Rare letter pairs

I have been looking at the gaps in the pairs of letters that begin Biblical Hebrew root words.  I started with the two great gutturals aleph (a) and ayin (y) here. 

In this post I will pick the first gap: the combination beth-peh (bp) and its reversal pb. These two combinations never occur together in a root. The only place the letter pair bp occurs is when the root begins with p and it is used with the preposition b (in, on, against, with, when and other glosses). Here are some examples:
בפאת in quarter Amos 3:12
בפריו for his fruit Song 8:11
בפיהם in their mouths Psalms 59:8
בפניהם in their presence Joshua 21:44
בפרש will spread Psalms 68:15
ובפרשיו and his cavaliers Exodus 14:17
בפרעה in Pharaoh Exodus 14:17
בפקודיך by your precepts Psalms 119:15
בפלגות streams Job 20:17
בפני in my face Job 16:8
בפידו in its disaster Job 30:24
בפעלם in their work Job 24:5
בפתע sudden Numbers 6:9
בפרע disheveled were Judges 5:2
בפתאם sudden 2 Chronicles 29:36

Psalms 68:15 is a curious one, the only verb I noticed in the translation - and it is clearly not quite a 'future' action but an infinitive. Notice the root prw. It has several homonyms. In this case I probably should not have dropped the preposition. Perhaps b could be acting as a temporal when (it sometimes does). One day I will revisit this psalm.

But without being sidetracked, the initial b in all these words is not part of the root and is a separate initial syllable. b-p seems to be rejected as a letter pair for Biblical Hebrew roots and words.

Letter pairs again - the gutturals aleph and ayin

 For a change of pace, I have updated all the concordance pages, (though I had said I would not). As I do it, I see again the curious facts about initial pairs of letters in roots. I posted about them in 2020 particularly here: root letter pairs that begin words.

The posts outline the missing and rare combinations. I wonder what one can imagine about these missing and low-frequency pairs.

Beginning with a - aleph, a guttural, there are no roots beginning with aa. Would we expect a double aleph anywhere? Yes. there are verbs beginning with a, and some of them are found in first person imperfect where aleph is a critical prefix. So a doubled guttural is not out of the question: E.g.

אאר I will curse Genesis 12:3
אאזרך I have girded you Isaiah 45:5
אאריך I will slow Isaiah 48:9
אאסף I will gather Micah 2:12
אאריך I should prolong Job 6:11
אאמין I would believe Job 9:16
אאמצכם I would assure you Job 16:5
ואאלפך and I will captain your Job 33:33
בדתאא in the verdant herb Daniel 4:12
בדתאא in the verdant herb Daniel 4:20

Note also the words that end with aa, for the Aramaic definite article. 

There is only one root beginning with ay, and that is the Hebrew for timber. And there is only one root beginning with ya, the Aramaic for wood. 

But there are many words with 'ay' in them - here's a few examples:

אעלה I will ascend Song 7:9
אעשה I will undertake Amos 4:12
אעזבך I will forsake you 2 Kings 2:2
אעלזה I will exult Psalms 60:8
אעופה that I may fly away Psalms 55:7
ואעידה and I will witness Psalms 50:7

A quick scan says that all the instances (apart from the three of timber) are from the first person imperfect, often rendered as simple future.

And there are several (165) instance of words containing 'ya' - ayin-aleph. Many of these are names and one is the Aramaic root bya, which I have glossed as seek. Again in Aramaic the definite article contributes some examples.

מיזרעאל from Jezreel 1 Samuel 25:43
בעינא we sought Daniel 2:23
ארעא the earth Daniel 2:39
רביעאה the fourth Daniel 2:40
מארעא from the earth Jeremiah 10:11
ישמעאל Yishmaeil Jeremiah 41:16
סיעא Siaha Nehemiah 7:47

בפאת in quarter Amos 3:12

My tentative thought is that some letter combinations are hard to pronounce so we tend not to use them. Some that do creep into the language may be loan words. I am going to explore some more of these rarities - as a diversion. The next missing pair is missing for both sequences: bp and pb. That may be true of several of the missing pairs - in this case they are both labial. There are 83 missing combinations - and this does not identify the ones where there are only one or two words, so it will take a few posts.

Psalms 90-91 - for / by / after the manner of Moses

The inscription for Psalms 90 is: tpilh lmwh aiw-halohim, A prayer of Moses the man of God. 

Forbes points out some likenesses (see his footnote 81 in the shared epub) between Deuteronomy 32 and Psalms 91. About 20% of the significant words are shared. And I compared with similar exclusions Psalms 90 and found about 25% of the significant words were shared. Deut. 32 is worth a read. One could 'construct' a poem and its response after this pattern, i.e. write with the language of - or after the fashion of 'Moses' (as known through the speeches of Deuteronomy). This does not mean that Moses wrote either of these psalms though this may have been taken as a given 140 years ago.

Forbes footnote 81 reads thus: 

Dr. Kay remarks the following correspondences:

With ver. 2,	“My God, in Him will I trust,”	cf. Deut. xxxii. 37.
4,	“Feather … wings,”	cf. — xxxii. 11.
6,	“The pestilence” (qetev)*,	cf. — xxxii. 24.
8,	“Shillumath,”*	cf. — xxxii. 35-41,
9,	“Thy dwelling-place,”	cf. — xxxiii. 27.
13,	“Adder . . . dragon,”	cf. — xxxii. 33.
16,	“My salvation,”	cf. Ex. xiv. 13.

*Ed. Verse 6 - q'tb קטב is a rare root, the gloss pestilence is not in fact used here by Forbes but rather destruction. Verse 8, the root shared is wlm - repayment, also peace or wholeness, in some contexts.

Speaking personally, I find the use of the same English gloss for multiple Hebrew roots to be thoroughly confusing. Forbes doesn't like this practice either and he has my sympathy, but he didn't note the confusion about pestilence and destruction. And who can blame him - he is like many over the past 400 years, yet another victim of poetry masquerading as theology and law. Let's read it as poetry.

