I could just do it - but what if we made it a game? Is anyone for playing? If so please leave a comment - the rule is one verse only from any one psalm. Don't do all 150 - that's work. But for instance - which verse of the psalms just appears in your mind? Do that one.
I will begin - just one verse from one psalm - O dear - that is difficult - but the verses in my mind right now are from the penitential Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O
That's it - that's all the game requires - will y'all help?
I wonder which translation that is? Maybe I am remembering it from Gregorio Allegri's Miserere in an English version. Perhaps too I am recalling the Byrd setting. It was in fact, Coverdale except it is in the Elohist Psalter and is O God not O Lord (as I had first written).
Hmmm let's see
Latin (Psalm 50, v3) |
Miserere mei, Deus,
secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.
et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. |
JB (1962) | Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness, In your great tenderness, wipe away my faults. |
King James (verse is 1) | Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. |
Hebrew (corrected to Letteris edition) Verse is 3 | חָנֵּ֣נִי אֱלֹהִ֣ים כְּחַסְדֶּ֑ךָ כְּרֹ֥ב רַֽ֝חֲמֶ֗יךָ מְחֵ֣ה פְשָׁעָֽי |
My reading | Be gracious to me, O God according to your loving-kindness In the multitude of your compassions blot out my transgression |
I have gone farther than the game requires - but I was curious. You will notice some significant differences in the glosses chosen. We are so influenced by the Latin history. The Hebrew appeals to covenant mercy in the third word. I have not used the sound 'mercy' for חָנֵּ֣נִי but rather gracious, or supplicate. Similarly I have avoided the sound 'mercy' with respect to רַֽ֝חֲמֶ֗יךָ a word suggestive of the womb. Tenderness is good. I don't much like 'goodness' though in JB or Coverdale.
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