TheBibleNet: Psalm 88

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

88:1 SHIR MIZMOR LIVNEY KORACH LA MENATSE'ACH AL MACHALAT LE'ANOT MASKIL LE HEYMAN HA EZRACHI

שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר לִבְנֵי קֹרַח לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל מָחֲלַת לְעַנּוֹת מַשְׂכִּיל לְהֵימָן הָאֶזְרָחִי

KJ (King James translation): (A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.) O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

BN (BibleNet translation; option a): A song with musical accompaniment, for the Beney Korach; {N} for the Artistic Director, to assist his convalescence through serious illness. A teaching Psalm for Heyman the Ezrachi.

BN (BibleNet translation; option b): A song with musical accompaniment, for the Beney Korach; {N} for the Leader of the harpists and singers. A teaching Psalm for Heyman the Ezrachi.

MACHALAT: See my notes and options for this at the beginning and the end of Psalm 53. "Sickness", "harp" and "dancing" are all possibles; the daughter of Yishma-El who married Esav is less likely, though well worth looking at my notes there too (click here).

LE'ANOT: Requires extending those notes. ANAH is used to mean "affliction", whether spiritual, psychological or physical; for fasting at Leviticus 16:31, for dealing harshly with someone at Genesis 16:6. So put MACHALAT and LE'ANOT together and you are having a very rough time.

But ANAH is used for "to answer" (Genesis 23:14), in the sense of "replying" (Job 1:7), but also the simple act of "raising up the voice" (Isaiah 14:10), which could be in prose or song (Exodus 15:21). So this could be a "reply" to an "illness", whence "convalescence".

But 1 Samuel 21:12 is where you need to go for the real answer: yet another play on words: singing and dancing, all at once.

And as if the descriptor, dedication, author-name and title were not enough for one verse, KJ also merges the first verse of the Psalm itself, re-numbering the ensuing verses accordingly.

BENEY KORACH: See the link. Psalms 84, 85, 87 and 88 are all for the Beney Korach.

LA MENATSE'ACH: see my note at Psalm 51:1.

LE HEYMAN: Tradition would insist that this is the name of the author, and this therefore the first time that a name has been given for an author that we can state with reasonable certainty is the genuine name of a genuine man; and in the very next Psalm Eitan the Ezrachi will be named as the author, Heyman's "brother" in the sense that they were Guild-apprentices together.

But: LE HEYMEN does not translate as "by"; it translates as "to" or "for", and surely this is the equivalent of marking the mezzo soprano copy for Alice Coote, or the baritone copy for Tito Gobbi. And to validate that claim:

1 Chronicles 6:18 names him as a MESHORER, a "singer", and has him related, through the Prophet Shemu-El, to the Levitical tribes of Korach and Kohat - and the Beney Korach are the dedicatees here. 1 Chronicles 16:41-42 finds him worshipping with Yedutun (for whom see notes at Psalm 39:1) on the high places of Giv-On, but with musical instruments, not voices; and in 1 Chronicles 15:17 Eitan and Asaph are named among those who joined the royal family in the singing as the Ark was brought up to Yeru-Shala'im. In 1 Chronicles 25:1 David transferred him to Yeru-Shala'im, as leader of the singers, (see also 2 Chronicles 5:12); their performances in Solomonic times were staged from a position to the east of the altar. 1 Chronicles 25:5 goes so far as to describe Heyman as "the king's seer" - the king in this case being David. That same chapter tells us that Heyman had fourteen "sons", which probably means members of his choir.

The war chronicle of king Yehoshophat (2 Chronicles 29:12) has King Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah) re-establish the choir and orchestra, which had been wound up during the reign of King Achaz; again naming Heyman as one of the Masters. The same is true in Yoshi-Yah (Josiah's) time, as per 2 Chronicles 35:15, but by then the name of the first holder of the title appears to have become the name adopted by all his sucessors, as was also the case with the schools of Prophets.

(And please do not confuse Heyman with Haman, the latter being a character in the story of Ester, and a sun-idol, for which see my notes at Joshua 14:2, or under Ba'al.)

EZRACHI: But what is an Ezrachi? Does it mean a follower of Ezra the Scribe, and thereby dates the Psalm to the mid 5th century BCE, the time of the writing of the Tanach? No, because Ezra is spelled עזרא, and the Aramaic Aleph would need to be retained when the dependent noun was created - עזראחי - and an Aleph at the end as well (the word EZRACH - עזרח - without that closing Aleph, means "citizen".)

Strong reckons the root is ZERACH, but that would require this to have an Aramaic first letter added (which would also help us date it). What evidence supports his claim?

