TheBibleNet: Psalm 150

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

Like Psalms 13, 29, 62 and 148, this one finds the same word, or words, repeated many times; a technique which has no formal name in English, but is used to enable the writer to explore a concept from multiple perspectives, through mutliple contexts.

150:1 HALELU YAH HALELU EL BE KADSHO HALELUHU BIRKIY'A UZO

הַלְלוּ יָהּ הַלְלוּ אֵל בְּקָדְשׁוֹ הַלְלוּהוּ בִּרְקִיעַ עֻזּוֹ

KJ: Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

BN: Hallelu-Yah. {N} Praise El in his sanctuary; praise Yah in the firmament of his power.

The final Psalm, and it begins with affirmation of the triumphant coup. No need even to name YHVH, because he has absorbed into himself all previous gods and goddesses, including his own father, El, and his own wife, Yah. Shem'a Yisra-El, YHVH Eloheynu, YHVH Echad. Hear, Yisra-El, YHVH is all our gods, YHVH alone!

And of course, from a scientific point of view, regarding the deity as a metaphor for the workings of the Cosmos, we would whole-heartedly agree: everything in the universe is comprised of the same base molecules, operates on the same helictical principle, and simply has its own variant of genes and forms. And presumably this is what they had come to understand, though there is little evidence - some among the 4th century BCE Greeks, but nothing of significance until Haroun el-Rashid's time, 8th century CE, and then the next leap, in 16th century Europe - that they had any forensic evidence to support their new-found "belief".

Does KH really lower case "Him"? Or it my typing error? Same throughout this Psalm. I think it must be my typing error.

But no. I have checked. It is - check for yourself here.

150:2 HALELUHU VIGVUROTAV HALELUHU KE ROV GUDLO

הַלְלוּהוּ בִגְבוּרֹתָיו הַלְלוּהוּ כְּרֹב גֻּדְלוֹ

KJ: Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

BN: Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him according to his abundant greatness.

150:3 HALELUHU BE TEK'A SHOPHAR HALELUHU BE NEVEL VE CHINOR

הַלְלוּהוּ בְּתֵקַע שׁוֹפָר הַלְלוּהוּ בְּנֵבֶל וְכִנּוֹר

KJ: Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

BN: Praise him with trumpet-calls; praise him with psaltery and harp.

There are no definite articles in this list.

TEK'A: Not just a general "sound", but a very specific one. This is the Tekiy'a, a single long note, as opposed to the Teru'ah or the Shevarim; but not the full Tekiy'a Gedolah - click here for a fuller explanation.

150:4 HALELUHU VE TOPH U MACHOL HALELUHU BE MINIM VE UGAV

הַלְלוּהוּ בְתֹף וּמָחוֹל הַלְלוּהוּ בְּמִנִּים וְעוּגָב

KJ: Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

BN: Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with stringed instruments and pipe.

TOPH...: See my essay on the Musical Instruments.

150:5 HALELUHU VE TSILTSELEY SHAMA HALELUHU BE TSILTSELEY TERU'AH

הַלְלוּהוּ בְצִלְצְלֵי שָׁמַע הַלְלוּהוּ בְּצִלְצְלֵי תְרוּעָה

KJ: Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

BN: Praise him with the loud-sounding cymbals; praise him with the clanging cymbals.

VE TSILTSELEY... BE TSILTSELEY: Now I know I can be very dense, and it is probably extremely obvious, but I cannot fathom how the identical word with the identical prepositional prefix and the absolutely identical meaning, can be medugash on one occasion, but not on the other. Email or text your explanation to GuideForTheStillDeeplyPerplexed@Maimon.com

Very useful to the historian, especially the musicologist, a Psalm like this one. Every instrument in the Temple orchestra gets named - much in the way that rock stars introduce the bass guitarist and the backing vocalists late on in the concert; and you name everyone or no one, for obvious reasons, so if these are all the instruments that get named, then these must be all the instruments that there were, and so we can list them, and understand the accoustics and the harmonies and the rest of the orchestration much more fully:

SHOPHAR: Trumpet
NEVEL: Psaltery
CHINOR: Harp
TOPH: Drum or probably tambourine
MACHOL: Dance, but possibly castanets in the hands of the dancers
MINIM: Stringed instruments: lyre, ud (lute), small harp
UGAV: Organ (more likely pan pipes?)

TSILTSELEY SHAMA: treble cymbals

TSILTSELEY TERU'AH: bass cymbals or snare drum, and that word Teru'ah attached here, as it is with the Shofar.

This is a reasonable guess, and a reasonable guess is the most we can do (as stated above, much more at my linked essay).

150:6 KOL HA NESHAMAH TEHALEL YAH HALELU YAH

כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָהּ הַלְלוּ יָהּ

KJ: Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

BN: Let every thing that has breath praise Yah. {S} Hallelu Yah. {P}

KOL HA NESHAMAH: One of the most popular of the non-liturgical songs in contemporary Judaism, sung at school assemblies and even among the cheerleaders at inter-club basketball tournaments and the Maccabbee games. Just this last verse though: "Halelu, halelu, halelu", and then again, and then a third time, and then this final verse: "Kol hanshama", squashed down to just four syllables, "tehalel Yah, hal'e hal'e lu Yah"... and then again... great fun.

YAH: And just to make the point absolutely clear, not once but twice, and the very last words of the entire Psaltery. YHVH is now YAH, YAH is now YHVH. The Omnideity rules, now and for all time. Women, go organise the kiddush, we men will be hungry and thirsty when we have finished praying.

And that is all there is for this Psalm. No theology, no derogations of the "heathens", no history, no teaching, no mythology... just praise. And what else is needed, for the closing Psalm, at the end of what has turned out to be an epic tale, told through the Psalms: the journey of YHVH from volcano-god to Omnideity, the journey of the Beney Yisra-El as his AVADIM - equally his servants and his worshippers.

And though it may be the end of the anthology, it isn't actually the end of the Book of Psalms, as far as TheBibleNet is concerned. At least ten more Psalms are known, but not included in the Biblical anthology; plus variations within the Tanach. Click on Psalm 151 in SurfTheSite (below), and keep on following from there.