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
Yet another untitled, undedicated, though the Septuagint assigns 91, 93-97, 101 and 104 to David; the remainder in Book Four are anonymous.
The Septuagint also reckons that the first three verses of this Psalm are sung alongside Psalm 94 on the fourth day of the week, though it is not obvious why. Is it perhaps because they really belong there, and have been misplaced here? Or were the two perhaps, originally, a single Psalm?
95:1 LECHU NERANANAH L'YHVH NARIY'AH LE TSUR YISH'ENU
LECHU NERANANAH: My synapses are telling me that I have sung this in a summer camp melody, and on another occasion it was definitely klezmer. YouTube has several offerings, most of them modern-pop or modern-rock; and quite rightly too. This Psalm always was rather more Disco than Temple, and by intention.
Why is LECHU, which means "go", always translated as "come"? Is it just that the nature of the idiom is different in each culture? But this is definitely "go", and yes, as slangy, as colloquial as I have rendered it. (See verse 6, where BO'U is the verb for "come".)
95:2 NEKADMAH PHANAV BE TODAH BIZMIROT NARIY'A LO
KJ: Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
BN: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout for joy to him to the sound of music.
I was going to wonder where this might have been sung, but verse 2 provides the answer of its own accord. I imagine this as one of the Psalms that upset Michal so much, when David finally brought the Ark to Yeru-Shala'im (2 Samuel 6:12-15); but any group of pilgrims heading for the Temple, and any one of several occasions inside the Temple: the evening of Purim or Simchat Torah the most obvious examples. The connection to Wednesday, mentioned above, is not obvious from this.
95:3 KI EL GADOL YHVH U MELECH GADOL AL KOL ELOHIM
KJ: For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
BN: For a mighty power is YHVH, and a great king above all other gods...
Where the previous Psalm appeared to belong to that epoch in which the male god of abstract ethical morality was in process of absorbing all the polytheon into a single, all-encompassing Omnideity, this equally clearly is still from the epoch of the polytheon: not yet "there are no other gods but me", but "there are lots and lots of other gods, but I am the supremo"; which infers "so why do you need any of them? abandon them and stay exclusively with me". But that is only inferred, not yet applied.
95:4 ASHER BE YADO MECHKEREY ARETS VE TO'APHOT HARIM LO
KJ: In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
BN: In whose hand are the depths of the Earth; the heights of the mountains are his too...
ASHER: This verse a continuation of the previous sentence, not just the previous verse, "... who..." - the same for the verse that follows.
And in case we missed that inference, the "depths of the earth" would then have been She'ol, the Netherworld, and "the heights of the mountains" are the apogee of the human aspiration, the apex of human capability, Everest, Valhalla, Machu Pichu, Olympus, Tsi'on: the residence of the polytheon. So he is beginning to absorb those other gods into himself.
95:5 ASHER LO HA YAM VE HU ASAHU VE YABESHET YADAV YATSARU
KJ: The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
BN: In whose hand is the sea, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
What, and Yam the sea-god is actually him too? And were there not six deities who made Creation in the opening chapters of Genesis, one for each day, and that is why light appears on the first day, but the sun which casts that light not until the fourth? Are they, also, being absorbed into this new Omnideity, this Monotheos? If that is what you priests are telling me, then it must be so. I accept, I acknowledge, I have faith. Amen.
KJ: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
BN: Come, let us prostrate ourselves; let us bow and kneel our blessings before YHVH our maker;
NISHTACHAVEH: Full prostration, not mere genuflection. From the root SHETACH, which is the surface of the floor.
Just for the information, the final section of "Mah Tovu" was added by the French community, at the time of Rashi, by one of his students indeed, Simchah ben Samuel, who wrote what is named the "Machzor Vitry" after his home-town; we encountered that when we were at its source, which was Psalm 69:14; though in fact the Vitry text also includes Psalm 122:1, which is no longer sung.
95:7 KI HU ELOHEYNU VA ANACHNU AM MAR'IYTO VE TSON YADO HA YOM IM BE KOLO TISHMA'U
KJ: For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
BN: For he is our deity, and we are the people of his pasture, and the flock of his hand. {N} Today, if you would but hearken to his voice...