I am now starting to think about the claims, the internal structures, and so on that he makes. There are some lovely echoes throughout the reception of prior texts by later texts in the Tanach. And there is real experience to absorb, not a metaphysical message to ram down the throats of our neighbours or to shore up our own insecurity.

Nearing the end with Forbes

It has been a while that I have been formatting and correcting this book from 1888. I hope I can did find out who to contact at how to reupload to archive.org to let them know because it does seem it will be readable. But it is filled with this sort of error - a venom that infects us more surely than any virus. We all initially hear this sort of thing and we can get very zealous about it: 

All mankind [sic] are [sic] divided into two great classes, the “Righteous” and the “Wicked.”

I am simply reporting what Forbes writes and I suppose from the tone of his writing, that’s what he 'believes'. This is also the surface of what people read and hear about humanity. But the truth is something else. We are all in both camps.

In recent posts, a modern professor (very popular, quite good I am sure) has been reporting that the ancient prophets 'believed' that God punished Israel and Judah for their sins. You know what I think about that. It is equal nonsense. 

Who can see into the mind of the ancient prophet? 

It may be what even the majority of people generally 'believe' that is what they thought about God - a bearded Old Geyser in the sky who rains down lightning bolts on hapless humans. In short, a violent God. A father like this we would consider either deranged or abusive. But that is not what the prophets believed. (Though there are people described in the Bible who believed this - like Job's comforters.)

Somehow we need to get below the surface of both these false statements about what leaders ancient and modern teach about what is in the Bible - and who assume that they have it right: the one that enforces a Messiah on everyone, and the one that assumes - whether one believes it or not - a violent God. And I don't think it is just a matter of social order. I.e. - that (we need a) God (who) is there to keep us in line. It is a matter of awakening to our common situation. Is there any place for this thinking about god / gods / divine / etc with or without the practice of capitalizing or emphasizing or exclamation points? (Forbes uses a lot of these.)

So what do I believe? For I do believe. I haven't tried to set down just what it is though. I have sources for my faith - the physical world, the Bible, a bit of logic, tradition(!), and the rest of the souls on the earth - of all types from creepy-crawlies to great sea creatures, and of course the billions of humans, all of them multiplying like crazy. These are my sources. There are others of course.

What I believe that has some hope of explanation:

• The physical world - we can test it - not perfectly, but with reasonable predictability.
• so yes to vaccination.
• yes to telescopes that look back in time.
• yes to the fragility yet immense abundance of life on earth.
• yes to what our senses can know - as full of variety as the prodigality of life.
• The Bible 
• a library,
• and a recent history of a portion of humanity, limited, 
• yet a whetstone on which to sharpen understanding.
• "The Bible is like an echo to nature and this secret I have tried to convey." [Chagall]
• A bit of logic
• provably incomplete,
• subject to slippage, 
• but a partially useful tool for reasoning.
• Tradition(!) 
• I am an Anglican musician 
• and a software engineer. 
• There's plenty of ambiguity in the first and a thorough scope for error (and correction) in the second.
• The rest of the souls on earth
• from the silverfish and spiders to the rulers of nations,
• a marvel of inventive design and software. 
• And of course my families, parents, siblings, spouse, and children, and children's children,
• my nation and communities who form who I am and have become.
• (How wonderfully dependent we all are on the "supply chain".)

What I believe that has little hope of explanation:

• I am not free in the sense that freedom is used as a siren call to avoid responsibility to others. 
• I am a slave - of God - whose 'service is perfect freedom'. 
• I am not a willing slave but a rebellious one. Yet I think the use of the word 'freedom' to call attention to my needs is idolatry. I have accepted now with some joy the hope to which I have been called.
• I note that there is Trouble: flood, fire, war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, despair, law, chance, and so on.
• I also note that there is music and beauty of design in so many things.

I do not believe in an 'almighty' God. That is another religious word I have not found or had to use in my translation. It is not the God I find described in the Bible. That God is 'sufficient' and not describable in abstract terms as if I have control of it. (El Shaddai I rendered as the Sufficient. It is Job's word used by the characters on both sides of the argument.)

But when it comes to the real world, like vaccines, or anticipation of trouble, and the tension between safety (salvation!) and risk, and so on - who dares to define the rubrics? When it comes to taking the right action in all our complex situations, I do have to have something I can rely on. This is hard to point to. We have some shared conventions and rules in each community. We also appeal to international laws but nations respect them with resistance and all sides fail to ratify them totally.

We therefore get what we deserve, not punishment by some invisible divine, but real-time consequences which we must live with and negotiate. Sometimes we die as a result of our abilities or disabilities. I have found that we also live. For these - death and life - I am thankful. I could not have one without the other. The point of the resurrection to me is present hope, permission to find the right risks and take real responsibility for myself and others.

Present is an operative word - it is all we have. Soon by virtue of the limited speed of light, we will be able to look back in time with greater precision (and awe) than ever before. The limitation of time should stop us from thinking that forward and backward are absolutes. Whatever 'for ever' means, it is not an infinite linearity in both imagined directions. Light is not instantaneous. When it comes to 'translating' the Bible into modern speech, I think it is important to get the 'forever, for ever, everlasting, and eternal' to recognize their limits. Everywhere that we read a verb, or a noun related to tense and time, we have to rethink our simplistic division of experience into past, present, and future. 

To say the least, Forbes does not do this. Some of his logic betrays a translated sense of precision of tense which will not stand scrutiny. (Hence his simplistic use of the present tense in the sentence I quoted above.) If I had to rephrase this I would say that "All humanity is a complex mix of righteous and wicked." and "Each human is likewise". I could add that this mix has consequences into which we will mature, or by which we will be destroyed. Yet 40 days ... as Jonah would say.

