Psalm 133 - and its grammar

This is an odd presentation of Psalm 133. It happened sort of by accident. Green is for grammar.

A song of the steps of David See how fine and how pleasing it is that brothers live as one

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב וּמַה נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם יָחַד

like the finest oil on the head dribbling on the beard the beard of Aaron dribbling to the mouth of his clothes

כַּשֶּׁמֶן הַטּוֹב עַל הָרֹאשׁ יֹרֵד עַל הַזָּקָן זְקַן אַהֲרֹן שֶׁיֹּרֵד עַל פִּי מִדּוֹתָיו

like the dew of Hermon dribbling on the mountains of Zion for there יְהוָה constituted the blessing life for ever

כְּטַל חֶרְמוֹן שֶׁיֹּרֵד עַל הַרְרֵי צִיּוֹן כִּי שָׁם צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת הַבְּרָכָה חַיִּים עַד הָעוֹלָם

שִׁיר	A song of	construct
הַמַּעֲלוֹת	the steps	feminine plural
לְדָוִד	of David	proper name, David with preposition
הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב	See how good	adverb - no agreement in gender or number
וּמַה נָּעִים	and how pleasant	adverb - again no agreement in gender or number
שֶׁבֶת	to live	infinitive in construct, weak root ישב
אַחִים גַּם יָחַד	brothers as one	masculine plural
כַּשֶּׁמֶן	as oil	- is this construct?
הַטּוֹב	the good
עַל הָרֹאשׁ	on the head	definite head - almost like English generic definite!
יֹרֵד עַל הַזָּקָן	running down on the beard	yored - the sound of brooks running - or singing! like shir which this psalm is, definite beard
זְקַן אַהֲרֹן	the beard of Aaron	specific priestly beard
שֶׁיֹּרֵד	that is running	the grammatical use of shin
עַל פִּי	to the mouth of	construct
מִדּוֹתָיו	his clothes	plural with possessive pronoun third person masculine singular
כְּטַל חֶרְמוֹן	as dew of Hermon	construct
שֶׁיֹּרֵד	that is running	repetition
עַל הַרְרֵי	to the mountains of	construct plural
צִיּוֹן	Zion
כִּי שָׁם	for there
צִוָּה	commanded	third person piel (this verb is always piel - intensive) singular. You can't see the piel from the consonants alone. So was the piel made up later than the written texts?
יְהוָה	the LORD
אֶת הַבְּרָכָה	+ the blessing	a definite blessing
חַיִּים	life	life - plural!
עַד הָעוֹלָם	to the age	another definite age - life to eternity

The grammar of Psalm 117

הַלְלוּ אֶת יְהוָה כָּל גּוֹיִם	Praise יהוה all nations
שַׁבְּחוּהוּ כָּל הָאֻמִּים	congratulate him all the peoples
כִּי גָבַר עָלֵינוּ חַסְדּוֹ	for his mercy has prevailed against us
וֶאֱמֶת יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם	and the truth of יהוה is forever
הַלְלוּ יָהּ	Praise Yah

I had a dream in the early morning and I should have immediately written it down because I forgot its clarity though not its intent. The intent is to do for the shortest psalm what I am in the process of doing for Ruth - grammar, letter by letter, word by word, phrase by phrase, meaning, textual allusions, structural form, and whatever else I can find out as I move from my native tongue to the Hebrew thought that the NT presents in translation on behalf of the Gentiles.

Structurally, the psalm opens and closes with a varied pair of brackets. The opening bracket also plays a second structural role in the first of two bi-cola. Congratulate? I chose this term to stop a mindless quick read of praise or laud. It is better if it is more like 'well done, my love.' The second 'parallel' is also surprising. The reason given for congratulations is stronger than God's desire for mercy. It has prevailed - past, completed, as in the flood waters prevailing over the earth. There seems a finality in the promise of mercy that cannot be undone. This truth is faithful in all respects and in all ages. It's a bi-colon, but not a parallel of similarity, or even of tense. Instead our reason for believing can encompass what is both complete and continuing for ever.

Psalm 117:1 is picked up by Paul (Romans 15:11) as justifying his 'Gospel to the Gentiles'. I see in the Comparative Psalter (Kohlenberger) that the LXX translators chose truth rather than faithfulness for the translation of verse 2. Verse 2 alludes to Exodus 34:6. So the psalm recognizes a universal aspect of God's mercy and lovingkindness as revealed to Moses. As Luther commented somewhere, the entire Gospel is contained in the Psalter. This Psalm implies that the mercy is universally available. Paul recognizes that universal aspect of the revelation in the Scriptures as fully expressed and realized in Jesus, son of God (Romans 1:4).

This psalm has only 17 words - so we can see them all at once. There also seems to be a remarkable foreshadowing of Psalm 118 that I just noticed - only three words are shared between these two psalms (excluding the name and some shorter words) all nations, his mercy, for ever. A curious accident of my now aging algorithm for comparing psalms.

Now here are its letters in two (three) piles - Of 62 letters, only 9 are from the non-grammatical group of 11. Of the remaining 52 letters, 17 are written in grammatical roles (omitting the prepositions from the count) leaving 36, if I haven't miscounted, of the grammatical letters acting as consonants. (Green is for grammatical, Blue for the group of letters that does not play a role in forming prefixes and suffixes, and Orange for the letters of the grammatical group of 11 that are behaving like consonants in this word.)

א
הַלְלוּ אֶת יְהוָה	Praise יהוה	hallu et hashem
כָּל גּוֹיִם	all nations	col goyim
שַׁבְּחוּהוּ כָּל הָאֻמִּים	congratulate him all the peoples	shavxuhu col ha'umim
ב
כִּי גָבַר עָלֵינוּ חַסְדּוֹ	for has prevailed against us his mercy	ci gavar `lenu xesedo
וֶאֱמֶת יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם	and the truth of יהוה is forever	ve'emet hashem l`olam
הַלְלוּ יָהּ	Praise Yah	hallu Yah

א
הַלְלוּ	Praise	2nd person plural imperative, root הלל
אֶת יְהוָה	יהוה	direct object market followed by tetragrammeton
כָּל גּוֹיִם	all nations	all as adjective plural
שַׁבְּחוּהוּ כָּל הָאֻמִּים	congratulate him all the peoples	3rd person singular suffix הוּ following second person plural imperative, root שבח (and I cannot stay with my prodding first translation - be free in him). הָאֻמִּים is plural with definite article הָ and the root word is what? It's rare (Numbers 25:15, and Genesis 25:16) - it is not the usual root for people which would be with an ayin עַם. And though it looks a lot like the word in Psalm 2, וּלְאֻמִּים apparently it is distinguished by all my sources, English, Latin, and Hebrew as different. It is said to be derived from mother - so perhaps all who are born of woman.
ב
כִּי גָבַר עָלֵינוּ חַסְדּוֹ	for it has prevailed towards us his mercy	for - acting as conjunction of purpose strong - towering (Net Bible) root גבר perfect third person singular first person plural pronoun with preposition third person singular pronoun
וֶאֱמֶת יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם	and the truth of יהוה is forever	Truth (LXX) preceded by connector with construct implied making 'the' truth - definite of proper name verbless clause, preposition, a word meaning to the age or forever
הַלְלוּ יָהּ	Praise Yah	closing the opening bracket

A new translation

John Hobbins at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has a new pdf on Psalm 1.

