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.)