95:8 AL TAKSHU LEVAVECHEM KI MERIYVAH KE YOM MASAH BA MIDBAR
KJ: Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
BN: Do not harden your heart, as you did at Merivah, as you did that day in the wilderness, at Masah...
AL TAKSHU: Who is speaking here, the author to and about YHVH, or YHVH about the people? It sounds like the former, but the next verse makes clear that it is in fact the latter. In which case: in what way did the people "harden their hearts" at Kadesh, committing the sin that caused it to be renamed Merivah?
I am not here to comment on KJ (though I regularly do!); its presence here is to provide a standard and accepted translation as a context and a buffer for my commentaries; but sometimes the KJ is so far off that I feel obliged to comment. Why does it duck the direct allusions to the great "sin" of Mosheh, the one that cost him entry into the Promised Land (Numbers 20:2-13)? And having ducked it, to then mistranslate MERIVAH as "provocation" and MASAH as "temptation" - bewildering.
95:9 ASHER NISUNI AVOTEYCHEM BE CHANUNI GAM RA'U PHA'ALI
KJ: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
BN: When your ancestors tested me, tested my compassion, even though they had seen my work.
95:10 ARBA'IM SHANAH AKUT BE DOR VA OMAR AM TO'EY LEVAV HEM VE HEM LO YAD'U DERACHAI
KJ: Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
BN: For full forty years I was wearied by that generation, and said: This is a people that errs in their heart, {N} and they have not known my ways...
Nor is it my job in these pages to engage in theology, but sometimes that too is irresistible; especially when the deity goes off on another of his whinges and whines and tantrums about his chosen people. a) if you're not happy with your chosen people, choose a different one; b) if you're staying with them because, actually, looking around at the evidence of history, they are probably as good as you are likely to find, then start learning to accept them as they are, work with them, and not by threats, to get more out of them. AND STOP MOANING!!! (cf Brecht's poem, "The Solution")
95:11 ASHER NISHBA'TI VE API IM YEVO'UN EL MENUCHATI
KJ: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
BN: To whom I made an oath in my anger that they should not enter into my rest. {P}
ASHER: Again making this a continuation of the previous sentence, though the syntax and the grammar are rather more awkward for the translator on this occasion.
MENUCHATI: What he actually prohibited them from entering was Kena'an itself, insisting that they spend forty years in the desert until that generation had died out. And not much rest when they did eventually get there!
And what an extraordinarily negative note on which to end what was self-advertised as a hymn of joy and celebration! "Let's get up and sing joyously about... how much our god despises us."
95:1 LECHU NERANANAH L'YHVH NARIY'AH LE TSUR YISH'ENU
לְכוּ נְרַנְּנָה לַיהוָה נָרִיעָה לְצוּר יִשְׁעֵנוּ
KJ (King James translation): O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
BN (BibleNet translation) Let's go and sing to YHVH; let's shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
LECHU NERANANAH: My synapses are telling me that I have sung this in a summer camp melody, and on another occasion it was definitely klezmer. YouTube has several offerings, most of them modern-pop or modern-rock; and quite rightly too. This Psalm always was rather more Disco than Temple, and by intention.
Why is LECHU, which means "go", always translated as "come"? Is it just that the nature of the idiom is different in each culture? But this is definitely "go", and yes, as slangy, as colloquial as I have rendered it. (See verse 6, where BO'U is the verb for "come".)
NERANANAH appears to have appeared previously; but see my notes to Psalms 37:35 and 92:11. Psalm 67:5, on the other hand, is the same word as here; ditto 90:14.
NARIY'AH: A sense of joy in this as in NERANANAH; sound-play too between the words. What precisely is the difference? As between "sing our heads off" and "sing our hearts out" - not much really.
95:2 NEKADMAH PHANAV BE TODAH BIZMIROT NARIY'A LO
נְקַדְּמָה פָנָיו בְּתוֹדָה בִּזְמִרוֹת נָרִיעַ לוֹ
KJ: Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
BN: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout for joy to him to the sound of music.
I was going to wonder where this might have been sung, but verse 2 provides the answer of its own accord. I imagine this as one of the Psalms that upset Michal so much, when David finally brought the Ark to Yeru-Shala'im (2 Samuel 6:12-15); but any group of pilgrims heading for the Temple, and any one of several occasions inside the Temple: the evening of Purim or Simchat Torah the most obvious examples. The connection to Wednesday, mentioned above, is not obvious from this.