English can seem too precise with respect to the temporal aspect of verbs. We need to read with the knowledge that what is perfect in the Hebrew is accomplished, and what is imperfect is present and still to unfold. How this Hebrew is expressed in English (or modern Hebrew - which has taken over the forms but not the substance of its ancient roots) is moot - especially in poetry.

My correction of the OCR version of Forbes' book is now complete in my first full run-through. You can access it here or you can search for it at archive.org and hope I figured out how to do the update. Let me know if you find things I have missed. I may be adding further editor's notes and I also hope to find a way to add or internal references to original page numbers - but for now the generated table of contents will have to do for navigation. I may blog about it further especially if I figure out how to summarize Forbes' findings - after I check them out.

A 21st century Editor’s Preface to a document from 1888

Here's my editor's preface to Forbes 1888 publication entitled: Studies on the book of Psalms: the structural connection of the book of Psalms, both in single Psalms and in the Psalter as an organic whole.

The intro may change since I am only about half-way through.  I have put my work in process here. You can see it now as it evolves if you would like to. By all means help me if you can to find my oversights and the remnants of the OCR failures.

---

I come to this writing 144 years after its first publication. It is not a famous writing. The Oxford professor, Susan Gillingham, has researched the reception history of the psalms for over 40 years and had not come across this volume.

It is a volume that has no easily observable structure on its surface. But the author is a mathematician and the subject of the Psalms and their co-inherence has sufficient appeal to me that I accepted reading and commenting on this document as a post-translation exercise. Outside of this preface, you can find my impressions on my blog. E.g. this brief introduction to John Forbes, the Laird of Corss. I have not been able to find his dates (c 1810? to 1886?).

It is abundantly clear even half-way through the editing process that John Forbes loved the psalms. His careful work demonstrates this love for the poetry and the structures that he found in it.

Technically this editing exercise presents some tedious problems. I have tried to minimize any editorial comments in the text itself. If I found them essential, I have footnoted them with an asterisk.

• The OCR makes no use of style sheets. It seems to know only the bare paragraph tag.
• OCR does not read italics, Greek, Hebrew, or graphics. These transcriptions must be done by hand. Some Hebrew I have left in the square text. For some I have used SimHebrew.
• All footnotes were separated from the text. I numbered them (not such a good idea if I missed one).
• Page turns and interior headings were removed by hand.
• There are hosts of misspellings.
• Since the practice of separating double quotes from their content requires significant read-ahead processing, I have removed them, of necessity one at a time, since they are ambiguous and not subject to a global change.
• I have retained archaic spelling and Roman Numerals. Much as I would like to get rid of them, they are his mode of thinking and this is his book.
• I have attempted to retain his italics, and other modes of emphasis like small caps and as much formatting of his scripture portions as would be suitable for an e-book format.

The above are just surface starters. I imitate the 19th century type-setting if I can with style sheets. I hope the result will be useful to me and possibly to others.

The author’s stated intention is to explore the Psalter as a whole. This he does with some credibility of observation. He is observant of chiastic structures, recurrence, and some numerical patterns that are different from any I have found in my research. All his counts can be verified from a database. His proffered solutions to some aspects of the broken acrostics in Book 1 are quite intriguing. They fit the design of an acrostic when the author chooses to hide a letter. His division of Book 5 into 3 ‘books’ is verifiable through his counts. His divisions of the psalms into sevens, eights, tens and even alphabets (groups of 22) are more subjective, but still plausible, the work of ancient metaphysical scribes. His association of Book 4 with the exile and Book 5 with the return from Babylon is not something I have considered in these terms.

His second intention is to explore the psalter without New Testament prejudice as to its intent. In this his failure is severe. He sees a New Testament 'super-human' (his term - used 6 times) Messiah everywhere. This is part of a general failure of humanity and particularly of Christendom to follow the character of God with accuracy. I have met many divines who think as he does, moving rapidly without historical or contextual critique from one verse to another.

My intent is to compare the author’s view, with my own view of the character of Messiah. Messiah for me cannot be a super-hero, a governing despot or oligarch. In contrast, God, under The Name of yod-heh-vav-heh, (whom Forbes calls Jehovah) cares for the poor and marginalized. This God is life-giving and not domineering. This God is caring and compassionate. The use of Exodus 34:6 by subsequent writers within the Tanach (particularly Psalms and Jonah) is proof enough of one part of the mindset of the ancient scribes and poets. One can certainly compare this character of The Name in Tanach with the care, vulnerability, and even fragility of Jesus in making this character flesh.

And Yahweh, passed over before him, and he called, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God compassionate and gracious, // slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth.

Our failure to exercise such care is evident in humanity everywhere and found its result in the Shoah some 65 years following the author’s publication of this volume. We can and should learn from this failure. Seventy-five years later, though we have learned something, we are still failing. It remains true of us that we cannot see our own assumptions.

Bob MacDonald, January 2022, Victoria BC.

19th century publishing

 Besides the challenge of type-setting which I see as I try to format the 140 year old document in html and css, here is an insight into the publications of T. & T. Clark in 1888 - It's an interesting read.

There are undoubtedly some typos left in it. But I found the memory of authors and publications stimulating in the midst of the print formatting and spelling corrections from the OCR.

This is not the Bibliography for Forbes, though he does reference some of them. But it shows the type of publication he has available to him outside the canonical texts and supporting material like Josephus.

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MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

PUBLICATIONS OF
T. &; T. CLARK,
38 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH. LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO.

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Augustine's Works — Edited by Marcus Dods, D.D. Fifteen vols. 8vo, Subscription price, £3, 19s.

Bannerman (Prof.) — The Church of Christ. Two vols. 8vo, 21s.

Bannerman (Rev. D.D.) — The Doctrine of the Church, 8vo, 12s.

Baumgarten (Professor) — ^Apostolic History. Three vols. 8vo, 27s. Beck (Dr.) — Outlines of Biblical Psychology. Crown 8vo, 4s.

