Rearranged links

The other day I mistakenly printed a blog entry and got 16 pages of scrap. So I have turfed the snippet from the blog list - TMI as they say.

I have added links to my own smoothed second draft translations. In all cases these are largely English only and text only in contrast to my first draft which was done with a diagramming tool and is slavishly literal as to word order in order to hear and see micro structures.

I have added a link to a review of books on the Psalms from 1985-1999 (courtesy of John Hobbins whose site has innumerable useful links). It is curious to me that I have glanced at and even studied a few of the books listed. Here's a snippet:

Each of the five "books" within the Psalter is concluded by a psalm ending with a short doxology (Psalms 41, 72, 89, 106, 145). An important indicator not only of the Psalter's structure but also of one of its themes is the occurrence of royal psalms at significant junctures (Psalms 2, 72, 89), a point noted already by Claus Westermann and Brevard Childs. For Wilson, the fact that these psalms occur early in the Psalter, in Books I-III, whereas after this, the focus is on psalms of Yahweh's kingship (Psalms 93-99, 145), is significant. He sees in Psalm 89 signs that the Davidic monarchy has "failed" and therefore, in Books IV-V, royal psalms are deemphasized and Yahweh's kingship hailed (especially in Psalms 93-99), as the Psalter proclaims Yahweh's kingship above all else.

Wilson speaks in a more recent essay of a "Royal Covenantal Frame" to the Psalter, consisting of the royal Psalms 2, 72, 89, and 144, and a "Final Wisdom Frame," consisting of Psalms 1, 73, 90, 107, and 145 (the first psalms of Books I, III, IV, and V, along with the final psalm of Book V proper).

It seems that structural and holistic approaches to the Psalter are 'in the air' and I have picked up the disease, dis ease that is with too great an emphasis on archeological approaches to communication with the ancient authors.

In truth, I do not yet know what I will discover - even after 2 years of close study in this bootstrap learning that I am doing. All helps are welcome from people and books, online and offline, subliminal and opportunistic - but I must continue to do the homework myself. And I think I am getting some help - with Thanks to All and Sundry.

I can report that after two years, I can almost dream the alef-bet in sequence. Also, even with a few weeks off, the Hebrew reading is a little easier today than it was three months ago. I maintain my learn-it-like-a-child attitude. Children do not memorize grammar and they use words but do not memorize them. Slow it is, but the brain still works. I tell you this also - that teaching is the best learning process. I am hearing Mendelssohn's great setting of Psalm 55 in my head: הַאֲזִינָה אֱלֹהִים תְּפִלָּתִי Hear my prayer, O God.