First, 1 Chronicles 2:6, where the two are named as the biological sons of Zerach ben Yehudah, which places them in Jacobite Yisra-El before the family set out for Mitsrayim; Zerach (Genesis 38), and Parets were the twins fathered by Yehudah on his daughter-in-law Tamar. It could of course have been another man of the same coincidental name, but with Chronicles the scholars always assume error, propaganda and agenda, so it probably wasn't. The same verse also claims the family as professional harpists, which ties in here.

Second, 1 Chronicles 25:1-4, which lists them, alongside the Guildsmen of Asaph and Yedutun, again as professional harpists, and verse 8 makes clear that they are a Guild, that the "father" is the name of the Guild-master, regardless of his real name, and that they are all "apprentices".

Third, 1 Kings 5:11, which purports to be a very much earlier text, names both Eitan and Heyman, as well as Chalkol and Dard'a, as "Benei Machol" (i.e they all belong to the same Guild, but this one is dancers, not harpists), describing them as sages with more wisdom than anyone but Shelomoh himself; which suggests that this, or something like it, may have been written for Heyman centuries ago, or be a contemporary imitation, in his style, and thence the dedication "to" him.

The only other alternative is EZRACHI, which was a native tree planted in firm soil in Psalm 37:35.

88:2 YHVH ELOHEY YESHU'ATI YOM TSA'AKTI VA LAILAH NEGDECHA

יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יְשׁוּעָתִי יוֹם צָעַקְתִּי בַלַּיְלָה נֶגְדֶּךָ

KJ (88:1): as above

BN: YHVH, god of my salvation, I cry to you by day, and in the night also.

88:3 TAVO LEPHANEYCHA TEPHILATI HATEH AZNECHA LE RINATI

תָּבוֹא לְפָנֶיךָ תְּפִלָּתִי הַטֵּה אָזְנְךָ לְרִנָּתִי

KJ (88:2): Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

BN: Let my prayer come before you; bend your ear toward my cry.

88:4 KI SAV'AH VE RA'OT NAPHSHI VE CHAYAY LISH'OL HIGIY'U

כִּי שָׂבְעָה בְרָעוֹת נַפְשִׁי וְחַיַּי לִשְׁאוֹל הִגִּיעוּ

KJ (88:3): For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

BN: For my soul is sated with troubles, and my life draws near to She'ol.

VE RA'OT: Or VERA'OT?

LISH'OL: Or LI SHE'OL? But does he mean the grave, or the Underworld? The word used here is SHE'OL, which is actually both: we are in a pre-Christian world: Hell is simply the place where dead matter goes to decompose and nitrogenate future fertility. The worms are just worms, not yet dragons or fiery monsters.

88:5 NECHSHAVTI IM YORDEY VOR HAYIYTI KE NEGED EYN EYAL

נֶחְשַׁבְתִּי עִם יוֹרְדֵי בוֹר הָיִיתִי כְּגֶבֶר אֵין אֱיָל

KJ (88:4): I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

BN: I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am become as a man that hath no help.

YORDEY VOR: Exactly the same here as in the previous verse. Yoseph went down into the BOR, when his brothers kidnapped him (Genesis 37). But does he really regard himself as a sinner who is beyond any hope of redemption, or is he simply old and suffering from incurable illness?

88:6 BA METIM CHAPHSHI KEMO CHALALIM SHOCHVEY KEVER ASHER LO ZECHARTAM OD VE HEMAH MI YADCHA NIGZARU

בַּמֵּתִים חָפְשִׁי כְּמוֹ חֲלָלִים שֹׁכְבֵי קֶבֶר אֲשֶׁר לֹא זְכַרְתָּם עוֹד וְהֵמָּה מִיָּדְךָ נִגְזָרוּ

KJ (88:5): Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

BN: Set apart among the dead, {N} like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you no longer remember; {N} and they are cut off from your hand.

And that is as it should be. The sun-god in the heavens is the deity of fertile, creative life, bringing the grass for the milk and the bees for the honey. The sun-god has no further interest in dead matter. But the god of the Underworld (Sha'ul/Saul) makes sure the decomposition becomes compost, Our Lady descends into the Underworld for four months every Winter to make sure the eggs are fertile, and the Earth-god pops down for three days once a year, after his own death, before his rebirth, to do whatever additional fertilising may be needed. So it was in every mythology in the world, in ancient times.