Pastoral Theology in the New Testament. Crown 8vo, 6s.

Bengel — Gnomon of the New Testament. With Original Notes, Explanatory and Illustrative. Five vols. 8vo, Subscription price, 31s. 6d. Cheaper Edition, the five volumes bound in three, 24s.

Besser's Christ the Life of the World. Price 6s.

Bible-Class Handbooks.
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— Post-Exilian Prophets, 2s. Book of Genesis, 2s.
Douglas (Principal) — Book of Joshua, Is. 6d.
Book of Judges, Is. 3d.
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BS1430.4 .F69 Studies on the book of Psalms: the Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00068 0548 DATE DUE PRINTED IN U S.A

Books and Discounts

The SimHebrew Bible is now available direct from the publisher here. 

The initial heavily discounted price in the current distribution channels is increasing soon. If you've been dithering, go get the book.

A monthly discount coupon is available for the publisher's site - but you have to work it out. The coupon code is a puzzle solvable via the preview available for the book.

This month's discount code is verse 1a of chapter 11 in SimHebrew. 

וַֽיְהִ֥י כָל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת   
And all the earth was one language,

Get this right in SimHebrew - c'mon give it a try - and you have 50% off the list price (from the publisher). This code is in effect from now until January 31, 2022.

I use the SimHebrew Bible on my iPhone all the time. It is a great way for reading in Hebrew or English and for checking the lessons read in the church services and all the other translations that come to my attention in the various posts that I read.

Editing an OCR rendition of an old document from 1888

 On Epiphany I wrote: I am looking at the e-book that the archive created using OCR to see if I can technically edit it.

Wow - this is a challenge - a bit like darning socks - which reminds me, I have two heels to do.

I have successfully separated the first 54 footnotes from the first 87 pages. I have begun to find some simple styles to accommodate his thoughts. The OCR conversion to epub knows only one tag: <p>! The overall structure is not yet very clear - but I am dividing the files by the major Psalms he analyzes. 

The task consists of reading and correction of OCR errors in Greek, Hebrew and English. It forces me to think like a close reader. I see now that Forbes is first a mathematician - he loves dividing things up into groups - like thinking of the first two books of the Psalter as three sets of 24 psalms. And always looking for 7s or 20s or 22s, an alphabet's worth of things. He has a complex justification for the completeness of the broken acrostics for psalms 25 and 37. I'll present them at some point because they are both elegant and new to me.

His beef is largely with the new criticism of the era. He is a scholar of the old school, and like many, he has a good mind but spends a lot of it justifying readings that he would rather not question. These things are what he was taught, or what he thinks he was taught. His work is often an argument for the theological status quo. And that is not enough of a rationale for faith. After all, if your main sermon message is punishment, hellfire and damnation, you haven't really got the point of the calling to care for the poor like Yahweh does.

I wonder if he has a shred of the prophet in him - I bet he gives no hint of criticism of UK colonialism or political issues like the opium war. There is a significant omission in a life devoted to God that fails to deal with the current oppression of the era. Maybe just the poor in Aberdeen managed a crumb or two from his well-laden table without getting indigestion.

On with the job.

Psalms 51:19 (Hebrew) The offerings of God are a broken spirit

 So how would you set this text if you were an ancient scribe, say, in some scribal corner of ancient Babylon during the exile?

You are copying the psalm and come to this verse. What does a reciting note mean to you? How do you prepare the ole-veyored that will approach the first cadence in this tricolon? What can you see?

If I concentrate on the WLC, which is my text base for the music, I find the verse is this.

Psalms 51:19 WLC

But the Aleppo codex is like this.

Aleppo Codex
(Image from here - Ardon bar Hama.
using the index available from J. David Stark.)

Notice that in the WLC זִֽבְחֵ֣י אֱלֹהִים֮ ר֪וּחַ נִשְׁבָּ֫רָ֥ה the accent on the third word ruach is a Munah - declarative on the dominant, where a scribe has clearly ignored the Mahpak somewhere in the tradition between Aleppo and Westminster. Note that they were copying deaf. They had no knowledge of what these symbols signified as a musical notation.

The higher note is found in the approach to the ole-veyored 3 times where the lower note with a jump from the C, a diminished 7th, is found 38 times in the WLC - those numbers should be altered in my data - but I am not taking this change on just at the moment! My books clearly use the WLC for the most part, But this could be one of many footnotes that I have not written.

I looked square at this and completely missed the difference, because I was not looking at ruach but at the first word ziv-chei. The music is as follows, and is suitable to the words - a spirit broken.

Psalms 51:19 Aleppo - add a dotted barline between the C and the d#
(to show the change in reciting note).

A lesson for me: we see what we are looking for. Look aside. Read more carefully.

Note - as in all the posts on this blog since 2013, the music transcriptions are produced programmatically from a database using my transcription program from Unicode to Music XML. I made a lot of mistakes - or at least was quite inconsistent - in the past few days as I tried to understand this and manipulate the music manually.

Power, Gospel, and Testament

Early morning thoughts while on a slushy walk.

Rose Garden in Winter

Some 'rules' occur to me as I look through the bars at this rose garden. I know it's a rose garden, But it's winter so that's hard to see. A close up would reveal thorns and hips, telltale signs of fruitfulness and beauty. The gate speaks of protection, in this case from deer. I could enter. I chose not to. My running shoes are already wet, so I don't need further warning, and the puddles are about 2-3 inches deep.

Hidden yet perceived is the power of creation - to be fruitful, and to create art, and to warn.

I observe the warnings as if from God. I know they are both human and scientific, but I can't escape my limited perception. Immanence and transcendence of my particular situation is everywhere. How I name my actions and thoughts reveals who I am to myself.

