Job 38:8-15

Continuing the previous post. Notice the regularity of the next three verses all with the same contour to begin, all with the tuba on the rest note but three differing moves to the tonic. The speaker is teaching with announcement and on the rest note even though we read it as forceful. Are we reading it well?

You'll notice also the awkward beginning of this question continuing the earlier one from verse 6 before the shout and exultation of verse 7. The shouts are an interruption. 

Job 38:8-10

Verse 8-9 -- birth imagery. The sea is clothed and swaddled: restraint without violence. Gentle language for all the rhetorical force of the speech. Care for the sea. We are right to support the Orca and the Coral.
Dominion is not domination. Rule (rdh) and control (cbw), the glosses I used in Genesis 1 concerning the human, do not require hostility. God does not bind the sea but wraps it. The sea is so powerful, a decree is shattered (wbr). Channels and runaway lanes give the sea a way to manage its turbulence. Wisdom or shrewdness (I use both glosses for kcm) is knowing where force may move, not necessarily eliminating force.

This speech so far is an interrogation encompassing the domains of earth, stars, and sea, each governed by unseen measures. The sea is held. Do we recognize a wisdom that precedes moral accounting?

Job 38:11

The sea is contained by speech. It's cresting force is acknowledged, allowing its wave to disintegrate where it breaks. We can stand in the waves knowing (with care) that they will break. And we can study such waveforms right to the infinitesimals of the wavelengths of light and the sounds of music.

Across all these 8 verses, from 4 to 11, the overall musical contour of each verse is the same whether the subject is foundation, joy, birth, clothing, channeling, or limits. Joy and limit belong to the same sequence. Boundary is not the opposite of freedom. It is its condition.

The play explores the demand of suffering: explanation will not suffice, proportionality is unthinkable, moral calculus does not work. The problem of suffering is contained within this higher order wherein we have been placed before an inescapable encounter?

הְֽ֭מִיָּמֶיךָ has two accents on the first syllable. In what order should they be applied? Haïk-Vantoura assumes that the result is g-e, effectively an ornamentation of the first note. I have interpreted the g as prevailing since the silluq is ambiguous because it is used in the text under two distinct names and for two distinct functions. This long story is more thoroughly explained in my introductory paragraphs in the book.

Dawn, a cosmic servant, executing an assigned task, actively grasps the hem of the earth. Note how verses 12 to 14 are joined by the opening note, each verse to the one previous. The garment formed by the separation of light from darkness is metaphorically shaken so that the wicked are tossed as if in a blanket, or to mix metaphors, as the clay is imaged by the seal. So it appears that the moral order is subordinate to the cosmic scale we have just come down. Dawn illuminates the topography and light exposes or is withheld and the exalted arm broken. Visibility already judges.

Where are we at the foundation of earth, at the joy, or the shouting of the children of God, and at the containment that followed? Who am I that I should know? Perhaps we are getting there but with great difficulty. We too with Job, will sigh over dust and ashes. But wisdom delights. Time is definitely strange. There is no passage of time in an electromagnetic field. Waves without mass have no pocket watch. Wisdom speaks in Proverbs 8. Perhaps even we are 'in Wisdom' as we explore the universe.

From Proverbs 8

I think you can see how much work there is to consider the music in the text. Check out the About page for available volumes. 

Some notes on the first 7 verses of Job 38

There is a reason that I have limited my comments in my Music of the Bible series. The complexity of this presentation of the Bible, through the work of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura will take many lifetimes to critique. I worked through the first dozen or so verses of Job 38. This post is only on the first 7. Many more words could be written than I have time to absorb or you time to read.

I began with a look at recurrence patterns. The final recurring word in the chapter focuses the single long passage as leading towards wisdom. I can do a maximum of 40 roots at once, so I had to eliminate a few (two of which do follow wisdom, but these join chapter 38 to a new section on animals that continues in chapter 39). There were no circular structures that were highlighted. The chapter comes across with force. 

Job 38 -- beginning

I used the prose default mode in verse 1 to distinguish the narrator from the actors. There is never a rest note in the narrator's introductory snippets until chapter 33 when the narrator comes on stage to introduce Elihu. And there, the narrator speaks in poetry. 

Verse 2: Who is this? begins the  speech on the high C with the qadma ornament carrying the tessitura even higher. This verse through its opening note connects the speech to the prior speeches. It has no mid verse rest. Verses three and four are traditional poetry with mid verse rest points. Verse three approaches the subdominant from the B, and verse four approaches from the g. 

