The instrumentation or melody of this psalm - I wonder if we could hear a melody for a muted trumpet in the distance. Saying, sing and trust, but don't imagine the violent warfare in your own hands.
For reasons of concordance, I cannot agree with his rendering of konni as mercy. I have confined mercy to ksd. knn is grace. (Once only in Psalm 9, an acrostic, I allowed a long phrase with knn to include 'have mercy' so I could have the h in the English as the first letter in a verse.)
This is how strict my glosses are. I need rules to break the rules, either wordplay, as in an acrostic, or a real Hebrew synonym to allow multiple glosses for a root, or to make the English read reasonably given our current usage and a best guess as to the intent of the Hebrew.
What is the phrase in verse 3? Only here is lkm followed by a preposition 'l'. It would imply that it does not normally require a preposition. I did a check of a few verses and I see other prepositions used (b, ym) or none. This is a language usage problem. I wonder how I could extend my system to answer such a question: what prepositions or not are used with a verb? This is an extension of the idea I proposed a couple of weeks ago - to have searchable pages of consecutively used words. (All I would need to do is replace the CJB with the Hebrew, or a SimHebrew Bible in the concordance pages - and bingo, you could scan every use in its original context.)
But the real problem word here according to Tate is the last word, mrom. I didn't notice there was a problem. I don't see the need for another m. I have rendered mrom and mmrom identically. I see that other translations vary significantly in their renderings though, some interpreting mrom as a divine name. JB moves the word into the next verse as Raise me up. Verse 4, colon 1 is very short. They have a footnote corr. (I.e. we corrected the text. Of course this is not an explanation of why.)
Enough meandering - how does reading the psalm mature us? It is the usual questions: who is speaking to whom about what and how do we identify with the speaker or not. It is quite an emotional exploration. Here we have the expression, in God I will trust, in the midst of what might be violent party strife in the nation. But let us not be presumptuous.
thlim | Psalms | ||
nv | 56 | ||
| a | lmnxk yl-iont alm rkoqim ldvid mctm, bakoz aoto plwtim bgt. | 1 | For the leader. On the dove dumbed by distances. Of David. A miktam, when the Philistines in Gath grasped him. |
| b | konni alohim ci-wapni anow. cl-hiom lokm ilkxni. | 2 | Be gracious to me O God, for a mortal bears down on me. All the day long fighting grips me. |
| g | wapu worrii cl-hiom, ci-rbim lokmim li mrom. | 3 | My watchers bear down all the day long, for many are fighting me from on high. |
| d | iom aira. ani aliç ab'tk. | 4 | Day I fear. I in you will trust. |
| h | balohim ahll dbro. balohim b'tkti la aira. mh-iywh bwr li? | 5 | In God I will praise his word. In God I will trust. I will not fear, What will flesh do to me? |
| v | cl-hiom dbrii iyxbu. ylii cl-mkwbotm lry. | 6 | All the day long they torture my words. Over me are all their devices for evil. |
| z | iguru ixponu hmh yqbii iwmoru, cawr qivu npwi. | 7 | They amass, they treasure, they themselves my footsteps watch, as they wait for me. |
| k | yl-avvn pl't-lmo? baf ymim hord alohim. | 8 | Is their security over mischief? In anger bring peoples down, O God. |
| 't | nodi sprt-ath. wimh dmyti bnadç. hloa bsprtç? | 9 | My waverings you yourself book. You lay up my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? |
| i | az iwubu aoibii akor biom aqra. zh-idyti ci-alohim li. | 10 | Then my enemies will turn back in the day I call. This I know for God is mine. |
| ia | balohim ahll dbr. bihvh ahll dbr. | 11 | In God I will praise a word. In Yahweh I will praise a word. |
| ib | balohim b'tkti la aira. mh-iywh adm li? | 12 | In God I will trust. I will not fear. What will an earthling do to me? |
| ig | ylii alohim ndriç. awlm todot lç. | 13 | Over me, O God, are your vows. I will make whole thanksgivings to you. |
| id | ci hxlt npwi mmvvt hloa rglii mdki? lhthlç lpni alohim, baor hkiim. | 14 | For you deliver me from death. Will you not my feet from tripping? So I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living. |
No comments:
Post a Comment