Nice short video here

Thanks again to Mark Goodacre for pointing out this site and there you will find a nice short video on the psalms.

Psalm 23 needs a post... There's more to it than the valley of the shadow of death.

A root map

This is quite remarkable - pick your letter from the drop down lists at the top and then hover over the squares in the displayed grid. Who knows what it might teach about language structures in Hebrew! (HT Karyn)

Beginning work again on the psalms

Some changes in our toolset give me opportunity to revisit the psalter and rework my diagrams from the ground up. I expect this should be another at least year-long project and that I should continue to not be in a rush. To date I have tested the new charting on psalms 1, 2 and 3. Now rather than just tinkering with cosmetics, I need to pay more attention to John's 2 and 3 thesis in the analysis and hearing of phrases. Perhaps I will follow his lead and do more detail on psalm 27 as he has done here.

Thinking on Psalm 2

Such noise - so many words
- they do not seek you
- but what of your people?
They do not stand against you

The light was good - good for whom?
A table is my throne
The chairs have all been moved
I await instructions to depart

Is it a table for enntertainment?
for food? an operating table?
or an altar?

The peoples mutter
they are unconscious of their bonds
and of his bonds too
are they kings?
are they your children?

Is God a boss?

(To paraphrase Browning: When I wrote this God and I know what I was thinking - now only God knows.)

Psalm 1 - a holiday meditation

I have been having a hard time starting to write again after my holiday. I wrote lots with pen and paper on the cruise, but the fourth page has been stopping me from reworking later pages. I had with me only psalms 1, 2 and 149 - as if I could learn from an opening and closing bracket. It strikes me that one should not divide translation into different types as the early posts from Joel Hoffman's blog seem to be doing and as many translators do. Translation must encompass the word for word, the dynamic equivalence, and the idiomatic all at once. Perhaps where there was no idiom a new one will arise from the translation. Perhaps where the literal is impossible, one will pass into equivalence as best as one can, and last but first in my bias, from the point of view of sound rather than meaning alone, one must hear the frame in order to know the content. Yet too - one might at times have to obscure the frame. In these cases, a footnote is important. I sympathize with Joel in his latest post.  A footnote that says 'Hebrew obscure' or unclear, is not very useful information. Obscure to whom? It certainly is obscured to the reader by such a comment.

So here is my meditation on Psalm 1. It is dialogue.
V. Walk stand sit... is that all I do? I thought it wicked to lie down.
R. You abstract wicked. I do not. My wicked are personal, not disembodied. The saints on their bed are blessed. I said nothing about lying down.
V. Blessed? Happy, you mean, don't you? Did you divide the wicked and the righteous from the beginning?
R. It has been mine from the beginning to know the differences between the one and the others.
V. So walk stand sit are a merism for me. And sinners and scornful are a subdivision of wicked. The other trio, advice way seat, is it one also?
R. No they are many and indistinguished.

V. The one has three times as many words as the many! "In your teaching his delight." Do many know your delight that is his teaching? or her teaching?
R.
V. No question. Your teaching becomes his. Learning such inexpressible delight. All senses participate in delight. So there is fruitfulness. The unfaded leaf can be touched. It has heard. It nourishes both itself and others. It propagates. It is deeply known. That is one way, named as such, known in the opening of the ear to learning from you. No other teacher will do though many may stimulate the beginning of the path. But the beginning is also the end for the end is you. That you know this way, their dross consumed, their husk scattered: that too is a type of fruitfulness. There is no point in me without you.

Post # 500 - trying to remember...

I took away with me to Alaska and on the south-bound cruise to Vancouver two 'work'-like things -

1. the Summer edition of JBL in which I read several articles. I very much enjoyed 'The Tale of an Unrighteous Slave' by Fabian Udoh  - a striking review of the parable of the unjust steward, and 'The Jewish Messiahs, the Pauline Christ, and the Gentile Question', by Matthew Novenson. This article was an almost direct anwser to some of my meandering questions on the meaning of Anointed. 
2. my old diagram of Psalm 1, 2 and 149 - just to keep in practice for reading and translation. Without any props or reference grammars, I found my three-year old brain confused over the pronomial suffixes of Psalm 2. Why is the translation not like this?

Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us.
ננתקה את־מוסרותימו ונשליכה ממנו עבתימו

The suffix is a vav - meaning his. It is not a 'hem' meaning theirs. My grammar would not go with me in my head - so now I am back and searching Lambdin - and nowhere can I find a 'them' or 'their' where the word ends in a vav. Similarly in Putnam - a final vav (except for 1st person plural final nun-vav) is always his - never their. What am I failing to remember and failing to see?

Psalm 2 was an early psalm for me - and even a second time through, my familiarity with traditional translations and carefree nature as regards grammar prevented me from seeing this funny problem.

Psalm 1 - revisited

I have not revisited this psalm yet - but John has a number of posts on it beginning here.

Our new technology for charting has almost gotten into the next level of testing - so I have republished here an old image of my diagram for Psalm 1 with new graphs. The other psalms will follow eventually. Nice colors, eh? The profile at the bottom of the image is 'electric'. One day I also will rework the translation - exactly how, I am not sure... but it will be interesting. Maybe I will write a poem.

Bad boy bears

Tagged on Elisha and the two bears - I have answered here.

Posting on Sufficiency

I am going to post from now on - on the Sufficiency blog [now Dust] till I run out of room. Here is a first post on Matthew. I hope also to continue with Ruth and to post some new diagrams and charts on Job and the Psalms.

Psalms and concordant translation

I did not approach the Psalms as I am approaching Job. Job is one book - ostensibly one epic poem. So when it is translated, it should be done with as much attention to the sound and feel of the words as possible. So where Elihu uses the words of Job or Bildad - and he frequently does, the translator should use the same English word so that the hearer can hear the similar sounds in the target language. But with the Psalms I did not begin to do this. ZMR for instance - sing, sing praise, make melody, psalm, hymn etc - I have been quite free with synonyms - or better said - quite careless. The psalms are one book but many poems. Within a poem I may have paid more attention - especially since I was looking for recurring words.

But should the Psalms be translated with such concordance? There are arguments against it - especially if different ages can be discerned. One would not expect Shakespeare to sound like Milton or Eliot. One would expect style and language differences and different nuances in the same sounds.

The psalms have done their job for me and in me - I approached them to learn Hebrew and to hear the ancient mind more fully. I learned much more than this. Now after a few more weeks with Job, I have a long journey back to the first century and then perhaps into my own time as well.

Translating and praying

With John's posts on Psalm 26 I realize afresh not that I should stop translating, but that I should ensure that I read now these prayers as prayers. Psalm 26 is a very good prayer as prayer.