On the left of the image just over midway up is a large quince tree growing in the shadows of an even larger redwood. The redwood soars well above the frame. The quince has also been very fruitful these past 60 years or more. Now it is empty but still filled with promise. We have even made jelly from the windfalls. The fruit itself needs a ladder to reach it. The owner uses some, and the rest goes to other creatures visible and invisible.

At the base of our created order is hidden light and fire. It moves the intelligent root of the trees, rose, fir, or quince. It guides the hand of the artist, the design perceived through measurement, in imitation of creation. It organizes the microbial to support food and consume waste.

My picture above was taken before the sun came out and in the calm before a rushing mighty wind that I hear as I type. So many manifestations of power in nature and all experienced by us and our fellow creatures as we live our lives from whatever start to whatever finish.

What does it all mean? How will the creatures visible to us, our fellow creatures, handle all this generous bounty?

My perception of power is that as light creates time, so no power is stronger than those life-giving streams of light and their ability to form, reveal, and infuse matter. (Interesting article here on the physics of the creation of matter from high energy photon streams.)

This power is available to all creation as time in whatever measure is available equally to all. In time and over a long time, what we call life has come to see itself, to explore all aspects of the created order using the power of light. And to try and write about the governance that everything from bacterium to termite to pride to human community must learn to exercise some sort of governance. Of necessity we are forced into governance by common circumstance. Over time, some forms of our writing have become canonized - regulatory frameworks through which we govern ourselves.

Out of this experience we humans have drawn out over the passage of millennia things like justice, mercy, love, hope, faith, gift, and a host of other related concepts. We live in tension between these powers and forms of government that are fused with other things like inequity, force, abuse, sin, destruction, privilege, luck. I am sure we could list more of these.

Like an electron-positron pair the possibility is that the pressures of mutual opposition could destroy each other. Or like the winter and summer, the possibility is that the negatives and positives could continue creation.

Which do we prefer? What is the character of the preference? And how should the preference be achieved?

Are we beyond evolution to the point that we could choose life? And what would that signify as we continue in the space-time framework we find ourselves in?

This note went in an unexpected direction. My initial thoughts have not reached the conclusion embedded in my title for the post.

The short cut: Power is available to us. We will achieve justice if we use it without force. The good news is that the Mystery called by various names in the Bible will judge with equity what we do materially in this light-infused world. The two testaments are in agreement on both these fronts.

When we meet words in the testaments of whatever stream of thought inside or outside Christendom, what do we make of them? A forceful God who deals out rewards and punishments - God forbid we should think this way. Or a temporal power arising out of light, creating matter that allows the exercise and choice of kindness.

What are the physical, material and spiritual, manifestations of our choices?

Exploitation of the natural world - power abused - results in viral sickness and climate change. The imposition of justice, enforced conformity of human thought and action, results in violence. We see it everywhere, particularly where the measurement of equity is incorrect and the lie is believed. Kindness will cost. In a time of a viral plague, it costs aspects of freedom of movement and open face-to-face communication. 

I like fruitfulness and beauty. I see bounty and opportunity available and not fulfilled. I need protection, and warning, and regulation. I see and enjoy pattern.

I can't draw any more lines. The variety of conflicts is too great for my mind. But the thoughts I have expressed reflect why I continue to believe that the light and the creation is good. And there is an opposite that is not good. I have eaten of the tree in the garden. I hope I can still be useful. It's definitely a hard prospect either way.

Forbes is continuing

 Alas, he is not here to answer, but I think I spot a problem of general assumption that I wonder about concerning human character. He writes:

"It must be borne in mind that the writers of the Old Testament were the most advanced and spiritually-minded men of their time, and on that account selected by the Spirit of God for making those fresh revelations of His purposes and will which were gradually to sink into the minds and hearts of His people, and to prepare them for further light."

Do you think this is true?

I have no doubt that there are gifts, but advanced (as if anyone knew) is not a term I would dare apply. I wonder if advanced is a product of the 19th century imagination. 

I suspect this may be a common thought, but it doesn't make for humility in the one who thinks it. (I say they were advanced. I understand them, so I am advanced too. -- implication, there are others who are not advanced. And I am telling you how you should understand them.)

The argument is dangerous and will lead to inequity, and ultimately, murder. It is not a pattern of care  but of pity and subservience. Thinking about this makes me uncomfortable. I have met lots of teachers who teach this way.

I am looking at the ebook that the archive created using OCR to see if I can technically edit it. I hope to expose the structure of the mind of the writer and also to make the book easier to read. I don't intend to change the text, just streamline it a bit and fix the typos from the OCR version. But if I were 'editing' I would advise my writer to strike that line and any thoughts arising from it from the text.

If I succeed in getting the ebook to work well, I will let you know. Sometimes when I edit the whole thing, I actually read it with greater critical attention. Even if I feel like vomiting every now and then.

Will I finish my assignment?

 The word for me for the past month has been Messiah - My colleague Jonathan Orr-Stav sent me this pdf by Forbes from 1888.  Since it was on the psalms, he thought I would like it. Like is a non-functional word here. Let's say I would be interested in how the Psalms were perceived in the mid nineteenth century. But I probably wouldn't start with Forbes. I sent a note about this work to Susan Gillingham and she, who knows nearly everything written on the psalms maybe ever, had not heard of this particular paper.

But like the free church of Scotland, my mid-twenties were spent in some of the 'prove Jesus is the Messiah from the Old Testament' crowd. I don't approve of such proofs. They are not an approach to the kindness of God unless handled very carefully. I do approve of the text of Messiah by Mr Handel but not exclusively, as if his librettist had exhausted the possibilities or even had explored the variations. Things were taken for granted in the religious worlds of the UK in the 18th and 19th centuries that I would not take for granted in this era.

I have also come across a review of a book developing the idea of Messiah from first principles - the use of anoint (mwk) in Tanach. This has some promise. But should I do a bit more on Forbes? Was it a final exam to see if I had escaped the shortest-distance-between-two-scriptural-verses problem.