Verse 4: Where were you when I founded Earth? Notice it is founded, not created. יָסַד is architectural: laying foundations, establishing stability, setting something so it can bear weight.

Not 'What do you know?' but 'Where were you?' Before any claim to discernment, there must be a place from which discernment could arise. בִּינָה is the ability to distinguish, to perceive relations, to tell one thing from another within a structure.

'Make it clear' is an invitation. הַגֵּד is imperative, but does not require silence from Job. It is not saying that humans know nothing, or that inquiry is illegitimate, or science futile. It is saying that wisdom begins with acknowledging where one stands, foundational ordering precedes explanation. 

Verse 5: Who set her measure? For you know.
Or who stretched out on her a line? 

We measure. We may even measure well -- and do intricate projects like the Webb Telescope. But, as is ironically implied, it is a philosophical puzzle that measurement is possible within reality. Why is it that physics can be described by equations. And we know our knowledge is limited by the probability distributions of the quantum fields. We are not mechanism and neither is creation.

Job 38 -- a place to pause for a moment

On what were her sockets sunk? I am moved by this image. It is very carefully stated. One must not translate sockets as pillars as though we were a construction project. The word for socket (adn -- close to the same letters as in Adonai) occurs twice outside of Torah, the sections in Exodus on the building of the tabernacle and the continuation in Numbers. In the building of the tabernacle it occurs 51 times. With its usage here, the earth becomes a holy place, just as the beloved of the Song is holy in the description that also uses this word socket.

Song 5:15

Who instructed her corner stone? The corner stone (אֶבֶן פִּנָּה) is not just structural. That word pnh is multifaceted. The corner stone, the facing stone, aligns walls, determines orientation, governs coherence. And yet the verb is יָרָה to instruct, to teach, to throw, or cast. If the cornerstone is 'nstructed' then, as science requires of creation: order becomes intelligible, coherence is sensible, alignment is reliable, but the instruction is more than 'ours'. We must align ourselves to the stone that faces us. But we did not instruct it. These verses are a revelation of the conditions of knowing. And we do know, in part.

The music is restrained. Apart from the revia-mugrash (which I call tuba announcing the return to the tonic), there are no ornaments. There are no verses from verses 2 to 11 starting on a pitch other than the tonic, i.e. no explicit verse connections as there are later in the chapter. I am still looking for some clues as to why some verses approach the tonic from below and why some from above. I also ask why some verses return gently to the tonic, some without tuba, some with, and others (in poetry only) move from B to e -- munach to silluq.

3. e B A, tuba e.
4. e B g A, tuba, f# e.
5. e B g B A, C e g B e.
6. e g B A, f# tuba, B e.
7. e g B A, tuba, f# e.

Verse 7 lifts us from support to celebration, from grounding to witness. That's why we love the beauty of mathematics and science and the order of creation. It's not important that it is big, but that it is ordered both in the infinitesimally small and enormously large, and even in the infinities of the real number system. And we should be encouraged.

People say the Word is written. But note the absence of the word socket from most of the books of the Hebrew canon. Part of reading with comprehension is to discern what is not written.

We can face the questions and sing the music. Someone should mount this stage play. The book with the music for every verse is available here. 

Eschaton

Come and play!

I don't feed my dog mud. Sometimes he thinks he's a cow and eats grass.

Up the hill.

The dog really isn't mine, but my son's. This dog is keeping me alive. To keep me alive isn't mine either. That belongs to doG.

When my son is busy, Delta forces me to get out and walk. I didn't have a dog for nearly 70 years. Now he comes into my living room, pushes me out of my chair, and pulls me up the hill to see the beauty and give him some time off leash on the rocks. 

In my country and neighborhood, there are many dogs and owners out every day walking their pets. I can't remember all their names. They are all loved and loving.

Our attitudes to the domestic canis are different from the epithets about them thrown about in ancient literature like the Bible.

Dogs do more than "eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table". I am past the time of scrambling on the rocks at my age. But I do occasionally descend the steeper slope, though not with the speed that I will take you down my rocky thoughts in this post.

I have been pondering for at least two days a seven-part sequence I dreamt up as I awoke -- on Friday, Halloween, was it? My thoughts were stimulated by the juxtaposition of the Amalek incident noted in 2 Samuel 1 with the Elegy over the death of Saul and Jonathan later in the chapter.