Quiet but still here

Peter Lopez of the Beauty of the Bible has honoured me with a Noblesse Oblige award for this and related blogs. Thank you Peter.

Here is a short list of nominees for the award. May they be creative in their work - Perhaps they will see this on this now low-volume blog, perhaps not.

• Duane at Abnormal Interests
• Irshad Manji at Irshad Manji blog and official website
• Richard at תהלים

Psalms - let's read Greek

Louis Sorenson [Psalms GreekStudy Coordinator] psalms at letsreadgreek.com/psalms is reading some popular psalms in a group - see here for instructions.

I joined in for psalm 1 - but there is not enough time in the day to do a psalm a week and compare 12 translations and translate Job - a job which is all engaging! Besides Greek is even more of a strain than Hebrew for me.

But Psalm 8 - the results on the list - are intriguing - where would I find the results? They are only on the emails received from the list. I say intriguing since none has taken this division of the text - reading roughly as follows (I think this is due to Fokkelman's influence on me about 2 years ago.)

יְהוָה our Lord
how majestic is your name in all the earth

יְהוָה אֲדֹנֵינוּ
מָה-אַדִּיר שִׁמְךָ בְּכָל-הָאָרֶץ

your splendor that is chanted
above the heavens by the mouth
of children and nurselings

אֲשֶׁר תּוּנָּה הוֹדְךָ
עַל-הַשָּׁמָיִם מִפִּי
עוֹלְלִים וְיֹנְקִים

You have set strength for the sake of your foes
that you might rest enemy and vengeance

יִסַּדְתָּ-עֹז לְמַעַן צוֹרְרֶיךָ
לְהַשְׁבִּית אוֹיֵב וּמִתְנַקֵּם

It may be that the Greek versification and reordering of the text does not allow such a reading.

Considering Job and the Psalms

I wondered if the apparently thorough index at the end of J. M. Neale's 4 volume commentary on the Psalms, primitive and medieval writers and from the various office books and hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites. That is indeed the subtitle! I wondered, as I said, if this would provide an insight into relationships between Job and the Psalms - but after a few tests, I think it will not be a quick decision.

This comprehensive index, manually created in a mechanical but pre-electronic time, is a marvel of completeness with respect to the contents of his book. But it is not a companion reading except to the extent that it reflects where Job is referenced in the commentary by those detailed prior authors and rites.

E.g. Job 1:6 Psalm 37:12 - Any relationship at all verbally? None. Job 14:4-5, he notes Psalm 39:5, Job 14:14:19, Psalm 18:3. But no mention of the tree image in Psalm 1 - a possible companion to Job 14. And the Psalm 39 allusion is anticipated by Job 14:13 not verses 4 and 5. Besides this, I must continuously translate Roman numerals to numbers.

There are allusions to the Psalms in Job - some chapters invite a companion reading. I have referenced a few in the translations on Job - but I am not quite ready to try the reverse references. Each allusion needs more than a touch. And each needs a new word in our times.

Parallelism and Grammar

At Narrative and Ontology, Phil Sumpter has asked some close questions on parallelism here, here, and here. There is recognition of parallelism by many writers since Lowth (about whom I will soon read more as background to a study of Hazlitt). Also those I have dabbled in are Kugel, James L., The Idea of Hebrew Poetry, and O'Connor, M., Hebrew Verse Structure.

Many others too, I am sure and most of these allow for positive parallels and negative ones, and some chiastic and some with ellipses (things that the reader must fill in). And some that are not parallels and many times, as does Tur Sinai in his Commentary on Job, it is possible to use the expected parallel to reconstruct or critique some readings. See these articles by John Hobbins here and here.

I just received my copy of the Journal of Biblical Literature and turned to Vertical Grammar of Parallelism in Hebrew Poetry by David Toshio Tsumura. It is well laid out, but I find the spelling out of the meaning of the parallel based on 'vertical' grammar to be disappointing. It reduces the impact of the poem and fractures the meaning of the frame.

He says that parallelism is a device for expressing one thought in two lines. I do not find his reasoning or examples convincing. Every explanation reads flat:

Psalm 47:6 God, the Lord, has gone up with shouts of joy and with the sound of the trumpet.

Psalm 18:12 He made darkness, that is darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies, around him to be his covering, that is, his canopy.

Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place?

This reduction of a poem to one grammatical meaning is not productive. It substitutes explanation for hearing.

The conversation on Phil's blog noted above is revealing and full of questions well-asked and well-answered by John Hobbins among others. So I say, do not look for explanation - look for pattern - and hear the voice of the poet in conversation with God. The best introductory book on Psalms that I have read is this one: Jonathon Magonet, A Rabbi reads the Psalms 1994 (2004). He would never reduce the meaning. He has heard the command to hear too many times to sink to explanations.

Parallelism is a special case of recurrence as John Hobbins notes in his articles cited above. Recurrence is a frame for meaning. The repetition is not subservient or simply coupled, but its redundancy locks in the meaning of the poem. Recurrence may be distant in the poem. From far away an echo will close a bracket and circles will surround the core. It is these circular structures that Magonet illustrates so well and which I have had so much fun looking for in these past two years. They don't subject themselves to a quick taxonomy. Nor will their meanings be exhausted by an explanation.

Psalm 84 revisted

A brief visit here gives a good resolution to the double ellipsis in Psalm 84.10

Fallow time

The Psalms are lying fallow for the moment while I concentrate on Job. Please do move from the fallow field to follow my plough on Sufficiency.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 22

The rare word today is bruise - not מחץ as in Psalm 110:6 - wound, not דכא to be crushed or broken as in Isaiah 53:10, but שוף used only 4 times in the Bible, Genesis 3:15 twice, Job 9:17 who with a tempest bruises me - hence my current interest, and Psalm 139:11 - surely darkness will crush me... remarkable! Not where we might expect it. Traditional translations have cover, I chose crush, but I did not notice the connection with the promise to the woman in Genesis.

Job is capturing all my attention these days - an occasional foray back to psalms ... This word seems structurally insignificant in Job. Just another complaint - all in a day's work.

There's growth and history in these blogs

John Hobbins has a series of posts on Habakkuk, the latest one here. In it he refers to a post from 2 years ago on Selah by Christopher Heard. Note the comment and you will arrive at Duane's Abnormal Interests, another blog on the old languages with at least 2 years history. Blogs are new, so there isn't much history yet. And some blogs are written by learners like me rather than scholars, so they provide a history of a bootstrap rather than the meditation of experience. But hey- you can't have experience without starting somewhere. My first cut at Habakkuk from last January is here.

The problem with history is remembering! I am trying to remember why I translated Habakkuk - maybe because it is a psalm. What will beginning with poetry do to my experience with this tongue? - assuming I live long enough that it might be said of me that I am past my bootstrap (as opposed to past my best by date).

Sage Publications Online

Sage Publications is again offering free online access till April 30

Images of Hornby

Nothing to do with psalms - but over at Sufficiency I am getting so thick with Job, I thought I would put my photo link from the holidays here - it's on a facebook album. (Hope that link works OK.)