Forbes has something to say about Psalms 72 in his structural analysis of the Psalter. Perhaps I should look here. The last time I looked at Psalms 72 was in March of last year. I mentioned Psalms 72 a few times last month in the notes on Forbes. I was just trying to read the words first. It might be instructive to compare my translation with his.

Here's Forbes (left) compared to my rendering (right). Our renderings for this psalm are not very different. I have struck out some words in Forbes because there is no corresponding root for what I consider a significant gloss (i.e. a gloss that is extra but is more than a grammatical necessity). I tend not to use as much jussive as he does, and I tend not to resolve ambiguity with respect to antecedents for pronouns.

The layout is somewhat random for Forbes but simple enough to read. (I fixed it based on his capitalization.) There is little sense of the cola based on the accents. The differences in gloss I have noted. I consider it important to have a separate gloss in English when the root in Hebrew is different. So e.g. I use judge for the Hebrew /wp't, so I will not use judge when the Hebrew is /din, make the case. You can compare these at the concordance links where every usage of each root is noted. 

1 O God, give Thy judgments to the King, And Thy righteousness to the King's son.	1 Of Solomon. O God give your judgments to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son.
2 He will judge Thy people with righteousness, And Thy poor with judgment!	2 He will make the case for your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment.
3 The mountains shall bring forth peace to the people, And the hills in righteousness.	3 The mountains will lift up peace to the people, and the hillocks in righteousness.
4 He will judge the poor of the people. Save the children of the needy. And crush the oppressor !	4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will crush the oppressor.
5 They shall fear thee while the sun endureth, And as long as the moon unto all generations.	5 They will fear you with the sun, and in the presence of the moon in all generations.
6 He will come down like rain upon the mown grass, And showers that water the earth !	6 ♪g He will come down as rain on the mowing, as earth-soaking copious showers.
7 In his days shall the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more.	7 One who is righteous will flourish in his days, and abundant peace till the moon fades.
8 And may he have dominion from sea to sea, And from the River unto the ends of the earth.	8 ♪g And he will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
9 Before him the Desert Tribes shall bow down, And his enemies shall lick the dust;	9 ♪g In his presence wild places will bow down, and his enemies will lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring gifts. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer presents ;	10 Kings of Tarshish and the coasts will return with a gift. Kings of Sheba and Seba with wages will come near.
11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him, All nations shall serve him.	11 And all kings will worship him. All nations will serve him.
12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth, And the poor who hath no helper ;	12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries, and the poor without a helper.
13 May he have pity on the weak and needy. And the souls of the needy ones he will save.	13 ♪g He will spare the weak and the needy, and the-many needy he will save.
14 From fraud and from violence he shall redeem their soul. And precious shall their blood be in his sight.	14 From fraud and from violence he will redeem them,  and their blood will be precious in his eyes.
15 And may he live, and give to him [to the needy] of the gold of Sheba, And intercede for him continually ; All the day long may he bless him.	15 And he will live, and he will give to him the gold of Sheba, and he will intercede concerning him continually. All the day long he will bless him.
16 Let there be abundance of corn in the land on the top of the mountains ; The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, And they shall spring forth from the city like grass of the earth.	16 A minute amount of corn in the earth will become as the top of the mountains. Its fruit will rustle like Lebanon, and they from the city will blossom like the herbs of the earth.
17 May His name endure for ever ! So long as the sun shall his name shoot forth anew. Yea, let men bless themselves in him, All nations—may they call him blessed !	17 His name will be forever. His name will propagate in the presence of the sun, and they will bless themselves in him. All nations will call him happy.
18 Blessed be Jehovah, God, the God of Israel, Who alone doeth wondrous things !	18 Bless Yahweh God, the God of Israel, doing wonders he alone.
19 And blessed be His glorious name for ever. And let the whole earth be tilled with His glory! Amen and Amen.	19 And bless the name of his glory forever, and let all the earth be full of his glory, Amen and amen.
20 Ended are the prayers of David the son of Jesse.	20 Finished are the prayers, David, the son of Jesse.

It's a substantial psalm - 20 verses and reaching into several concepts. I am impressed that the word needy recurs here for the first time in the psalter. This certainly outlines what government should accomplish. Is it a justification of the status quo for Solomon? Did the poor and needy do well under him? Do they ever do well in any age? There are shades of the Cain and Abel story in this psalm. Just the mention of the blood of the poor and needy. Is the organizational structure of the kingdom of Solomon achieving anything? Is it a necessary but temporary structure? 

Superhero in disguise

I wonder to what extent I am overreading the implications of a 'superhuman' Messiah. In fact Forbes uses that term superhuman 6 times in the book, as well as super-angelic and super-earthly, modifying seed, character, and king. To what extent does the 'super' idea morph from authority (above) to our modern day superheroes (of which my young grandson is one - buy your calendars here and note the August batman)?

Does God exercise authority in the way that human power structures exercise it? Externally applied authority falls into the domain of a totalitarian mode of government. Desire for it amounts to idolatry. We must similarly be careful of words like great. What do we read into such words? Forbes uses great 113 times, perhaps not excessively. Forbes also expects punishment from God. Indeed this does provoke fear and of the wrong kind. Rather be made complete in love. A suitable fear is the fear of what we do and have done to ourselves, often in the name of a so-called righteousness. Rather than that fear, let us take responsibility for the damage we have done and turn away from these actions.

This really does sound like futility - Abel's name. We may not make it further than the wisp that is our brief sojourn. Now there's a real exercise for the translator: to discover how this word hbl is used and what therefore, is a suitable gloss.

Tate (Word Biblical Commentary 1991) identifies this psalm as a prayer of the people for the king. So the jussive is indeed justified. (Think jussive as you read future in my rendering.) He does not treat the psalm as Messianic, but he notes the recurrence of shalom (wlm) as significant of the intent of the psalm. (He notes the continuation of this responsibility of the people to pray in 1 Tim 2:1-2.) Clearly we still need these prayers for all of us, governor and governed.

