TheBibleNet: Psalm 143

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

143:1 MIZMOR LE DAVID YHVH SHEM'A TEPHILATI HA'AZIYNAH EL TACHANUNAI BE EMUNAT'CHA ANENI BE TSIDKATECHA

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה שְׁמַע תְּפִלָּתִי הַאֲזִינָה אֶל תַּחֲנוּנַי בֶּאֱמֻנָתְךָ עֲנֵנִי בְּצִדְקָתֶךָ

KJ: (A Psalm of David.) Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

BN: A Mizmor for David. {N} YHVH, hear my prayer, listen to my supplications; {N} in your faithfulness answer me, and with justice.

HA'AZIYNAH EL: At Psalm 141:1 I questioned the absence of a transitive preposition (or postposition really)... here it is now; so one or other must be an error in the original text.

TEPHILATAI: See my note at Psalm 142:1.

TACHANUNAI: See the link.

BE TSIDKATECHA: Righteousness is the common translation, though the word for "charity" comes from the same root. I have translated it here as "justice" - which is surely an outcome of righteousness, even a precondition of it - because the concept of MISHPAT comes up in the next verse, a very different form of Justice, the sentence given to a convicted criminal by a court.

143:2 VE AL TAVO VE MISHPAT ET AVDECHA KI LO YITSDAK LEPHANEYCHA CHOL CHAI

וְאַל תָּבוֹא בְמִשְׁפָּט אֶת עַבְדֶּךָ כִּי לֹא יִצְדַּק לְפָנֶיךָ כָל חָי

KJ: And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

BN: But do not judge me as they do in courts of law; {N} for no human can reach the same level of Justice that you make manifest.

MISHPAT: As explained above, and with YITSDAK in the same sentence, so that the inferences drawn above are clearly present. My translation is rather more interpretative than literal on this occasion.

143:3 KI RADAPH OYEV NAPHSHI DIKAH LA ARETS CHAYATI HOSHIYVANI VE MACHASHAKIM KE METEY OLAM

כִּי רָדַף אוֹיֵב נַפְשִׁי דִּכָּא לָאָרֶץ חַיָּתִי הוֹשִׁיבַנִי בְמַחֲשַׁכִּים כְּמֵתֵי עוֹלָם

KJ: For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

BN: For an enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life down to the ground; {N} he has made me dwell in darkness, like those who have been long dead.

This verse ripostes my claim in the last Psalm, that I couldn't imagine any verse that could better confirm that these Davidic Psalms are the equivalent of Greek Orpheus: the "descent into the Underworld" as a Biblical era mythological equivalent of what we might call "the unconscious" and/or "the inner self" - and here is exactly such a verse (actually there are several others, and it might be amusing to go through and list the Psalms where they appear, and reference them).

OYEV: KJ, and many others, add the definite article, and in doing so, they all being Christian translators, imply Satan, Lucifer, the Devil. But there is no definite article here, and anyway that is not the intention of the verse. In David's case the "enemy" was King Sha'ul, who all Christian (and most Jewish) commentators deny had any connection except coincidence of spelling with the Underworld, so they can't have their cake and eat it.

143:4 VA TIT'ATEPH ALAI RUCHI BETOCHI YISHTOMEM LIBI

וַתִּתְעַטֵּף עָלַי רוּחִי בְּתוֹכִי יִשְׁתּוֹמֵם לִבִּי

KJ: Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

BN: And my spirit is collapsing inside me; my heart is shattered.

Or how about, picking up my comparisons in Psalm 139:

BN: (literary translation): And my spirit is plathed and sextoned, my heart has been havishamed.

Havisham? Yes, for the alliteration. But why not Bovaried? Karenina'ed? Gablered? For Miss Havisham and the tragic tale of her eternally worn wedding dress, click here, or better still here.

VA TIT'ATEPH: More of less parallels Psalm 142:4. But the context suggests that the other usage of the root ATAPH is intended here: "turned aside" in Psalm 142, "overwhelmed" here.

ALAI...BETOCHI: Interesting to see that the non-physical Ru'ach faints "above", where we would expect to find the Ru'ach Elohim, based on Genesis 1; while the physical heart, being physical, is where it too should be, "inside" him.

YISHTOMEM: One more for the double-letter list.

143:5 ZACHARTI YAMIM MI KEDEM HAGIYTI VE CHOL PA'ALECHA BE MA'ASEH YADEYCHA ASOCHE'ACH

זָכַרְתִּי יָמִים מִקֶּדֶם הָגִיתִי בְכָל פָּעֳלֶךָ בְּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ אֲשׂוֹחֵחַ

KJ: I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

BN: I have remembered the days of old; I have meditated on all your deeds; {N} now I will muse on the work of your hands.

The KJ makes this sound like mere nostalgia, but the Yehudit presents the first two verbs in the past tense, and the third in the future. This is a man making supplication, after all; there are fixed liturgies and ceremonies and rites for this, and he wants to make clear that he is following them, that he has reached this stage. First you have to study history, which is done by studying Torah and Tanach. Knowledge of the laws and ceremonies comes by default through the same process. Now you can plan your own future.

143:6 PERASTI YADAI ELEYCHA NAPHSHI KE ERETS AYEPHAH LECHA (SELAH)

פֵּרַשְׂתִּי יָדַי אֵלֶיךָ נַפְשִׁי כְּאֶרֶץ עֲיֵפָה לְךָ סֶלָה

KJ: I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

BN: I have stretched out my hands towards you; my soul [thirsts] after you like a weary land. (Selah)

Which is of course deeply ironic, as David in his mythological role is the Lord of the Fertile Earth; but here he is the Fisher King in metaphorical deep mid-winter, locked in the dead land, and so of course his lilacs are wilting for lack of water, and there is no force available to drive the green fuse through the flower.