For the love of the language

An 11-year old student has overcome the enigma of Hebrew letters in a short three weeks. At his lesson tonight, we read through Psalm 112, reading alternate lines. He corrected me once. Now here is a challenge - I wonder if anyone will respond: Can we develop a series of readings that will cover sufficient memorable vocabulary and be fun and inspiring to read so that at the end of 12 weeks of reading, we would have sufficient vocabulary and usage that grammar and forms would begin to appear before us?

This student is not afraid of memorizing rules. He clearly remembered a few rules from the sections of Putnam that he had read. But to push the University level reading any further would be a mistake at the moment. What is needed is short pithy exercises and translations - then a sorting of all the words and a shaking out of pronouns, prepositions, parsings and other paraphernalia of the language.

What do you think of using the acrostics for just such an exercise? How much vocabulary and grammar would fall from them after three months of reading? It works out to 2315 separate words - here they are. (Update - sorted by root maybe. Update 2 - sorted by psalm etc)

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 21

That day - let it be darkness
let God not ask for it from above
nor let a sunbeam on it shine

Job at the beginning of his opening speech. Can't you just imagine the comic strip 'For better or for worse' and the sunbeam that the little one used to greet?

I have been buried with Job and paying little attention to rare words over here. It turns out that I have seen dozens of linkages in the first five chapters of Job to the Psalms and some of them are rare words in both. If only I would stop long enough to make a note or two - and then be able to find the note!

But here is one - that word 'sunbeam' traditionally rendered as 'light'.

Light rare? What are you saying? Light is that initial statement of faith.

And God saw the light that it was good.
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאֹור כִּי־טֹוב

No this sunbeam is not the אֹור, a word which Job also uses at the end of his first speech:

Why give to the miserable light
לָמָּה יִתֵּן לְעָמֵל אֹור

but the נהר as in the enlightened used in Psalm 34.

הִבִּיטוּ אֵלָיו וְנָהָרוּ וּפְנֵיהֶם אַל־יֶחְפָּרוּ (Psalm 34:5)
him they paid attention to and were radiant,
and their faces were not embarrassed.

I wondered how many words begin with nun and end with resh? Some are among the first we learn in the old grammar books - like lad נער, and river, נהר. That looks so familiar! Light as a river? A stream of light as an ancient metaphor? No. BDB simply lists the second meaning of 'beam' as derived from other languages.

Psalm 107 and the structure of the Psalter

Henry asked for some input on the seam between books 4 and 5 here (but I did respond a bit too quickly - writing is dangerous. I shortchanged the complexity of the doxologies. Here is my penance.)

I had fun rereading these psalms - which of course I encourage all to do .

Apart from seeing the odd relationship between Job and Psalms, I have been idling as you can tell. I have some ideas but am percolating them offline between snatches of Job which itself will be slow going.

I have accepted the challenge

My translation of Job will emerge gradually over the next several months... Here is chapter 1.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 20 - lions

One Lion is rare - but lion is used to translate several words in the Hebrew Bible.

In Psalm 91:13 שחל is used just this one time in the Psalter. It is used 3 times in Job 4:10, 10:16, 28:8, and twice in Hosea 5:14, 13:7 and once in Proverbs 26:13. The more common words כפיר (young - or per Tur Sinai, large lion) and ארי (lion) occur 6 times each in the psalms and many times in the rest of the Bible. (And there are more.)

How do we know what these words mean? Partly by the fact that they are used in parallels. Here's Hosea 5:14.

כִּי אָנֹכִי כַשַּׁחַל לְאֶפְרַיִם
וְכַכְּפִיר לְבֵית יְהוּדָה
אֲנִי אֲנִי אֶטְרֹף וְאֵלֵךְ
אֶשָּׂא וְאֵין מַצִּיל

Here I have marked the lion words and the acts that seem to correspond - (Tur Sinai gives beast for the first word.)

For it is I who am as a lion to Ephraim
and as a young lion to the house of Judah

I, even I Myself will tear and depart
I will carry away and none shall rescue

Do I sense that the young lion tears and departs and the שחל carries away.

How do we interpret the phrase the Lion of Judah given this background? Is the genitive subjective, objective, attributive or of apposition, or should it be considered an accidental genitive? It seems God himself is Judah's Lion and is necessarily a force that both corrects and heals.

Let's test further with Job 4:10-11 where we find all three words and two more לביא (used fourteen times in the Bible - once in Psalm 57:4) and ליש (only 3 times and not at all in the psalms)!

שַׁאֲגַת אַרְיֵה וְקֹול שָׁחַל
וְשִׁנֵּי כְפִירִים נִתָּעוּ
The lion's roaring and the aged lion's voice
and the teeth of the young lions are destroyed
לַיִשׁ אֹבֵד מִבְּלִי־טָרֶף
וּבְנֵי לָבִיא יִתְפָּרָדוּ
The old lion perishes for lack of prey
as the lion's-children are scattered

Notice how the old lion perishes because the young have failed to leave their torn carcasses lying about. And note too the roaring that is attributed to the אַרְיֵה. The word נִתָּעוּ is a hapax - interpreted by BDB as from נתץ through the influence of Aramaic (but see comment).

The search widens, however, so let's try another test, Psalm 57:4

נַפְשִׁי בְּתֹוךְ לְבָאִם אֶשְׁכְּבָה לֹהֲטִים בְּֽנֵי־אָדָם
my life is among lions
and I lie with those on fire
the children of dust
שִׁנֵּיהֶם חֲנִית וְחִצִּים וּלְשֹׁונָם חֶרֶב חַדָּה
their teeth like spears and arrows
and their tongue a sharp sword

Here we have teeth also - but they are those of the children of dust. Perhaps lions were used metaphorically in many places.

With Psalm 91:13 we seem to be able to live with the same interpretation of these words.

עַל־שַׁחַל וָפֶתֶן תִּדְרֹךְ
תִּרְמֹס כְּפִיר וְתַנִּין
you will make your way over lion and adder
you will trample young lion and dragon

Psalm 91 is an answer to Psalm 90, the prayer of Moses that begins Book IV of the Psalter. But we still have only a touch of אַרְיֵה the most common word for lion - part of the circles of animals in Psalm 22. Here we see the tearing action attributed to the אַרְיֵה as well as its roaring. So I guess we have illustrated that we could bear with the possibility that these are all words which may mean 'lion' of various sorts.

פָּצוּ עָלַי
פִּיהֶם אַרְיֵה טֹרֵף וְשֹׁאֵג
They gape at me
their mouths a lion tearing and roaring

This is a word that is rare yet not rare - I will not continue for now the extensive set of examples that could be collected...

reference: Tur Sinai - Commentary on Job 1967

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 19 (Usury)

This is hilarious - to conjoin this psalm's (15) rare word with a time like this where everyone wants leverage and the sub-prime mortgages (defined as bait - with initial interest below prime, then subsequent interest usurious) are in their full extent causing the whole human-enterprise-trust relationship to crash into a wall. Talk about a self-inflicted curse!