I wondered, remembering first the traditional 'Amalek as the evil inclination', whom David, the not-yet-king, had commanded to be put down like a dog by one of his company. How can I pick my way down this slope from this summary execution to the music of the elegy, one of the most moving performances I have yet heard of the biblical music. From sin to death to the beauty of sorrow. 

(Excuse me, there is a slight whine at my door. It is Saturday morning and Delta is hoping for a fried egg for breakfast, a weekly treat. After a little coaxing, he settled and waited patiently for his "more than crumbs".)

Amalek was a problem to Saul. He failed (see 1 Samuel 15) and was he not one of the prophets, as they say? Did he not know the love of God? The Amalekite soldier who killed Saul was caught with spoil, just as the people and Saul were caught when they had pity on Agag. Neither convenient decision was good.

I doubt frankly whether I would have got on well with David or any other local dogs of the time. I suspect that in David's world, the dog was a local scavenger. The Amalekite is not called a dog, but the giant whom David slew asked -- Am I a dog? Amalek has not become a famous insult like the common use of Philistine today. Amalek is to be entirely wiped out. 

Deuteronomy 25 with the instruction to erase the memorial of Amalek

The raw juxtaposition of the Amalekite with the Elegy is a jarring episode in the exposed character of the human, but the Amalekite while claiming the title of guest, is given away by the loot in his hands, the consecrated thing that was on Saul's head and the armlet. The result is his immediate execution. David himself had refused to touch the Lord's Anointed more than once.

The act that condemns the one who claimed to be a 'guest'

Then follows some of the most touching music in the Scripture all of it as always, embedded in the te'amim, the cantillation accents in the text. You can hear it sung here.

The last few verses of David's elegy over the death of Saul and Jonathan

Amalek is not ignored in the Hebrew tradition nor is the problem of pragmatism with respect to human life. Is the evil inclination necessary for life? I wonder whether we can see such discussions as supporting what the apostle Paul calls in Greek, 'the flesh'. Self-interest and self-service, convenient pragmatism is inside all of us, the archetype of the flesh, the adversary of the brooding Spirit.

The New Testament verse that I hear within this analogue is, as you may have guessed, from Romans 8: If you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. I take this as singular even though the tenses are plural. This death is the singularity in the centre of my galaxy. 

What does it do for us? In a word, we are to consider ourselves dead with Christ so that we can be alive with him in the new resurrected life that has already begun. When we discover this, the redemption works backward in time and reveals to us life in ways we would never have imagined. Of course, it is not without cost. As Amalek is to be entirely wiped out, so all our convenience and our desires are to be put to death in the death of Christ. This death is anticipated in Scripture in the word libation, a pouring out of love. The music for the pouring out from before the foundation of the world (Proverbs 8:23), is a slow descending scale to the tonic from the third, g f#, e. Yahweh bought me, the beginning of his way, preceding his work from then. From everlasting I have offered libation from the beginning, out of the precedents of earth. 

 Proverbs 8:22-23 Wisdom purchased, Anticipation of Sacrifice.

Years ago, we had the film Apocalypse Now. My thought shortly after in 1980 was Apocalypse Then. I wrote and wrote under this title in the infancy of the internet, a book I have withdrawn, even illustrating it with art I should not have spent toner on.

As far as I could see in all dimensions, the end of time was in the middle. I don't separate Now and Then -- the self-giving of Christ Jesus, the costly purchase, a libation of love, and Playful Wisdom in the shape of a dog disturbing my complacency: Come and play. Rise up, my love, my fair one -- to the hill.

In the words of George Herbert, Easter:

Can there be any day but this? We count three hundred, but we miss, there is but one and that one ever.

Before the beginning

Can there be any before with respect to the beginning? 

The problem is time. Who understands it? 

I will not attempt to explain time dilation, or time as an emergent property of matter in motion. It has been over 60 years since I studied special relativity, and the dilation of time made those classes light up the world for me week after week. (Pun intended). I then wrote for my Literature class a paper on Time and Space in Paradise Lost. I still have that somewhere, lost in storage. It was the longest essay I had ever written up to that point, filled with images. Milton writes:

The cosmic microwave background
(NASA image – a map of the universe).

"This pendant world, in bigness as a star," hanging by a chain from heaven (an idea that Milton borrowed from Homer perhaps mediated by his conversations with Galileo), not unlike the image of the microwave background we see today from cosmic sources. I combined these with graphs showing asymptotic curves that seemed to go off to the infinite in one axis and return by another. I imagined them meeting on the other side of somewhere. (You can find lots of videos explaining asymptotes in gory detail.)