 Here's my detail for Psalms 72.

Syllables: 377. Words: 162. Roots: 105. Root Recurrence: 56%. Average per verse: 4.5.

abivn (4) ai aib ain alvh (3) amn (2) aps arx (5) awr at b bdd blh bn (3) byd br brc (4) gal gby gvi (2) gzz dvd dvr (2) din dca dl dmm hih (2) hr (2) zhb zrzip kvs kih kms ihvh ivm (2) im (2) iqr ira ird irk (2) iwi iwral iwy (2) cbd (2) ci cl (5) clh cry l (3) lbnvn lkc m'tr mla mlc (5) mnkh nhr nvn npw (2) nxl nwa ntn (2) sba ybd yd (3) yzr yin yir yl (2) ylm (2) ym (4) yni (3) ypr ywb ywh ywq pla pll (2) pnh (3) pss prh prk xdiq xdq (3) xvx xih qrb raw rb rbb rdh ryw wba (2) wvb wvy wkh wcr wlm (2) wlmh wm (3) wmw (2) wp't (3) tc tmid trww

לִשְׁלֹמֹ֨ה ׀ אֱ‍ֽלֹהִ֗ים מִ֭שְׁפָּטֶיךָ לְמֶ֣לֶךְ תֵּ֑ן וְצִדְקָתְךָ֥ לְבֶן־מֶֽלֶךְ		1 Of Solomon. O God give your judgments to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son.
a lwlmh alohim mwp'tiç lmlç tn vxdqtç lbn-mlç	13 8	l/wlmh alh\im m/wp't\ic l/mlc t\n v/xdq\tc l/bn mlc
יָדִ֣ין עַמְּךָ֣ בְצֶ֑דֶק וַעֲנִיֶּ֥יךָ בְמִשְׁפָּֽט		2 He will make the case for your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment.
b idin ymç bxdq vyniiç bmwp't	7 8	i/din ym\c b/xdq v/yni\ic bm/wp't
יִשְׂא֤וּ הָרִ֓ים שָׁ֘ל֥וֹם לָעָ֑ם וּ֝גְבָע֗וֹת בִּצְדָקָֽה		3 The mountains will lift up peace to the people, and the hillocks in righteousness.
g iwau hrim wlom lym ugbyot bxdqh	8 6	i/wa\v hr\im wlvm l/ym v/gby\vt b/xdq\h
יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט ׀ עֲ‍ֽנִיֵּי־עָ֗ם י֭וֹשִׁיעַ לִבְנֵ֣י אֶבְי֑וֹן וִֽידַכֵּ֣א עוֹשֵֽׁק		4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will crush the oppressor.
d iwpo't ynii-ym iowiy lbni abion vidca yowq	12 5	i/wp't yni\i ym iv/wy l/bn\i abivn vi/dca yvwq
יִֽירָא֥וּךָ עִם־שָׁ֑מֶשׁ וְלִפְנֵ֥י יָ֝רֵ֗חַ דּ֣וֹר דּוֹרִֽים		5 They will fear you with the sun, and in the presence of the moon in all generations.
h iirauç ym-wmw vlpni irk dor dorim	7 9	i/ira\vc ym wmw vl/pn\i irk dvr dvr\im
יֵ֭רֵד כְּמָטָ֣ר עַל־גֵּ֑ז כִּ֝רְבִיבִ֗ים זַרְזִ֥יף אָֽרֶץ		6 ♪g He will come down as rain on the mowing, as earth-soaking copious showers.
v iird cm'tr yl-gz crbibim zrzif arx	7 7	ird c/m'tr yl gz c/rbb\im zrzip arx
יִֽפְרַח־בְּיָמָ֥יו צַדִּ֑יק וְרֹ֥ב שָׁ֝ל֗וֹם עַד־בְּלִ֥י יָרֵֽחַ		7 One who is righteous will flourish in his days, and abundant peace till the moon fades.
z iprk-bimiv xdiq vrob wlom yd-bli irk	7 10	i/prk b/im\iv xdiq v/rb wlvm yd bl\i irk
וְ֭יֵרְדְּ מִיָּ֣ם עַד־יָ֑ם וּ֝מִנָּהָ֗ר עַד־אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ		8 ♪g And he will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
k viird mim yd-im umnhr yd-apsi-arx	7 8	vi/rd m/im yd im vm/nhr yd aps\i arx
לְ֭פָנָיו יִכְרְע֣וּ צִיִּ֑ים וְ֝אֹיְבָ֗יו עָפָ֥ר יְלַחֵֽכוּ		9 ♪g In his presence wild places will bow down, and his enemies will lick the dust.
't lpniv icryu xiim vaoibiv ypr ilkcu	8 9	l/pn\iv i/cry\v xi\im v/aib\iv ypr i/lkc\v
מַלְכֵ֬י תַרְשִׁ֣ישׁ וְ֭אִיִּים מִנְחָ֣ה יָשִׁ֑יבוּ מַלְכֵ֥י שְׁבָ֥א וּ֝סְבָ֗א אֶשְׁכָּ֥ר יַקְרִֽיבוּ		10 Kings of Tarshish and the coasts will return with a gift. Kings of Sheba and Seba with wages will come near.
i mlci trwiw vaiim mnkh iwibu mlci wba usba awcr iqribu	12 11	mlc\i trww v/ai\im mnkh i/wib\v mlc\i wba v/sba a/wcr i/qrb\v
וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ־ל֥וֹ כָל־מְלָכִ֑ים כָּל־גּוֹיִ֥ם יַֽעַבְדֽוּהוּ		11 And all kings will worship him. All nations will serve him.
ia viwtkvu-lo cl-mlcim cl-goiim iybduhu	9 7	vi/wk\vv l\v cl mlc\im cl gvi\m i/ybd\vhv