Psalm 15:5 (-->) uses נשך (neshek interest) just the once. It is not mentioned again in the psalter; and its parallel שחד (shachad bribe) is used just twice, here and in Psalm 26:10. (-->)

In spite of this linkage, I did not classify these psalms together. Psalms 15 and 24 are clearly a pair. Psalm 26 could be seen as a personal answer to Psalm 1 (and 15 and 24).

How do we do with respect to usury and bribery? When I read the financial pages of the Globe and Mail and consider my own investments, paltry as they are, I wonder who is not implicated in the general problem space. Where is the real solution? And who gets it?

Do I have to, in responsibility for keeping my family, consider how we will survive if I ever retire? Maybe I will never retire!

From Neale in his 4 volume collection of the history of comments on the Psalms (A commentary on the psalms from Primitive and Medieval Writers...) he cites Innocent III:

Only this must be remembered: that there has been great error on the one side or on the other; either in the present practice of allowing, without a scruple, funds, debentures, and the like ; or in the early prohibition to a priest to buy a field in which the seed has just been sown, with the intention of selling the crop, because in so doing he sold time, God's free gift to every one.

Well, we sure are invested in the buying and selling of time. I searched for this quote and found a bunch more, not all of which medieval or romantic age thoughts I would suffer today! From the Rev. Jeremiah O'Callaghan - 1835 here.

Of all the vices that defile and deprave the human heart, avarice, the root of all evils, is the most abhorrent and difficult of cure ; whilst all others wither and cool in his declining years, this gains more strength and fury ; and what renders the prospect of amendment still more remote and arduous, almost all ranks and stations, the young and the old, the male and the female, the bond and the freeman, are more or less infected ; all aiming, though by different rentes, at the temple of Mammon. When vice thus spreads through the community, assuming the garb of virtue, who could think of resisting it ? That usury would ever be adopted, in any Christian country, as the means of making riches, puzzles all people that have not lost, or never received the light of faith : they are for "ever discussing the question in public and in private ; in the school and at table ; never finding any balm or palliative for it in the Sacred Rules Scripture and Tradition."

Ah - the origin of many of the left-winged middle class of today I see here. Here is a bit from the same book quoting Innocent III.

We received your questions regarding the usurers, who make their debtors take an oath not to remand the usury, and raise no question about the usury they might have paid them. We do therefore reply, that you are to compel these usurers by Church censures, without appeal, to desist, prior to the payment of the usury, from exacting it, or to restore it after the payment be made, for fear it would happen that they would reap benefit from their fraud and deceit.' Innocent III. to the Bishop Mutin, An. 1213.

I wonder if the deposed Chairman of the Bank of Scotland will repay anything of his £650,000 per year pension for his collaboration in the greatest loss of the century. See Bishop Alan's blog here. (The video is not bad, though they got the definition of sub-prime wrong in my opinion. The second video is hilarious.)

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 18

February has been a slow month. I turn my computer off frequently. And I have been waiting for some new tools to be signed in for testing. I have come across a few rare words since my 17th post on the subject at the end of January. Here are a pair from Psalm 12: זלות glossed as 'vile' used once only in this form from זלל used 8 times in the rest of the Bible. It is curious that spellings vary even for such a rare word. זלות is listed in my Hebrew Latin concordance as זלת and זלל as זולל. All the vowels are -u- with or without the mater.

The general tone of this word is vile. In Latin: vilitas, ignominia. In its purer form: prodigum abiectum vilum esse, Niphal concuti, contremere. Don't they all sound ugly - real Dark Arts stuff. (Oh and I have been reading Harry Potter).

Another rarity in this psalm: זקק - purify - variously rendered in the KJV in the 7 other places it is used outside the psalter: refined, fine, pour, purify, purge. The Latin concordance gives percolare, liquare, purgare, fundere, solvere. Makes one think more about how fire purifies. (Yes this is the one in Malachi 3:3 that Handel set to those singing exercises.)

The other cool word in Psalm 12 is גמר, used 5 times in the Psalter and nowhere else. KJV renders it 5 different ways: cease 1, fail 1, come to an end 1, perfect 1, perform 1.

How did I do with this word? Is it structurally significant in the Psalms? I note another unique word used in the parallel - This one shows there are two hapax words פסס unique in Bible see also Psalm 72:16 פסה (and a touch of corn in the earth).

I was equally variable - and I ponder what to do here:

Psalm 7:9

Mature the fruits of wickedness
and steady the righteous
and test hearts and vital centres
O God of righteousness
My shield is of God delivering the upright of heart
God judges right and God is indignant every day

Psalm 12:1

Save יְהוָה, for ceased are the merciful
for vanished are the faithful
among the children of dust

Psalm 57:2

I will call to God Most High
to God who fulfills all for me

Psalm 77:8

in the ages to come will the Lord reject?
will he never again be favorable?
has his mercy ceased in perpetuity?
a word from generation to generation ended?
has the One forgotten grace?
as if his tender mercies were shut up in anger?

Psalm 138:8

יְהוָה will complete his work for my sake
יְהוָה your mercy is forever
do not forsake the work of your hands

There is a certain irony in the 'mature' of Psalm 7, resigned lament in psalm 12, a similar lament in psalm 77, and hope expressed by this word in psalms 57 and 138. Most of these English nuances can be contained in the ambiguous 'bring to an end' - the question is 'what end?'. The answer in Christ is to the death that is in his cross - a unique destruction for the wicked and the hope of all. For whatever is conformed to his death awakens to new life now and in the age to come.

Psalm 139 - aporia in verse 16

לֹא-נִכְחַד עָצְמִי, מִמֶּךָּ: אֲשֶׁר-עֻשֵּׂיתִי בַסֵּתֶר; רֻקַּמְתִּי, בְּתַחְתִּיּוֹת אָרֶץ.	15 My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
גָּלְמִי, רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ, וְעַל-סִפְרְךָ, כֻּלָּם יִכָּתֵבוּ: יָמִים יֻצָּרוּ; ולא (וְלוֹ) אֶחָד בָּהֶם.	16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, and in Thy book they were all written-- even the days that were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
וְלִי--מַה-יָּקְרוּ רֵעֶיךָ אֵל; מֶה עָצְמוּ, רָאשֵׁיהֶם.	17 How weighty also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

I can barely phrase this question but will let this post go in case someone sees it - how to approach this passage - the above copied from the referenced site, with its sudden shift from singular to plural?

Here is the LXX NETS

My frame was not hidden from you, which you made in secret
and my substance was made in the deepest parts of the earth
Your eyes beheld my unwrought state
In your book all people shall be written
in a day they will be formed, and no one is among them
But your friends are very precious to me, O God
Their beginnings were much strengthened

And this is what I have so far.

not hid were my bones from you
that were when I was made in secret
embroidered in the lowest parts of earth
your eyes saw my embryo
and in your book all of them were written
days were fashioned when not one was of them
to me how precious your thoughts, O God
how numerous their source

J. M. Neale cites the Syriac 'In thy books shall all these things be written, days shall be formed, and there is no one in them' and the Chaldee paraphrases 'All my days are written in the book of thy memory, in the day when the world was created, from the beginning were all creatures created, and as yet there was not one of them'.