At the base of all this, I have been curious and remain curious about what we take for granted with time-based words as we read Hebrew and Christian Scripture, especially in translation. For instance, past, present, and future, pre- and post- prefixes, before and after, everlasting, eternal. What is the nature of time ... ? AI will give you a good summary of this if you persist. 

Whatever the nature of time, Biblical Hebrew does not have past, present, and future tenses. Every tongue that uses these linear sounding tenses may be misleading us. Over 50 years ago, before I knew anything about Hebrew, (And I still 'know' very little -- we must return to the little word 'know' later or sooner), someone told me that the Hebrew verbal forms have aspect and they were right. It got me thinking, but I didn't have much to apply it to 'yet'.

The idea of aspect in verbs, e.g. incomplete and continuing, versus complete and over with, got me to change my view of time as linear. All we have is the present and that is very brief -- approaching the infinitesimal. We have to 'face' what we have, yet the emergent property seems real to us even though we express it with imaginary numbers! Experience, memory, music, sense, sight, sound, touch, taste, rhythm, agogic all integrate these infinitesimals into what amounts to us. (Our soul, if you like.)

Here as I write, I sit listening to the cello suites of J.S. Bach. The whole is present all at once. Each dance form and harmonic movement contributes to a unity. It is a unity that requires and subtends duration -- and I do not need to be aware of the satellites, adjusting themselves to their slightly slower clocks than mine, that carried this streaming content to me, or the transistors running on quantum technology that mediate it for me into my speakers and fill the room with sound.

In the Scripture, there are two stark uses of time and tense that jump to my mind -- one from the Old and one from the New: Proverbs 8 - Wisdom at play before the foundation of the world, and Jesus statement in the gospel of John, Before Abraham was, I am.

That's enough to raise the question for now. That was the prequel to in the beginning. Next stop, last things. I have no shadow to run away from...

Magnificat

 Over a year ago I applied the music of 2 Samuel to the Magnificat. Here is a mechanical performance.

And here is some more practice for SimHebrew pronunciation.
^a vttpll knh vtamr ylx libi bihvh rmh qrni bihvh
rkb pi yl -aoibii ci wmkti biwuytç
^b ain -qdow cihvh ci ain bltç
vain xur calohinu
^g al -trbu tdbru gbohh gbohh iixa ytq mpicm
ci al dyot ihvh vlo ntcnu ylilot
^d qwt giborim ktim
vncwlim azru kil
^h wbyim blkm nwcru urybim kdlu
yd -yqrh ildh wbyh vrbt bnim aumllh
^v ihvh mmit umkiih
morid waol viyl
^z ihvh moriw umywir
mwpil af -mromm
^k mqim mypr dl mawpot irim abion lhowib ym -ndibim vcisa cbod inkilm
ci lihvh mxuqi arx viwt ylihm tbl
^'t rgli ksidiv iwmor urwyim bkowç iidmu
ci la bcok igbr -aiw
ⁱ ihvh iiktu mribiv yliv bwmiim irym ihvh idin apsi -arx
viitn -yoz lmlco virm qrn mwiko

And this is the raw data from 1 Samuel 2:1-10. All the raw data is available on the web here.

Distinguishing aleph-lamed-yod from itself

When is אלי my God and when is it to me? 

And when is the root of such a word /al/ rather than /alvh/? Apparently when /al/ is the root, it may be derived from /ail/, ram, hart, or potency.

I was surprised to remind myself how extensive that root /al/ is. Of course it is many things besides its usage as God. Interpreting always of course, in the canonical text, 

• there are a total of 6,586 uses of this letter pair as a root. 
• I count 30 uses as god in the generic sense, 
• 114 as God, 67 as part of a location name, 
• 5 occurrences in Daniel in a form signifying lo, 
• 840 uses as a negative particle, 
• 6 uses as the demonstrative these in Daniel and Ezra, 
• and the rest of the thousands in various forms as a preposition. You can scan the lot here.

It was curious to me (אלי) that the same three letter form /ali/ is also used 11 times for the generic singular root of alohim (2,763 uses in its various word forms). Why would some forms be interpreted as root /al/ and 11 others as /alvh/? Assigning these to the root alvh of course makes them unambiguous. (See Is 44:17, Ps 18:3, 22:2, 22:11, 63:2, 68:25, 89:77, 102:25, 118:28, 140:7. The poetic meter is also a consideration. אל is used for God frequently in Psalms and Job, not at all in Proverbs and less so in the prose books.)

