TheBibleNet: Psalm 99

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

No title, no descriptor, no dedication, just still more happy-clappy. And again very brief. YHVH has become the Omnideity in Book Four, and these are the hymns that welcome and honour him in his Life-Presidency.

99:1 YHVH MALACH YIRGEZU AMIM YOSHEV KERUVIM TANUS HA ARETS

יְהוָה מָלָךְ יִרְגְּזוּ עַמִּים יֹשֵׁב כְּרוּבִים תָּנוּט הָאָרֶץ

KJ (King James translation): The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

BN (BibleNet translation): YHVH reigns. Let the nations tremble. He is enthroned between the keruvim. Let the Earth quake.

YHVH MALACH: MALACH could be translated as "is king", because a MELECH is a king. But the root is HALACH, meaning "to go", in the Hiph'il or Causative form, which "makes go" other people, which is what a leader or a ruler does.

KERUVIM: Just to be clear, the "cherubims", as they are mispronounced in English, were not little babies in diapers with adult faces and wings, but very frighteningly large mythological creatures, who stood, like Bo'az and Yachin, or maybe they were themselves Bo'az and Yachin, as sentries to the doorway of the First Temple in Yeru-Shala'im (probably not the Second Temple), as they did in all Babylonian temples. Full detail and illustrations here. (No, let's have an illustration here as well: this one is in the British Museum, from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud in northern Iraq, 9th century BCE.) And why, or how, did they get that mediaeval translation? Now there's a research project for you to undertake on your own: and while you're looking, ask why all shrines to Guinevere turn out to be holy places of St Margaret of Antioch, and how did the ancient corn dollie used as a scarecrow and burned in mock-crucifixion at the autumn harvest, turn into a Gunpowder Plotter? Same answer to all three.

99:2 YHVH BE TSI'ON GADOL VE RAM HU AL KOL HA AMIM

יְהוָה בְּצִיּוֹן גָּדוֹל וְרָם הוּא עַל כָּל הָעַמִּים

KJ: The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.

BN: YHVH in Tsi'on is magnificent; he is the father of the nations.

GADOL: Syntax is everything here.

TSI'ON: See the link.

RAM: Can mean "high", as in RAMOT, which are "high-places"; but in the name of the patriarch Av-Ram it means "father", and the Keturah list in Genesis makes the connection with this rendering. Probably the word-play inviting both meanings is intentional.
And note that RAM HU, grammatically reverses HU RAM, which is the sobriquet of the great king Ashmun-Ezer of Tsur, usually known in English simply as Hiram of Tyre.

99:3 YODU SHIMCHA GADOL VE NORA KADOSH HU

יוֹדוּ שִׁמְךָ גָּדוֹל וְנוֹרָא קָדוֹשׁ הוּא

KJ: Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.

BN: Let them praise your name as magnificent and wonderful - it is holy -

the sentence continues, after the hyphen, in the next verse...

99:4 VE OZ MELECH MISHPAT AHEV ATAH KONANTA MEYSHARIM MISHPAT U TSEDAKAH BE YA'AKOV ATAH ASIYTA

וְעֹז מֶלֶךְ מִשְׁפָּט אָהֵב אַתָּה כּוֹנַנְתָּ מֵישָׁרִים מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה בְּיַעֲקֹב אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ

KJ: The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.

BN: ... and the might of the king who loves justice. {N} You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness among Ya'akov.

YA'AKOV: Why the reversion to Yisra-El's birth-name? Is it because Yisra-El was his kingly name, and the author did not wish to have two kings in the same Psalm, confusing the eartly surrogate with the divine?

99:5 ROMEMU YHVH ELOHEYNU VE HISHTACHAVU LA HADOM RAGLAV KADOSH HU

רוֹמְמוּ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַהֲדֹם רַגְלָיו קָדוֹשׁ הוּא

KJ: Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.

BN: Exalt YHVH our god, and prostrate yourselves at his footstool; he is holy.

When the Torah scrolls are taken out of the Ark for the readings on Shabat, they are accompanied in procession around the synagogue by the singing of a hymn which is essentially a Cento, a song made out of lines taken from elsewhere. On this occasion the "Eyn Kamocha", as it is called from its opening phrase, is constructed (in this order) from Psalm 86:8, Psalm 145:13, Exodus 15:18, Psalm 29:11, Psalm 51:20, Numbers 10:35, Isaiah 2:3, Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Chronicles 29:11, and its last two lines come from this Psalm 99, this verse first, and then verse 9.

99:6 MOSHEH VE AHARON BE CHOHANAV U SHEMU-EL BE KOREY SHEMO KOR'IM EL YHVH VE HU YA'ANEM

מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן בְּכֹהֲנָיו וּשְׁמוּאֵל בְּקֹרְאֵי שְׁמוֹ קֹרִאים אֶל יְהוָה וְהוּא יַעֲנֵם

KJ: Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.

BN: Mosheh and Aharon among his priests, and Shemu-El among those who call on his name, {N} they called on YHVH, and he answered them.

Just as all the gods and goddesses have to be absorbed into the new theology of the Omnideity, so that it now becomes understood that they were always just his toe-nail and the mole on his cheek, rather than separate beings, so all of human history has to be absorbed as well, and Av-Ram didn't worship El Shadai, nor Yitschak El Elyon, but it was always and only YHVH. So, too, the answer to the question about the Keruvim and St Margaret and the Guy Faux above.

SHEMU-EL: And why name Shemu-El, rather than any of the other Prophets? Because he was the first. Before him only Shophtim, Judges. No need to do later history once the starting-poing is established. Plus: it was Shemu-El who chose David, and inspired him to establish the Temple.

99:7 BE AMUD ANAN YEDABER ALEYHEM SHAMRU EDOTAV VE CHOK NATAN LAMO

בְּעַמּוּד עָנָן יְדַבֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם שָׁמְרוּ עֵדֹתָיו וְחֹק נָתַן לָמוֹ

KJ: He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.

BN: He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes , and the laws that he gave them.

And this link even more essential to the completion, because there will always be people like me who will ask: but the original YHVH, Exodus 3 with the burning bush, and then the wilderness journey as per this verse, he was a volcano god, not a universal creator. True, and Vladimir Putin was once a mere trainee with the KGB, and Dionysus looked after his fellow-goats in the foothills of Mount Olympus.

CHOKIM: For an explanation of the difference between the CHOKIM, the MISHPATIM and the MITSVOT, click here. EDOTAV is a compound of all three.

99:8 YHVH ELOHEYNU ATAH ANIYTAM EL NOS'E HAYIYTA LAHEM VE NOKEM AL ALIYLOTAM

יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ אַתָּה עֲנִיתָם אֵל נֹשֵׂא הָיִיתָ לָהֶם וְנֹקֵם עַל עֲלִילוֹתָם

KJ: Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.

BN: You answered them, YHVH our god; {N} you were a forgiving god to them, though you took revenge for their misdeeds.

Which I guess is also a way of saying "we forgive you too" to the deity.

99:9 ROMEMU YHVH ELOHEYNU VE HISHTACHAVU LE HAR KADSHO KI KADOSH YHVH ELOHEYNU

רוֹמְמוּ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְהַר קָדְשׁוֹ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ

KJ: Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.

BN: Exalt YHVH our god, and prostrate yourselves on his holy hill; {N} for YHVH our god is holy. {P}

See my note to verse 5. The hill in question is Har Tsi'on, the site of the Temple.

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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