How do you handle the shift from singular to plural? And what about the different reading of 'thoughts' which balances the beginning of the psalm and 'friends' which changes the focus entirely? Is רע friend the easier reading? If so that leaves Psalm 139:2 as a hapax in the whole Hebrew Bible. BDB glosses רע as purpose or aim.

Psalms in Chronicles

For all you for whom I live still here is an article on Psalms in Chronicles (ht Richard). Such merits more attention than I can give it at the moment.

Error correction ongoing

I am going to present a psalm to our Bible study - it is a challenge to make it devotional and participatory when I tend to dump so much into one psalm. We are doing Psalm 19 - and I have corrected a few glaring errors in my translation. I did say 6 years for this exercise - not 2, so I am not too surprised that I have refinement to do especially including any posts that are internally linked on the right hand sidebar. This blog is not meant to be transient comments but a means to understanding the question: how did the New Testament authors use their psalter and why?

About this blog

The writing here is about my learning of Hebrew by translating the psalms. I still am a long way from fluency. I began this process in August 2006. At the time, - following the Hebrews conference at St Andrew's - I had determined to learn the psalms since the psalms are so important in the New Testament - particularly in the book of Hebrews where they provide the text of most of the dialogue between the Father and the Son. By such learning, I hope to improve my hearing of the words of the New Testament.

I had played at learning Hebrew for years but had taken no serious steps though I had tried to read Lambdin several times without success. A little every day - diving straight in - proved to be the approach that got me well and truly started. At present there is

1. a full visual display of my earliest diagrams - all 150 psalms with the words arranged vertically and many of them in colour to show how the psalmist formed the verses. Colourful portrait of the Psalter
2. a full set of second draft translations in English - links are in the right hand column
   
3. the first draft of a structural portrait Structural thematic map

Learning the psalms is a cure for the tendency to parochialism. The inclusiveness in the psalms is exhibited in Psalm 118 among many.

Give thanks to יְהוָה for good

כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ for his mercy is forever

Let Israel then say for his mercy is forever

Let the house of Aaron then say for his mercy is forever

Let all who fear יְהוָה then say for his mercy is forever

Let all you who read and write - let all say

for his mercy is forever

If you want to learn Hebrew and are just beginning, I am teaching a letter a week in Sunday School to children aged 4 to 12. It is just plain fun and the blog record is here: St Barnabas Sunday School

On Sufficiency - a companion blog, I am beginning to explore Ruth - to learn grammar better, and Job is a possible next project. There are also a few posts and diagrams on Genesis and the Song, personal opinions, reviews and stories.

I believed therefore I have spoken.

Blog links gone again

The Blog links gadget was producing spurious links to this post all over the place. I have removed it again.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 17

This is a 17th post on the subject of rarely used words. It is not about Psalm 17. Here are the rare words I found in Psalm 11.

Psalm 11:2	אֹפֶל	darkness or secretly (opher)	Psalm 91:6, Job (5 times) and once in Isaiah 29:18
	בְּמוֹ	in (bmo)	Job (5 times) and Isaiah (4 times)
Psalm 11:4	עַפְעַפָּיו	his eyelids (apapaiv)	Psalm 132:4, Job (3 times), Proverbs (4 times) and Jeremiah 9:18
Psalm 11:6	גָפְרִית	pitch or brimstone (gaprit)	Job 18:15 and a few other scattered places.
	זִלְעָפוֹת	raging heat (zilaphot)	Psalm 119:53 and Lamentations 5:10
	מְנָת	portion(mnat)	Psalm 63:10 and 2 Chronicles (2 times) and Nehemiah (3 times)

Is there any significance to this short psalm sharing 4 rare words with Job?

Verse 2 alone shares its two rare words in 10 verses of Job. It is not hard to imagine the threat of such 'darkness' or 'obscurity' in this formative portion of Job 3:6

הַלַּיְלָה הַהוּא יִקָּחֵהוּ אֹפֶל

halaila hahu yiqaxehu, opher
The night - that night, let אֹפֶל seize it

invent your word - how does normal darkness seize light - what darkness overcomes light?

אַל־יִחַדְּ בִּימֵי שָׁנָה בְּמִסְפַּר יְרָחִים אַל־יָבֹֽא
al-yixad biyomei shana bemispar yeraxim al-yabo
Let it have no joy in the days of the year
into the number of the months of the year let it not come

And here we link to another rare word occurring in Job and Psalm 21 חדה. (xdh) In Job it signifies not joining. In Psalm 21:6 it signifies the ultimate joining of the king in joy to God's presence. (One of its glosses in BDB is joy - but the KJV uses such a gloss only in Exodus 18:9. As with all words, it gets its 'meaning' by what usage we have of it. The usages are extreme as you can see.)

תְּחַדֵּהוּ בְשִׂמְחָה אֶת־פָּנֶיךָ
tixadhu bsimxah et-paneyka
you have filled him with the joy of your presence

[Update: I note more connections between Job and the psalms here]. And what about that preposition, בְּמוֹ? Seems to be just a preposition - translatable by just about any English preposition that you want to chose: At in into through with or for. (It is one of the few prepositions that BLB bothers to enumerate.)

Eyelids occurs in close proximity to אֹפֶל in Job 3:9 - here as the dawn of the day, the fluttering of the eyelids of the sun. Mostly, as in Psalm 11:4 and Psalm 132:4 it is used in parallel with eyes.

Verse 6 touches on Sodom and Hell of course. Where else do you find brimstone and burning heat? (Well - to tell you the truth, fire is omnipresent.) As to portion, perhaps we will return to this when we get to Psalm 63. That's enough free-association for today.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 16

Keeping a bookmark for this one - The Ark and the Cherubim in the Psalms by John Day - HT Jim West via Richard. The ark ארון is used once in the psalms but the allusions are many. What can be made of the love of the imagery of the cult? One day, perhaps, I will find the discipline to write of such. The idea of footstool which Day introduces - how will one respond to the combination of images around worship at the footstool and making your enemies your footstool? (Psalm 99, 110, 132) - to come back to later...

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 15

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down.

Psalm 10 and 12 share an oddball word. I eventually settled on a very simple translation that reminds me of the sniff and snort golf games I played with my brother-in-law 45 years ago. If you win the hole, you get a snort of scotch. If you lose, you only get a sniff. After several wins, you tend to lose.

What can one do with the disjointed nature of these two uses of פוח? It is a near impossibility. These are not everyone's favorite verses in the old translations either. If these psalms were written to speak to each other, then there is some hope of allusion in 12 from 10. The sounds are similar - but to hear allusion, I would need much more faculty with the idiom of the time.

What do you think? Who is snorting at whom? (Snort has the merit of linking the thought of 10:4-5 - the haughty countenance to the dismissive huff.)