95:3 KI EL GADOL YHVH U MELECH GADOL AL KOL ELOHIM
כִּי אֵל גָּדוֹל יְהוָה וּמֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל עַל כָּל אֱלֹהִים
KJ: For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
BN: For a mighty power is YHVH, and a great king above all other gods...
Where the previous Psalm appeared to belong to that epoch in which the male god of abstract ethical morality was in process of absorbing all the polytheon into a single, all-encompassing Omnideity, this equally clearly is still from the epoch of the polytheon: not yet "there are no other gods but me", but "there are lots and lots of other gods, but I am the supremo"; which infers "so why do you need any of them? abandon them and stay exclusively with me". But that is only inferred, not yet applied.
95:4 ASHER BE YADO MECHKEREY ARETS VE TO'APHOT HARIM LO
אֲשֶׁר בְּיָדוֹ מֶחְקְרֵי אָרֶץ וְתוֹעֲפוֹת הָרִים לוֹ
KJ: In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
BN: In whose hand are the depths of the Earth; the heights of the mountains are his too...
ASHER: This verse a continuation of the previous sentence, not just the previous verse, "... who..." - the same for the verse that follows.
And in case we missed that inference, the "depths of the earth" would then have been She'ol, the Netherworld, and "the heights of the mountains" are the apogee of the human aspiration, the apex of human capability, Everest, Valhalla, Machu Pichu, Olympus, Tsi'on: the residence of the polytheon. So he is beginning to absorb those other gods into himself.
95:5 ASHER LO HA YAM VE HU ASAHU VE YABESHET YADAV YATSARU
אֲשֶׁר לוֹ הַיָּם וְהוּא עָשָׂהוּ וְיַבֶּשֶׁת יָדָיו יָצָרוּ
KJ: The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
BN: In whose hand is the sea, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
What, and Yam the sea-god is actually him too? And were there not six deities who made Creation in the opening chapters of Genesis, one for each day, and that is why light appears on the first day, but the sun which casts that light not until the fourth? Are they, also, being absorbed into this new Omnideity, this Monotheos? If that is what you priests are telling me, then it must be so. I accept, I acknowledge, I have faith. Amen.
And the words of the very next verse will be adopted to become the very first words sung in synagogue, when Jews answer the morning call to prayer. So the transition will be complete.
95:6 BO'U NISHTACHAVEH VE NICHRA'AH NIVRECHA LIPHNEY YHVH OSENU
95:6 BO'U NISHTACHAVEH VE NICHRA'AH NIVRECHA LIPHNEY YHVH OSENU
בֹּאוּ נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וְנִכְרָעָה נִבְרְכָה לִפְנֵי יְהוָה עֹשֵׂנוּ
KJ: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
BN: Come, let us prostrate ourselves; let us bow and kneel our blessings before YHVH our maker;
NISHTACHAVEH: Full prostration, not mere genuflection. From the root SHETACH, which is the surface of the floor.
NICHRA'AH: Means "to bow" (like an actor, not a violinist; the pronunciation is different), and is one of the principal positions of regular prayer, the source of shockeling. The question here is: is NIVRECHA separate, in which case it should be linked by a conjunctive, or is it an extension, in which case it should be linked by a hyphen? NIVRECHA is rooted in BERECH, which is the knee, and it is from this root that we get BARUCHAH for a blessing - in theory all blessings should be given or received while kneeling, though this has not happened in Judaism for many a long century. I have included both in my translation.
Mah Tovu is the hymn in question, though in this version everything is placed in the first person plural, rather than the singular there. See my note to Psalm 5:8 for an basic explanation, or more fully in "A Myrtle Among Reeds". The other verses that constitute "Mah Tovu" are also from Psalms: 26:8 and 69:14. In Sephardi communities - the communities of Jews from Spain and North Africa – "Mah Tovu" is not sung, but Psalm 5:8 is recited on entering the synagogue, and Psalm 5:9 on leaving it.
