TheBibleNet: Psalm 98

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

Another of the happy-clappy sing-alongs - the phrase even gets used, in verse 8. Accompanied by musical instruments, as listed in verses 5 and 6. Rather more Welsh valley or black baptist church than Wesleyan chapel! In the Jewish context, summer camp, though that mobile Renewalist shul in New York City is a possible alternative.

98:1 MIZMOR SHIRU LA YHVH SHIR CHADASH KI NIPHLA'OT ASAH HOSHIY'AH LO YEMIYNO U ZERO'A KADSHO

מִזְמוֹר שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה שִׁיר חָדָשׁ כִּי נִפְלָאוֹת עָשָׂה הוֹשִׁיעָה לּוֹ יְמִינוֹ וּזְרוֹעַ קָדְשׁוֹ

KJ (King James translation): (A Psalm.) O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

BN (BibleNet translation): A song with musical accompaniment. Sing to YHVH a new song. For he has done marvellous things. {N} His right hand, and his holy arm, have wrought salvation for him.

No title; MIZMOR serves as a descriptor, possibly a stage direction, and should not be sung; the rest of the opening verse is the song itself.

HOSHIY'AH: As opposed to Mashiyach, though the YEMIYNO will add that as well.

YEMIYNO: I have commented before on this, but it has never been so overtly and explicitly stated in any text before: the "right hand", the Bin-Yamin, is the earthly representative of the deity in the political realm, which is to say the king. The youngest of the sons of Ya'akov, in a world of ultimogeniture; and of course the capital city, Yeru-Shala'im, is in the tribal territory of Bin-Yamin.

ZERO'A KADSHO: While the "holy arm" is the earthly representative of the deity in the spiritual realm, which is to say the clergy. Note that ZERO'A picks up OR ZARU'A from verse 11 in the previous Psalm.

98:2 HODIY'A YHVH YESHUA'TO LE EYNEY HA GOYIM GILAH TSIDKATO

הוֹדִיעַ יְהוָה יְשׁוּעָתוֹ לְעֵינֵי הַגּוֹיִם גִּלָּה צִדְקָתוֹ

KJ: The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

BN: YHVH has made his salvation known; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

GOYIM: I have made this comment many times, I know, but some readers will come to this page who have not visited those others, so they will not know this: GOYIM means "nations"; it is an ethnic descriptor, not a theological criticism.

98:3 ZACHAR CHASDO VE EMUNATO LE VEIT YISRA-EL RA'U CHOL APHSEY ARETS ET YESHU'AT ELOHEYNU

זָכַר חַסְדּוֹ וֶאֱמוּנָתוֹ לְבֵית יִשְׂרָאֵל רָאוּ כָל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ אֵת יְשׁוּעַת אֱלֹהֵינוּ

KJ: He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

BN: He has remembered his loving-kindness and his fidelity toward the house of Yisra-El. {N} All the ends of the Earth have seen the salvation of our deity.

98:4 HARIY'U LA YHVH KOL HA ARETS PITS'CHU VE RANENU VE ZAMERU

הָרִיעוּ לַיהוָה כָּל הָאָרֶץ פִּצְחוּ וְרַנְּנוּ וְזַמֵּרוּ

KJ: Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

BN: Shout out to YHVH, all the Earth. Break out into joyful singing, and praise him.

98:5 ZAMRU LA YHVH BE CHINOR BE CHINOR VE KOL ZIMRAH

זַמְּרוּ לַיהוָה בְּכִנּוֹר בְּכִנּוֹר וְקוֹל זִמְרָה

KJ: Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

BN (provisional): Make music for YHVH with the harp; with the harp and the harmonies of the voice.

KOL ZIMRAH: I wonder if this might have been written down incorrectly in the original, transcribed while hearing it, or from memory afterwards. Yehudit has two homonyms, and two homophones too: one is Kol with a Kaph (כ) and the other is Kol with a Kuph (ק), and we have the latter here; but if we had the former, it would translate as "Sing with the harp, and with every instrument", which would make the repetition much more logical, the link with the following verse likewise, and save us having to force a meaningful translation on a phrase that isn't really open to "the voice of melody", because the ZEMER is the instrument, the playing of the tune rather than the tune itself, or the words that accompany it; and definitely not KJ's ultimately meaningless "a psalm".

One last thought, which I think confirms this. The Psalm is denoted as a MIZMOR, not a MIZMOR SHIR. And yes, there are words to accompany the music, but they are pop-lyrics, nursery-rhymes, not poetry; if this were about the "harmonies of the voice", it would surely be a MIZMOR SHIR, and the quality of the words would reflect that.

BN (revised translation): Make music for YHVH with the harp; with the harp and with every instrument.

98:6 BA CHATSOTSROT VE KOL SHOPHAR HARIY'U LIPHNEY HA MELECH YHVH

בַּחֲצֹצְרוֹת וְקוֹל שׁוֹפָר הָרִיעוּ לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ יְהוָה

KJ: With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

BN: With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout out before the King, YHVH.

And having called for "every instrument", it now names them; I can easily imagine the song-leader bringing the soloists on stage one by one, the soloist then joining in as the opening verses get sung again, and then the next soloist, and then the next, until the full band has been presented - just like they do it at rock concerts in our day.

CHATSOTSROT...KOL SHOPHAR: Both are Bible-epoch equivalents of the trumpet; two essential differences: the Chatsotsrah was man-made, using metals, and mostly used for sirens and alarums and movement-signals of a military or security nature see Numbers 10:2; the Shophar (or Shofar, as you prefer) was a ram's horn, cut off but in no way shaped, smoothed or otherwise humanly modified, and used almost exclusively for religious purposes. See my page on "The Musical Instruments of the Bible".

98:7 YIR'AM HA YAM U MELO'O TEVEL VE YOSHVEY VAH

יִרְעַם הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ תֵּבֵל וְיֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ

KJ: Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

BN: Let the sea roar, and everything that lives in it; the world, and all who inhabit it.

98:8 NEHAROT YIMCHA'U CHAPH YACHAD HARIM YERANENU

נְהָרוֹת יִמְחֲאוּ כָף יַחַד הָרִים יְרַנֵּנוּ

KJ: Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together.

BN: Let the floods clap their hands; let the mountains sing for joy together...

This verse enjambs into the ensuing...

98:9 LIPHNEY YHVH KI VAH LISHPOT HA ARETS YISHPOT TEVEL BE TSEDEK VE AMIM BE MEYSHARIM

לִפְנֵי יְהוָה כִּי בָא לִשְׁפֹּט הָאָרֶץ יִשְׁפֹּט תֵּבֵל בְּצֶדֶק וְעַמִּים בְּמֵישָׁרִים

KJ: Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

BN: ...before YHVH, for he is come to judge the Earth. {N} He will judge the world with righteousness, and the people with equity. {P}

AMIM: Which is not the same as GOYIM, though both describe collectives and groups of humans: the latter by nations, the former rather more by tribes.

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Psalms:

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