Psalm 10:4-5

Criminal looks down his unseeking nose
There is no God in all his purposes

His ways are twisted in all times

High is your judgment, out of his sight
All his foes, he snorts at them (yipiah bahem)

Psalm 12:5

For the havoc of the poor
for the groaning of the needy
now I will arise says יְהוָה
I will impose in safety
he snorts at him (yipiah lo)

Rarely user words in the Psalter - 14

Psalm 10:9 has a real rarity: חטף to seize - used twice in this verse and then only in Judges 21:21 - the story of the restoration of Benjamin, certainly not one of my favorite passages!

He lies in wait in his covering
like a lion in its lair
He lies in wait to seize the poor
He seizes the poor
He draws him into his net

So is there any significance to this rare word? Does it make this acrostic archaic? Does it help restore Benjamin? Is it he that falls into the net?

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 13

Psalm 9-10 has 2 occurrences of דך (dak) a word referring to 'the crushed' and also occurring in Psalm 74:21. Psalm 10:10 uses the form דכה in the confused section of the psalm, a word used only the Psalter. In the last verse of Psalm 10, another rare word ערץ is found. In this case KJV has rendered both different rare words 'oppress' in the same verse! I too have had to adjust even my attempts of careful concordance in this psalm.

and יְהוָה will be secure refuge for the crushed
secure refuge in times in trouble
...
He crushes
He is collapsed
and he falls pierced by his mighty ones
...
You will make your ears hear to judge orphan and the crushed
He will not continue to oppress humanity in the earth

A similar word דכא, also glossed as crushed, is used in Isaiah 53:5. It is most curious how even in the same 'author', the translations vary sometimes without a sufficient reason. While some aspects of concordance are impossible to achieve, there are times when I think it is desirable.

My own concordance on 'crush' is inaccurate but perhaps fitting as I merge bruising, crushing, oppression, dispossession, covering and hope into a single post. Psalm 139:11 has a real hapax שוף which I rendered 'crush' without a backward look. But perhaps when I come to it again, I will change it!

When I was younger, I thought in my vanity that I had read the Bible. I was not even close. I had scanned it (some of it). I had had some of it read to me. I am still not close to anything that could be called a complete reading - even one. When I have finished this psalms project, maybe I will have achieved one read of these poems.

How would I see anything significant in one rare word when I could scarcely remember the frequently used words and reading it in a foreign tongue (English)? It is singularly unimportant that one should have 'read the Bible'. I ask myself then - what is important? Perhaps only an honest connection with a healing spirit. This is for both the crushed and the crushers.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 12

On to Psalm 9. What is this odd title?

עַלְמוּת לַבֵּן

To death / of the son? or perhaps instead of to death it is one word related to 'women' עַלְמוֹת (suggested in BDB page 761). Is this maybe an acrostic for a children's choir?

The word is separated in the dictionary from other uses of death. Perhaps due to the preposition. A similar construction, this time with maqqep (hyphen), is used in Psalm 48:14 in what is a rare sentence.

He will be our guide to death
הוּא יְנַהֲגֵנוּ עַל־מֽוּת

I need to make a disclaimer. I am sure there are errors in my translations and my analysis. So read these pages with care - and check up on my work or challenge it. Make me do my homework too. This particular word is not translated in the Septuagint as having to do with death:

He will shepherd us for ages to come

The RSV follows the Septuagint and (if only I could read the apparatus!) it looks like there may be manuscript variations that support reducing the words to 'for ever and ever' עֹולָם וָעֶד as in the prior colon. So perhaps the phrase is nothing that special after all. Maybe just another copying error.

On the other hand, maybe the Septuagint translators followed a text that had slipped when copying the second colon and made the two the same when they shouldn't have been. And I really like the "he will be our guide to death". Death is worth having guidance for, and I doubt that a better guide can be found.

What do you do with poems where there are possible copying errors and you think somehow you should be able to put your trust in them? Simple - don't eat the menu. Our trust is to be in God, not in words. The words are pointers. It doesn't mean we are without correction or solace, exactly the opposite. Words without God would be no solace at all.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 11

Psalm 8, 81, and 84 are for a particular instrument, the גתית. At the wine-presses, or to the tune wine-press, or on an instrument named after the wine-press. I am sorry I somehow missed the wine-press imagery. I have no idea where my first title came from - while musing! That shows how important it is to make notes! [I think I found it - another unrelated musical instrument might relate to musing - in earlier days I can imagine getting confused over these strange words.]

What, I wonder, would give these three psalms this shared title?

Words in this psalm that are unique in the psalter: nurselings, ינק,

your splendor chanted above the heavens
by the mouth of children and nurselings

flock, צנא, (the more common words for flock or sheep are צאן, כשב, שה). It looks like this word which occurs only twice in the Bible is a misprint fro (sorry, I mean 'for') the more common word. (Ed. Bob how could you suggest such a thing!)

cattle, אלף, and fish דג. The other word for fish (דגה) is also used just once in the Psalter (Psalm 105:29).

flock and cattle, all of them and more
beasts of the field, bird of the heavens
and fish of the sea traversing seaways

So fish are rare in the Psalms. But the seas are plentiful.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 10

We have not quite finished with Psalm 7. I had a bizarre query that made me miss the obvious. There is yet another rarely used word דלק which I have rendered as related to burning - a continuing metaphor for Hell.

his arrow for burnings he will make

There is something uniquely expressed about God's indignation and fire in this psalm - and in Psalm 10 where this word is also used

In pride criminal burns poor

and the playful acrostic enters a confusing section. You really need to read the whole frantic poem to get the turbulence suggested in this word at the beginning of the non-acrostic section.

Finally in this psalm is the pit that is dug חפר.

A pit he will dig and will explore it

and will fall into the depths that he made

This word occurs also in Psalm 35:7 where the subject of the verbs is not ambiguous as it is in Psalm 7

because for nothing they hid a pit for me
their net for nothing
they dig for my life
Let destruction come upon him unknown to him
and let his net which he hid catch him
in destruction he will fall

It is this psalm and other verses about nets and pits and digging that allow a translator to remove the ambiguity from Psalm 7.

- well it's obvious what it means, eh. Why would God fall into a pit? Is he blind or something?

But why would we remove ambiguity? If the psalm says such-and-such or fails to say what-I-think-it-should-say - why would I presume 'to restore' something that in a momentary whim seems meaningful to me? As if words might fly over the centuries to my writing desk.

- Oh - right you are, Bob - that's exactly what I meant - well done!

No friends, and no, Beloved, or to steal a lovely phrase, no, my gentle snowflakes, I will try and avoid such an imposition - but be sure to correct me if you think I need it.

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 9

Still on Psalm 7 - verse 2, the verb for tearing (me) apart פרק is used only 2 times in the Psalter - here and in Psalm 136.

deliver me
or he will sieze like a wild beast my throat
tearing (me) apart and there is none rescuing

The use in Psalm 136 is right at the end and is usually translated redeemed or delivered - I suppose that's what we 'ought to hear' in a well-behaved religious framework - nothing so forceful as the real working passion of God.

our humiliation he remembered for us, for his loving-kindness is for ever
and tears us from our enemies, for his loving-kindness is for ever
giving bread to all flesh, for his loving-kindness is for ever

Another interesting word in this psalm is גמר. It is used five times and only in the Psalter. As I look at my translations, I see they are sometimes too subtle.

