic anthropomorphisation of the nouns "Good" and "Evil"; Jews of the Biblical era "fear" the forces of Nature, on Earth and in the Cosmos beyond, and in the epoch of the Psalms they were still polytheistic, with YHVH the Jove of the pantheon (Jove-Jehovah), Yah its Hera, and the Elohim making up the rest of the Olympic Valhalla on Mount Tsi'on.
SELAH: This is the first occasion of its usage, and I do not intend to repeat this comment every time it recurs: more information, including the paragraph below, can be found in my Introductory essay to the Psalms.
Selah is never pronounced.
In all probability, Selah is a piece of the musical notation, attached to the text so that the singer would be prepared. It functions similarly to the double bar line used in European music; where a single bar line denotes a transition point between the measures (one-two-three - single bar - one-two-three - single bar), the double bar indicates a change of tempo (one-two-three - double bar - one-two-three-four) or some other musical variation: perhaps a switch from strings to brass or woodwind, from acapella to cantata, perhaps a break between movements, perhaps simply a point at which the cantata or libretto was paused for a musical interlude, a sermon, a dance, a reading, a set of prayers.
One challenge throughout will be to identify what change happens after the Selah; it isn't always obvious (and if it is a musical change, it wouldn't be obvious from the libretto anyway).
3:4 VE ATAH YHVH MAGEN BA'ADI KEVODI U MERIM ROSHI
וְאַתָּה יְהוָה מָגֵן בַּעֲדִי כְּבוֹדִי וּמֵרִים רֹאשִׁי
KJ (3:3): But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
BN: But you, YHVH, are a shield at my side, my honour, and the lifter up of my head.
Internal rhymes continue: BA'ADI → KEVODI → ROSHI.
3:5 KOLI EL YHVH EKRA VA YA'ANENI MEY HAR KADSHO (SELAH)
קוֹלִי אֶל יְהוָה אֶקְרָא וַיַּעֲנֵנִי מֵהַר קָדְשׁוֹ סֶלָה
KJ: (3:4) I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
BN: I will call to YHVH with my voice, and he will answer me from his holy mountain.
Really this should be presented as two separate lines so that its deliberate structure is apparent:
KOLI EL YHVH EKRA
YA'ANENI MEY HAR KADSHO
8 syllables, then 9; KOLI rhymed with YA'ANENI; the preposition EL paralleled in the preposition MEY, but reversed in meaning: EL = "to" MEY = "from". In the first part the voice calls; in the second part the god answers, alliteratively.
Note that the Yehudit text is in the future tense, not the past.
3:6 ANI SHACHAVTI VA IYSHANAH HEKIYTSOTI KI YHVH YISMECHENI
אֲנִי שָׁכַבְתִּי וָאִישָׁנָה הֱקִיצוֹתִי כִּי יְהוָה יִסְמְכֵנִי
KJ (3:5): I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.
BN: I lay down and slept; I woke because YHVH had placed his trust in me.
Now the internal rhyme becomes almost every word - an indication, presumably, of something very specific going on in the music for which this is all, ultimately, mere libretto (think of Bob Dylan doing "Like A Rolling Stone").
YISMECHENI: "Sustained" is perfectly correct, but I prefer "because YHVH had placed his trust in me". The root yields the word SEMICHA, which is the equivalent of Satis on an academic paper, or the awarding of a final degree, and is the term used for the formal ordination of a Rabbi. I think the sense of "sustain" here is less of physical continuation than of being driven by a sense of duty, and specifically the "8th day" responsibility in Genesis 1:26. It also affirms the outcome of Psalm 2 (verses 2 and 6), which provides an explanation of why this is the third Psalm.
3:7 LO IRAH ME RIVEVOT AM ASHER SAVIV SHATU ALAI
לֹא אִירָא מֵרִבְבוֹת עָם אֲשֶׁר סָבִיב שָׁתוּ עָלָי
KJ: (3:6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.
BN: Myriads will not scare me, however closely they surround me.
LO IRAH: For those familiar with Jewish liturgy, the phrase will immediately echo - you will find it as the final phrase of the great hymn Adon Olam. In fact, that hymn is rooted almost entirely in Psalm 23, as we shall see when we get there; I mention it now, because this is the first obvious occasion of the re-use of Psalms throughout Jewish liturgy and piyyut, which is to say that whole Psalms are recited through every synagogue service, but numerous lines, or simple phrases, have also been used for the writing of hymns throughout the past two thousand years, and many of those now also figure centrally in synagogue services. I will point out the significant ones, but can assure you that I am bound to miss just as many.
RIVEVOT again picks up a key word-root running through this Psalm, though it is not obvious from the English: RABU, RABIM, RIVEVOT...
SHATU: Word-games, constant word-games. King James translates this as "set themselves", and probably doesn't realise that it has cleverly picked up the word-game. We are in the realm of the Risen Lord, sometimes Tammuz, sometimes Adonis, sometimes Osher, sometimes David, and other minor alternatives along the way as well; and often more than one are referenced in any Psalm, because these Psalms were available to all the tribes, regardless of the form in which they worshipped. The "adversary" to Osher was Shet (in Yehudit), Set (in Egyptian), and clearly that is part of the word-game. Without pointing, SHATU might be SATU, which would further validate the King James translation, because it has what SATU means; but the text says SHATU, and a SHAT is "a pillar", whether the stone one of a temple or the human one of a community (princes, nobles, etc). Not being scared when an entire crowd fills the amphitheatre which provides the temple site, and you have been chained to one of its pillars... might that be the claim of Shimshon (Samson) as he became aware that his hair was growing back, and the deity slowly restoring him to power (Judges 16:29)?