כִּֽי־יַ֭צִּיל אֶבְי֣וֹן מְשַׁוֵּ֑עַ וְ֝עָנִ֗י וְֽאֵין־עֹזֵ֥ר לֽוֹ		12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries, and the poor without a helper.
ib ci-ixil abion mwvvy vyni vain-yozr lo	8 8	ci i/xl abivn m/wvy v/yni v/ain yzr l\v
יָ֭חֹס עַל־דַּ֣ל וְאֶבְי֑וֹן וְנַפְשׁ֖וֹת אֶבְיוֹנִ֣ים יוֹשִֽׁיעַ		13 ♪g He will spare the weak and the needy, and the-many needy he will save.
ig ikos yl-dl vabion vnpwot abionim iowiy	7 9	i/ks yl dl v/abivn v/npw\vt abivn\im iv/wy
מִתּ֣וֹךְ וּ֭מֵחָמָס יִגְאַ֣ל נַפְשָׁ֑ם וְיֵיקַ֖ר דָּמָ֣ם בְּעֵינָֽיו		14 From fraud and from violence he will redeem them, and their blood will be precious in his eyes.
id mtoç umkms igal npwm viiqr dmm byiniv	10 8	m/tvc vm/kms i/gal npw\m vi/iqr dmm b/yin\iv
וִיחִ֗י וְיִתֶּן־לוֹ֮ מִזְּהַ֪ב שְׁ֫בָ֥א וְיִתְפַּלֵּ֣ל בַּעֲד֣וֹ תָמִ֑יד כָּל־הַ֝יּ֗וֹם יְבָרֲכֶֽנְהֽוּ		15 And he will live, and he will give to him the gold of Sheba, and he will intercede concerning him continually. All the day long he will bless him.
'tv viki viitn-lo mzhb wba vitpll bydo tmid cl-hiom ibrcnhu	10 9 8	vi/ki vi/t\n l\v m/zhb wba vit/pll byd\v tmid cl h/ivm i/brc\nhv
יְהִ֤י פִסַּת־בַּ֨ר ׀ בָּאָרֶץ֮ בְּרֹ֪אשׁ הָ֫רִ֥ים יִרְעַ֣שׁ כַּלְּבָנ֣וֹן פִּרְי֑וֹ וְיָצִ֥יצוּ מֵ֝עִ֗יר כְּעֵ֣שֶׂב הָאָֽרֶץ		16 A minute amount of corn in the earth will become as the top of the mountains. Its fruit will rustle like Lebanon, and they from the city will blossom like the herbs of the earth.
'tz ihi pist-br barx braw hrim iryw clbnon priio vixixu myir cywb harx	12 7 12	i/hi ps\t br b/arx b/raw hr\im i/ryw c/lbnvn pr\iv vi/xix\v m/yir c/ywb h/arx
יְהִ֤י שְׁמ֨וֹ לְֽעוֹלָ֗ם לִפְנֵי־שֶׁמֶשׁ֮ יִנּ֪וֹן שְׁ֫מוֹ וְיִתְבָּ֥רְכוּ ב֑וֹ כָּל־גּוֹיִ֥ם יְאַשְּׁרֽוּהוּ		17 His name will be forever. His name will propagate in the presence of the sun, and they will bless themselves in him. All nations will call him happy.
iz ihi wmo lyolm lpni-wmw iinon wmo vitbrcu bo cl-goiim iawruhu	19 7	i/hi wm\v l/yvlm l/pn\i wmw i/nvn wm\v vit/brc\v b\v cl gvi\m i/awr\vhv
בָּר֤וּךְ ׀ יְהוָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהִים אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל עֹשֵׂ֖ה נִפְלָא֣וֹת לְבַדּֽוֹ		18 Bless Yahweh God, the God of Israel, doing wonders he alone.
ik bruç ihvh alohim alohi iwral yowh nplaot lbdo	13 8	brvc ihvh alh\im alh\i iwral ywh n/pla\vt l/bd\v
וּבָר֤וּךְ ׀ שֵׁ֥ם כְּבוֹד֗וֹ לְע֫וֹלָ֥ם וְיִמָּלֵ֣א כְ֭בוֹדוֹ אֶת־כֹּ֥ל הָאָ֗רֶץ אָ֘מֵ֥ן ׀ וְאָמֵֽן		19 And bless the name of his glory forever, and let all the earth be full of his glory, Amen and amen.
i't ubruç wm cbodo lyolm viimla cbodo at-col harx amn vamn	10 17	v/brvc wm cbvd\v l/yvlm vi/mla cbvd\v at cl h/arx amn v/amn
כָּלּ֥וּ תְפִלּ֑וֹת דָּ֝וִ֗ד בֶּן־יִשָֽׁי		20 Finished are the prayers, David, the son of Jesse.
c colu tpilot dvid bn-iwi	5 5	cl\v t/pl\vt dvd bn iwi

5	in all generations, literally in the generation of generations.
6	pervasive copious showers, זרזיף (zrzip) hapax, drip, (DCH sprinkling, BDB irrigate) + רבב (rbb), many in the plural.
12	without a helper, who is without a helper? the poor or does God deliver without a helper?
13	will spare, used of Jonah in the final two verses of chapter 4 in the request of Yahweh to Jonah to show pity.
16	handful,פסה, (psh) hapax.
17	propagate, נון (nvn) hapax.

First time recurrence: abivn irk wba wmw

Word / Gloss					Vs	Stem
אביון the needy	▒				4	אביון
שמש the sun		▒			5	שמש
ירח the moon			▒		5	ירח
ירח the moon			▒		7	ירח
שבא Sheba				▒	10	שבא
אביון the needy	▒				12	אביון
ואביון and the needy	▒				13	אביון
אביונים the-many needy	▒				13	אביון
שבא Sheba				▒	15	שבא
שמש the sun		▒			17	שמש