88:7 SHATANI BE VOR TACHTIYOT BE MACHASHAKIM BIMTSOLOT

שַׁתַּנִי בְּבוֹר תַּחְתִּיּוֹת בְּמַחֲשַׁכִּים בִּמְצֹלוֹת

KJ (88:6): Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

BN: You have lain me down in the nethermost pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

SHATANI: But I do wonder if that is just a coincidence, and if the dot shouldn't be on the left fork, rather than the right fork - no, not the devil's, the Sheen's; thereby making it a Seen. Click here.

MACHASHAKIM: Before Creation in Genesis 1 there was Tohu and Bohu, and Choshech, and Tohu was sometimes called Tehom and even Tahamat and Tiamat. Choshech was the darkness, which becomes MACHASHAKIM here. Tohu and Tehom were the "deeps", so it is odd to find METSOLOT here instead; same meaning (cf Nehemiah 9:11, or better Exodus 15:5, which has both), just a different way of saying it.

88:8 ALAI SAMCHA CHAMATECHA VE CHOL MISHBAREYCHA INIYTA (SELAH)

עָלַי סָמְכָה חֲמָתֶךָ וְכָל מִשְׁבָּרֶיךָ עִנִּיתָ סֶּלָה

KJ (88:7): Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

BN: Your wrath lies hard upon me, and all your breakers cause me grief. (Selah)

MISHBAREYCHA: There are "waves", which are still out there flowing, and there are "breakers", which are the white-foam waves as they hit the shore. The root here is SHAVAR, "to break", and the wave of the poet's life is about to hit the shore. And perhaps that is also the difference between TEHOMOT and METSOLOT, that the former is the land and the latter the sea (I would have suggested it earlier, and then noted that BOHU becomes BEHEMOT in Genesis 1 - but Tiamat is the sea monster, and Behemot the land monster, so this sea v dry land thought doesn't really work: unless it was the author who was simply unaware).

88:9 HIRCHAKTA MEYUDA'AI MIMENI SHATANI TO'EVOT LAMO KALU VE LO ETS'E

הִרְחַקְתָּ מְיֻדָּעַי מִמֶּנִּי שַׁתַּנִי תוֹעֵבוֹת לָמוֹ כָּלֻא וְלֹא אֵצֵא

KJ (88:8): Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

BN: You have made my acquaintances distance themselves from me; you have made me an abomination to them; I am locked up, and I cannot come out.

HIRKACHTA: It is not obvious in what way YHVH is at fault here, rather than the author? In several of the Davidic Psalms in Book One, it was his faith in YHVH that caused him to be ashamed and embarrassed before, and even cut off from, his agnostic, atheistic, even anti-theistic associates; but that perfectly sound explanation has not been offered here. Or is he complaining that YHVH, in his capacity as Nature, has left him with a contagious or infectious illness, and he is either self-isolating or fully quarantined, and that is why?

88:10 EYNI DA'AVAH MINI ONI KERA'TIYCHA YHVH BE CHOL YOM SHITACHTI ELEYCHA CHAPAI

עֵינִי דָאֲבָה מִנִּי עֹנִי קְרָאתִיךָ יְהוָה בְּכָל יוֹם שִׁטַּחְתִּי אֵלֶיךָ כַפָּי

KJ (88:9): Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

BN: My eye languishes by reason of affliction; {N} I have called on you, YHVH, every day; I have spread out my hands for you.

EYNI: Again the language-play makes it difficult to distinguish the literal from the metaphorical. Is he crying, or does he have a bad case of blepharitis?

SHITACHTI...CHAPAI: Genuflection and prostration are frequently described; standing, sitting, shockeling (swaying back and forth while praying) are rarely described, but all are known as traditional modes of prayer. Standing with the arms spread out like a Hollywood starlet on a sunset beach (or perhaps it's the Crucifixion posture) is a mode of prayer that appears to have lapsed, but we have seen it at least once before.

88:11 HA LA METIM TA'ASEH PEL'E IM REPHA'IM YAKUMU YODUCHA (SELAH)

הֲלַמֵּתִים תַּעֲשֶׂה פֶּלֶא אִם רְפָאִים יָקוּמוּ יוֹדוּךָ סֶּלָה

KJ (88:10): Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

BN: Will you work wonders for the dead? Will the shades rise up and give you thanks? (Selah)

REPHA'IM: Ancient terms reworked into contemporary ones - as we have already noticed with She'ol and Bor. We know them from the Book of Genesis, where they are counted amongst the most ancient of the peoples of Kena'an: troglodytes, Neanderthals; that ancient. But here the intention is clearly different, a hint, at the very least, of the resurrection of the dead? (though the tone suggests that it may be intended sarcastically, to mock those who believe such things).