PERASTI: We have witnessed this formal posture of prayer on several occasions, but I don't recall that PERASTI was the verb used previously. Perhaps it is specific to the act of supplication.

143:7 MAHER ANENI YHVH KALTAH RUCHI AL TASTER PANEYCHA MIMENI VE NIMSHALTI IM YORDEY BOR

מַהֵר עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה כָּלְתָה רוּחִי אַל תַּסְתֵּר פָּנֶיךָ מִמֶּנִּי וְנִמְשַׁלְתִּי עִם יֹרְדֵי בוֹר

KJ: Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

BN: Answer me speedily, YHVH, my spirit is failing; {N} do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those who go down into the pit.

TASTER PANEYCHA: confirming my comment in the previous verse. When the sun-god conceals his face... the opposite of YEVARECHECHA, which is what David is really requesting.

YORDEY BOR: Lots of different metaphors for the Underworld in these texts; this one is best known from the Yoseph tale - see Genesis 37:20, and several more occurrences in the chapters that follow.

143:8 HASHMIY'ENI VA BOKER CHASDECHA KI VECHA VATACHTI HODIY'ENI DERECH ZU ELECH KI ELEYCHA NASA'TI NAPHSHI

הַשְׁמִיעֵנִי בַבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ כִּי בְךָ בָטָחְתִּי הוֹדִיעֵנִי דֶּרֶךְ זוּ אֵלֵךְ כִּי אֵלֶיךָ נָשָׂאתִי נַפְשִׁי

KJ: Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

BN: Let me hear your lovingkindness in the morning, for in you have I placed my trust; {N} let me know which road I should go by, for to you I have lifted up my soul.

HASHMIY'ENI: The grammatical form is Hiph'il, which is "causative", but there are many ways to "cause" something, and I don't think David is inviting coercion here.

Insomnia by night, sleep apnoeia by day! And do not ask for whom the bell-jar rings, it rings for thee... once again I find myself hearing in these ancient Psalms of deep introspection verging on the edges of despair, the modern equivalents already named or alluded to above, but also the Shakespeare of "Timon of Athens" and parts of both "Hamlet" and "Macbeth", the Metaphysical poets like Donne, Coleridge in his dejection, Melville's Bartleby...

DERECH: Rather than HALACHAH or NETIYVAH - you will have to surf several of the Psalms since 119 to understand the significant differences between these three.

143:9 HATSIYLENI ME OYEVAI YHVH ELEYCHA CHISITI

הַצִּילֵנִי מֵאֹיְבַי יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ כִסִּתִי

KJ: Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

BN: Deliver me from my enemies, YHVH; with you have I hidden myself.

OYEVAI: Singular at verse 3, plural now, but clearly the same are intended; so, again, that added definite article must be an error.

143:10 LAMDENI LA'ASOT RETSONECHA KI ATAH ELOHAI RUCHACHA TOVAH TANCHENI BE ERETS MIYSHOR

לַמְּדֵנִי לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ כִּי אַתָּה אֱלוֹהָי רוּחֲךָ טוֹבָה תַּנְחֵנִי בְּאֶרֶץ מִישׁוֹר

KJ: Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

BN: Guide me as I learn to do your will, for you are my god; {N} let your good spirit lead me in a righteous land.

LAMDENI: See my previous notes on the difference between "front-loaded teaching" and "facilitated learning"; several Psalms, but especially 119.

ELOHAI: The Elohim are the kinetic impulses, the dynamic forces, that drive the Cosmos, the E of Einstein's famous theorem. Whence my use of the Dylan Thomas at verse 6; though I might not have done so were it not for verse 12, as well as this.

TANCHENI: Purely as a homophone, but the acronym TANACH is unmissable here.

ERETS MIYSHOR: References galore in which this is merely a geograpical description (click here). But that cannot be the intention in Psalm 67:4, nor in Isaiah 11:4. And neither is it here. "Levelness", which is the literal meaning of MIYSHOR, can be a moral virtue as much as it can be a plateau.

143:11 LEMA'AN SHIMCHA YHVH TECHAYENI BE TSIDKAT'CHA TOTSIY MI TSARAH NAPHSHI

לְמַעַן שִׁמְךָ יְהוָה תְּחַיֵּנִי בְּצִדְקָתְךָ תוֹצִיא מִצָּרָה נַפְשִׁי

KJ: Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.

BN: For your name's sake, YHVH, quicken me; in your righteousness bring my soul out of distress.

TECHAYENI: Quicken me. Drive me into life. Make my pulse tick to its optimum. Enfuse my green flower. Ring that bell-jar! From pole to pole, the eddying of her living soul.

143:12 U VE CHASDECHA TATSMIT OYEVAI VE HA'AVADETA KOL TSORAREY NAPHSHI KI ANI AVDECHA

וּבְחַסְדְּךָ תַּצְמִית אֹיְבָי וְהַאֲבַדְתָּ כָּל צֹרֲרֵי נַפְשִׁי כִּי אֲנִי עַבְדֶּךָ

KJ: And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

BN: And in your loving-kindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who harass my soul; for I am your worshipper. {P}

TATSMIT: Cut off is euphemistic. This is Dalek-language, Hamas-language. "Exterminate".

AVDECHA: The same old problem of this word: or maybe the two meant the same thing in those days.

Not for the first time a Psalm of twelve verses. One for each night of the round table (spelling is correct in that statement); one for each knightly disciple seated there.

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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