Psalm 7:9

Mature the fruits of wickedness

maybe I should say

Bring to an end the fruits of wickedness

Psalm 12:1 - here the parallel, vanished, פַסּוּ is unique in the whole Bible - if we understand the completing of God's work in the cross of Jesus, then each of these unique words reveals something new. This psalm tells us that even the merciful must die in that redemptive mechanism.

Save יְהוָה, for ceased are the merciful
for vanished are the faithful
among the children of dust

Psalm 57:2

I will call to God Most High
to God who fulfills all for me
He will send from heaven and will save me
he reproached the one crushing me

Psalm 77:8

in the ages to come will the Lord reject?
will he never again be favorable?
has his mercy ceased in perpetuity?
a word from generation to generation ended?
has the One forgotten grace?
as if his tender mercies were shut up in anger?

Psalm 138:8

יְהוָה will complete his work for my sake

And more rare words in Psalm 7:11 (but occurring elsewhere in the Bible), זעם, for indignation. Note that I do not fill in the blank as do some translations. It is leading and misleading to fill in blanks.

God judges right and God is indignant every day

and the sharp sword of Psalm 7:12

If he will not turn he will sharpen לטש his sword

used also in Psalm 52:2

You devise calamities with your tongue
like a honed לטש razor that acts treacherously

And one more - קדקד 'pate' or hoary scalp - used in Psalm 7:16

He will return his trouble on his head
and on his scalp his violence will descend

and Psalm 68:21

surely God will wound the head of his enemies
the hairy crown of one walking in his offense

... you will make his life an offering for sin ... the rarity of this word for sin in the psalms (once as noun, 3 times as verb) needs attention - but for another post (See Psalm 68:21)

Rarely used words in the Psalter - 8

Eight is for Psalm 7 - and we all want to know about Hell - so let's go to this lake of fire and apply for the available jobs - advertised here as assistants to the Life-Guard.

The first clue in this Psalm is in the title. It is a שגיון, (shiggaion) a word shared only with Habakkuk 3:1. (That poem is worth reading even in translation. I think I will give it a once over translate later...) And these two, Psalm 7 and Habakkuk 3, share a common theme. Do you who fear Hell really suppose that the Anointing is not there? Where did you learn your Christ? How do you know about fire?

No one knows what this word שגיון means. I rendered it reel - an agonized dance. I have seen such. The psalm is "A reel of David who sang to יְהוָה ". Sing, Beloved, and rejoice. With David and Habakkuk, you can be sure that your defiance-of-despair-in-the-face-of-lack-of-prosperity will not be ignored by the One in whom the Anointing was and is fully present without reserve.

You might notice that I am developing an idea - Christ, Oil, Anointing, Anointed, Messiah - are we too slow to see the reality of the Kingdom and the Priesthood which Jesus (He is Lord of all) brings through his death and through the vindication of his work in the resurrection? This is no time for imagination - though there is nothing wrong with imagination if it is in this full Spirit of the Possible. But this is time and there is always time for hearing and doing that we may understand. Meet him in his death by baptism and you will not be disappointed. He has harrowed Hell. He has defined it that you may understand. The Judge is the Life-Guard at the Lake of Fire.

There are two unique words in Psalm 7:14. I have not looked at every word between verse 1 and 14 but my rough search did uncover these two: חבל and הרה and Beloved, don't be too sure as to who is the subject of these verbs.

Behold he will bind sorrow and has conceived trouble
and will bear falsehood

I suspect I should not let this translation stand. The word is in the Piel and the Piel probably demands more of a transformation of the binding aspect of the Qal. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew defines Piel as transitivizing, denominative, intensive, or unclassified! (Sounds like I can do what I like with it then.)

Well, my bind is that there is one of whom I have heard who has bound sorrow through his cross. That is also my release from all my bonds. So I will keep the 'bind' and label the Psalm as I have - Binding sorrow. Conceived is heavily used (20 times) in Genesis but rare in the rest of TNK (22 times). I bet that word is worth a study.

The ambiguity of the subject of these verbs in Psalm 7 is useful. If this Anointed one has bound sorrow for us, then though we too will bind our own sorrow, we have an enormous power in his having been freed from bondage (the resurrection) that gives to us life by his Spirit. We can both rest in the completion of his binding of sorrow and we can share this work of his also - for ourselves and for others. (Remember how work is used in John, e.g. John 5:36, and Paul, e.g. Galatians 2:16, and you will understand how faith enables this participation without superrogation.)

Grammar and information

If the psalms are a story, grammar is TMI, as they say. For a mere 5 verses (53 words) in psalms 1 and 2 I have 954 possible entries in my table. True that the first two days were occupied with designing the tables and setting filters for data entry and reporting, but that is still probably 2 minutes per word - eighty-six 7.5 hour days!

Even with modern technology and default values, it will take 4 full-time months of work to annotate such a body of literature 19,551 words by hand! (And you would end up with about 352000 answers. I am sure there are some interesting patterns there but I may not pursue this with too much alacrity. Mind you, some 75% of the answers are similar - so if one could default the values more efficiently - like observe enclitics and decide algorithmically what the default form and part of speech is...)

Here's a bit a Psalm 2 - not exactly complete and probably with a few errors and omissions.

Part of Speech	Person	Number	Gender	Sfx	Root	Pfx	Form	Aspect	Tense
Interrogative					םה	לָ
Verb	3	Plural		וּ	רגשׁ		Qal	Indeterminate	Perfect
Noun		Plural		ים	גו		Absolute
Noun		Plural		ים	לאם		Absolute
Verb	3	Plural	Non-specific	וּ	הג	י	Qal	Incomplete	Imperfect
Adverb					ריק
Verb	3	Plural	Non-specific	וּ	יצב	יִתְ	Hithpael	Completed	Imperfect
Noun		Plural	Male	י	מלך		Construct
Noun		Singular			ארץ		Absolute
Verb	3	Plural	Non-specific	ים	רזן	וְ	Qal		Participle Active
Verb	3	Plural	Non-specific	וּ	יסד	נוֹ	Hiphil	Incomplete	Imperfect
Adjective					יחד
Preposition					על
Noun					יי		Absolute
Preposition					על	וְ
Noun		Singular		וֹ	משיח		Absolute
Verb	1	Plural		ה	נתק	נְ	Piel	Incomplete	Imperfect
Conjunction					את		Qal
Noun		Plural		ֹותֵימֹו	מוסר		Absolute
Verb	1	Plural		ה	שׁלך	וְנַ	Hiphil	Incomplete	Imperfect
Preposition	1	Plural		וּ	ממ
Noun	3	Plural		ימֹו	עבת		Absolute
Verb	3	Singular	Masculine		ישׁב		Qal	Continuous	Participle Active
Noun		Plural			שמים	בּ	Absolute
Verb	3	Singular			שׁחק	יִ	Qal		Imperfect
Noun		Singular			יי
Verb	3	Singular			לעג	יִ	Qal		Imperfect
Preposition				מֹו	ל