Mah Tovu is the hymn in question, though in this version everything is placed in the first person plural, rather than the singular there. See my note to Psalm 5:8 for an basic explanation, or more fully in "A Myrtle Among Reeds". The other verses that constitute "Mah Tovu" are also from Psalms: 26:8 and 69:14. In Sephardi communities - the communities of Jews from Spain and North Africa – "Mah Tovu" is not sung, but Psalm 5:8 is recited on entering the synagogue, and Psalm 5:9 on leaving it.
Just for the information, the final section of "Mah Tovu" was added by the French community, at the time of Rashi, by one of his students indeed, Simchah ben Samuel, who wrote what is named the "Machzor Vitry" after his home-town; we encountered that when we were at its source, which was Psalm 69:14; though in fact the Vitry text also includes Psalm 122:1, which is no longer sung.
95:7 KI HU ELOHEYNU VA ANACHNU AM MAR'IYTO VE TSON YADO HA YOM IM BE KOLO TISHMA'U
כִּי הוּא אֱלֹהֵינוּ וַאֲנַחְנוּ עַם מַרְעִיתוֹ וְצֹאן יָדוֹ הַיּוֹם אִם בְּקֹלוֹ תִשְׁמָעוּ
KJ: For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
BN: For he is our deity, and we are the people of his pasture, and the flock of his hand. {N} Today, if you would but hearken to his voice...
95:8 AL TAKSHU LEVAVECHEM KI MERIYVAH KE YOM MASAH BA MIDBAR
אַל תַּקְשׁוּ לְבַבְכֶם כִּמְרִיבָה כְּיוֹם מַסָּה בַּמִּדְבָּר
KJ: Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
BN: Do not harden your heart, as you did at Merivah, as you did that day in the wilderness, at Masah...
AL TAKSHU: Who is speaking here, the author to and about YHVH, or YHVH about the people? It sounds like the former, but the next verse makes clear that it is in fact the latter. In which case: in what way did the people "harden their hearts" at Kadesh, committing the sin that caused it to be renamed Merivah?
I am not here to comment on KJ (though I regularly do!); its presence here is to provide a standard and accepted translation as a context and a buffer for my commentaries; but sometimes the KJ is so far off that I feel obliged to comment. Why does it duck the direct allusions to the great "sin" of Mosheh, the one that cost him entry into the Promised Land (Numbers 20:2-13)? And having ducked it, to then mistranslate MERIVAH as "provocation" and MASAH as "temptation" - bewildering.
95:9 ASHER NISUNI AVOTEYCHEM BE CHANUNI GAM RA'U PHA'ALI
אֲשֶׁר נִסּוּנִי אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם בְּחָנוּנִי גַּם רָאוּ פָעֳלִי
KJ: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
BN: When your ancestors tested me, tested my compassion, even though they had seen my work.
95:10 ARBA'IM SHANAH AKUT BE DOR VA OMAR AM TO'EY LEVAV HEM VE HEM LO YAD'U DERACHAI
אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה אָקוּט בְּדוֹר וָאֹמַר עַם תֹּעֵי לֵבָב הֵם וְהֵם לֹא יָדְעוּ דְרָכָי
KJ: Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
BN: For full forty years I was wearied by that generation, and said: This is a people that errs in their heart, {N} and they have not known my ways...
Nor is it my job in these pages to engage in theology, but sometimes that too is irresistible; especially when the deity goes off on another of his whinges and whines and tantrums about his chosen people. a) if you're not happy with your chosen people, choose a different one; b) if you're staying with them because, actually, looking around at the evidence of history, they are probably as good as you are likely to find, then start learning to accept them as they are, work with them, and not by threats, to get more out of them. AND STOP MOANING!!! (cf Brecht's poem, "The Solution")
95:11 ASHER NISHBA'TI VE API IM YEVO'UN EL MENUCHATI
אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי בְאַפִּי אִם יְבֹאוּן אֶל מְנוּחָתִי
KJ: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
BN: To whom I made an oath in my anger that they should not enter into my rest. {P}
ASHER: Again making this a continuation of the previous sentence, though the syntax and the grammar are rather more awkward for the translator on this occasion.
MENUCHATI: What he actually prohibited them from entering was Kena'an itself, insisting that they spend forty years in the desert until that generation had died out. And not much rest when they did eventually get there!
And what an extraordinarily negative note on which to end what was self-advertised as a hymn of joy and celebration! "Let's get up and sing joyously about... how much our god despises us."
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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