88:12 HA YESUPAR BA KEVER CHASDECHA EMUNAT'CHA BA AVADUN

הַיְסֻפַּר בַּקֶּבֶר חַסְדֶּךָ אֱמוּנָתְךָ בָּאֲבַדּוֹן

KJ (88:11): Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

BN: Shall your mercy be declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in the act of decomposition?

No, definitely sarcastic. He wants to be young and healthy again, and this is a way of stating it. He wants the divine promises now, not in some imaginary future.

88:13 HA YIVAD'A BA CHOSHECH PIL'ECHA VE TSIDKAT'CHA BE ERETS NESHIYAH

הֲיִוָּדַע בַּחֹשֶׁךְ פִּלְאֶךָ וְצִדְקָתְךָ בְּאֶרֶץ נְשִׁיָּה

KJ (88:12): Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

BN: Shall your wonders be known in the dark, and your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

88:14 VA ANI ELEYCHA YHVH SHIVA'TI U VA BOKER TEPHILATI TEKADMECHA

וַאֲנִי אֵלֶיךָ יְהוָה שִׁוַּעְתִּי וּבַבֹּקֶר תְּפִלָּתִי תְקַדְּמֶךָּ

KJ (88:13): But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

BN: But as for me, I cry to you, YHVH, and in the morning my prayer goes up to meet you.

88:15 LAMAH YHVH TIZNACH NAPHSHI TASTIR PANEYCHA MIMENI

לָמָה יְהוָה תִּזְנַח נַפְשִׁי תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ מִמֶּנִּי

KJ (88:14): LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

BN: Why, YHVH, do you cast off my soul, why do you hide your face from me?

Each of these last three verses are split alexandrines in form, shown as such in the KJ by repeating the question-mark.

TASTIR PANEYCHA: YHVH as sun-god; he hides his face (usually behind clouds in the daytime), and bad things can happen; the usual crying out for the sun-god to show his face is the Priestly Blessing known as the Yevarechecha.

88:16 ANI ANI VE GOVE'A MI NO'AR NASA'TI EMEYCHA APHUNAH

עָנִי אֲנִי וְגוֵֹעַ מִנֹּעַר נָשָׂאתִי אֵמֶיךָ אָפוּנָה

KJ (88:15): I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

BN: I have been sick, even to the point of death, from my youth onwards; but I have borne your terrors by finding distractions.

ANI ANI: We have seen this pun now several times before.

Sickness of the body, and/or sickness of the soul, the spirit? All three probably.

GOVE'A: the pronunciation of this needs some exploring. That oddity of the Vav-medugash that is really a double-dagesh which we have encountered many times before. Unpointed we might expect to read it as GO'A. Look at Genesis 6:17 and 7:21, though 25:8 might be the more relevant one for our Psalm.

88:17 ALAI AVRU CHARONEYCHA BI'UTEYCHA TSIMTUTUNI

עָלַי עָבְרוּ חֲרוֹנֶיךָ בִּעוּתֶיךָ צִמְּתוּתֻנִ

KJ (88:16): Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

BN: Your fierce wrath has gone over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence.

Once again the split alexandrine. The second half of this verse is disingenuous!

88:18 SABUNI CHA MAYIM KOL HA YOM HIKIYPHU ALAI YACHAD

סַבּוּנִי כַמַּיִם כָּל הַיּוֹם הִקִּיפוּ עָלַי יָחַד

KJ (88:17): They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

BN: They eddy around me like swirling water all day long; they have completely engulfed me.

SABUNI CHA MAYIM: Compare Psalm 22:14.

88:19 HIRCHAKTA MIMENI OHEV VA RE'A MEYUDA'AI MACHSHACH

הִרְחַקְתָּ מִמֶּנִּי אֹהֵב וָרֵעַ מְיֻדָּעַי מַחְשָׁךְ

KJ (88:18): Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

BN: You have driven both friend and companion far from me, and mere acquaintances have vanished into darkness. {P}

In the pattern that we believe we have detected in this section, this Psalm completes the misanthropy, the doubts, the self-flagellation, the repentance, and speaks to the deity in absolute and unequivocal negation and rejection: my life has reached rock-bottom, and it is all your fault. So we have reached the nadir of the personal journey, climbed from the heights to the very netherworld, the 9th circle of Dante's Inferno, beyond which there is nowhere further to go, unless into physical death, or back up, via Purgatorio to hopeful Paradiso. Can we assume that the Psalms that follow will record that journey, through the deserts, dealing with storms, over rocky crags, to arrive, sublime, eventually, achieved?

But there is still one more Psalm in this section; what can we expect to find there?

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Psalms:

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