3:8 KUMAH YHVH HOSHIY'ENI ELOHAI KI HIKIYTA ET KOL OYEVAI LECHI SHINEI RESHA'IM SHIBARTA
קוּמָה יְהוָה הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי אֱלֹהַי כִּי הִכִּיתָ אֶת כָּל אֹיְבַי לֶחִי שִׁנֵּי רְשָׁעִים שִׁבַּרְתָּ
KJ (3:7) Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God; for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
BN: Arise, YHVH; redeem me, Elohim; for you have struck every one of my enemies on the jawbone, {N} you have broken the teeth of the wicked.
This verse appears to be a rubayat (quatrain):
KUMAH YHVH
HOSHIY'ENI ELOHAI
KI HIKIYTA ET KOL OYEVAI LECHI
SHINEI RESHA'IM SHIBARTA
KUMAH YHVH: The hymn sung when the Torah scrolls are returned to the Ark in synagogue begins with these words, though really they are taken from Numbers 10:35.
HOSHIY'ENI ELOHAI: Those who make the case for J/E (the "Documentary Hypothesis") need to look again at Psalms such as this, which is clearly very ancient, and which addresses both YHVH and ELOHIM, sometimes apart, sometimes together, but also, as here, simultaneously, so that they are clearly not a tribal distinction or a change of name over time, but two different concepts of deity. As I have stated repeatedly in these commentaries, I believe that YHVH was originally the volcano god of Midyan who rose to become the sun and sky god, the head of the pantheon, ultimately the Omnideity; while the Elohim are the pantheon as a whole.
KI HIKIYTA ET KOL OYEVAI LECHI: You were surprised by my mentioning Shimshon, and using his story as an analogy, and I accept that it wasn't the only or the best analogy that I could have chosen (because he is a sun god where David et al are the Earth-god). And yet, in this very next verse, this smacking on the cheekbone, does it not take us straight to Be'er Lechi Ro'i, "The Well of the Antelope's Jawbone", Hagar's well in Genesis 16:14, where Shimshon performed that other great Labour of Hera-Kles in Judges 15, the one in which he killed "a thousand men" (rivevot), the same number as here, and "with a donkey's jawbone", and several other features that suggest this Psalm may originally have been Shimshonite. These constant inter-Biblical cross-references within the Psalms are not coincidence, they are style, they are form, they are technique.
HOSHIY'ENI ELOHAI: Those who make the case for J/E (the "Documentary Hypothesis") need to look again at Psalms such as this, which is clearly very ancient, and which addresses both YHVH and ELOHIM, sometimes apart, sometimes together, but also, as here, simultaneously, so that they are clearly not a tribal distinction or a change of name over time, but two different concepts of deity. As I have stated repeatedly in these commentaries, I believe that YHVH was originally the volcano god of Midyan who rose to become the sun and sky god, the head of the pantheon, ultimately the Omnideity; while the Elohim are the pantheon as a whole.
KI HIKIYTA ET KOL OYEVAI LECHI: You were surprised by my mentioning Shimshon, and using his story as an analogy, and I accept that it wasn't the only or the best analogy that I could have chosen (because he is a sun god where David et al are the Earth-god). And yet, in this very next verse, this smacking on the cheekbone, does it not take us straight to Be'er Lechi Ro'i, "The Well of the Antelope's Jawbone", Hagar's well in Genesis 16:14, where Shimshon performed that other great Labour of Hera-Kles in Judges 15, the one in which he killed "a thousand men" (rivevot), the same number as here, and "with a donkey's jawbone", and several other features that suggest this Psalm may originally have been Shimshonite. These constant inter-Biblical cross-references within the Psalms are not coincidence, they are style, they are form, they are technique.
SHINEI RESHA'IM SHIBARTA: Wonderful use of alliteration!
And how would YHVH have been uttered in those days? As we do now, saying it as though it were Adonai - in which case the rhyme is tripleted? Or was YHVH a late redaction, and the original Yah - in which case the rhyme is ABBA. But very poorly so, and the context of this piece does not obviously connect it to Yah in any way. Might they even have pronounced the full name, without the superstition that was acquired later on? And if so, given the pointing, how? Yeho'ah? Yehovah? Definitely not Jehovah or Yahweh.
3:9 LA YHVH HA YESHU'AH AL AMCHA VIRCHATECHA (SELAH)
לַיהוָה הַיְשׁוּעָה עַל עַמְּךָ בִרְכָתֶךָ סֶּלָה
KJ (3:8): Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
BN: Salvation belongs to YHVH; may your blessing be upon your people. (Selah) {P}
A logical closing line for a prayer.
Why Selah at the end of the piece? Possibly just that: an indication in the score that the piece has ended. I think it more likely that it is there to indicate that the cantata has ended, but that the orchestra continues playing; and that this is why the Masoretic text offers both the Selah and the pey break, the normal indication of the conclusion of a section of text within a larger work.
Why Selah at the end of the piece? Possibly just that: an indication in the score that the piece has ended. I think it more likely that it is there to indicate that the cantata has ended, but that the orchestra continues playing; and that this is why the Masoretic text offers both the Selah and the pey break, the normal indication of the conclusion of a section of text within a larger work.
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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
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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