This question came up because of the compactness of Exodus 32:26. mi lihvh alii. The Hebrew gives no clue for punctuation. I had translated it as 'Who is for Yahweh, my God?' The pointing and the SimHebrew (the fully spelled text) seem to demand that אלי be translated as 'to me'.

Exodus 32:26 - the music gives no indication of a discontinuous phrase.

I have changed the translation, but I find it a concern. Is the music incapable of expressing discontinuity? No it is not. Any number of ornaments could have indicated a disjunction. But this phrase, which occurs in the accent sequences over 1500 times, never invites such a break.

For more on the incident of the golden calf, try the Torah site, e.g. here. And here is a pdf on the chiastic structure of the passage, of which this verse is the centre. Couldn't find online a scholarly opinion on this translation issue. There is an interesting pdf on the violence of Levi here. In the days when I would write, I did some commentary here.

There is one other example in Psalms 7:7. In this case, I see that translations vary between 'to me' and 'my God'. The majority go with 'to me'.

Arise Yahweh, in your anger, be lifted up in the outbursts of my adversary,
and be aroused, my God, judgment you command.

To render this as 'to me' is not impossible personally or theologically, but there is a parallel that is lost. And here the music much more effectively supports the parallel.

Psalms 7:7 

Hebrew Bible texts to a Gregorian chant?

Via James McGrath on FB, here is a comment from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on an interesting medieval manuscript of Hebrew texts from the Genizah Research Unit. More detail here.

Genizah fragment T-S K5.41 (recto): a musical composition from the 12th century.

Just what is the notation? It is not the traditional te'amim of the Hebrew Bible. (The melody reminds me of a fragment from Bernstein's Chichester Psalms - from the fourth minute of the solo in the second movement.)

There is no direct relationship to the te'amim in this 12th century work. It is rather almost a neume notation. Assuming a tonic of e for comparison to Haïk-Vantoura's work, the melody is a descending motif from the fifth to the second (a bit like the cadence on ole-veyored), and then in the second half of each verse, a resolution to the third.

(You can hear the composition at the link.) It is close to tonus peregrinus, in that it has more than one reciting note, but it doesn't resolve to the e. Occasionally the submediant (the sixth degree) is touched.

Here for comparison are the five texts: The first line is from Jer. 17:7. The second is from Prov. 3:5. The third from Prov. 3:6. The fourth: Prov. 3:13. The fifth: Job 5:17. (Switch the mode to e-major for all of them. - I.e. ignore the sharpened fourth in the first line from Jeremiah and sharpen the g naturals in the subsequent lines from the poetry books.) 

The five texts of T-S K5.41 (recto) interpreted from the te'amim
according to the deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura

Delitzsch - presentation on music in the church

 Came across this by accident: 

while looking for a copy of Delitzsch Physiologie und Musik in Ihrer Bedeutung für die Grammatik, Besonders die Hebräische hopefully in an OCR or editable format. Anyone know of such?

MUSIC IN THE CHURCH.

Theses given by Dr. Franz Delitzsch to his English Exegetioal Society.

1. Music in the church is allowed, for music belongs not to the shadow of the Old Testament worship, which is abolished by the substance of salvation which has appeared in the person of our Savior and by the work of our Savior.

2. If singing is allowed, consequently also playing instruments is allowed ; for, singing, we make music with the instruments of our speech and, playing instruments, we make the wood and metal and strings sing. The vocal music makes the nature of our body serviceable to God's honor and the instrumental music makes eternal nature serviceable to God's honor.

3. Whatever is allowed to be done internally, is also allowed to be done externally. The Apostle summons us to sing and to make melody (music) in our hearts (Eph. v. 19), therefore it is also laudable to make music to the Lord with our mouth and with our hands.

4. Whatever takes place in the upper (celestial) or tri- umphant church, cannot be forbidden in the church here below. Now the Seer hears in the heavens a voice as the voice of many waters, and the voice which he heard was like the voice [hos) of harpers harping with their harps. (Revelation xiv. 2.) The particle hos, which is expressed neither in the received nor in the revised version, is signi- ficant. The harps and the harping were antitypically cor- responding to the terrestrial.

5. Saul was refreshed and the evil spirit departed from him when David took his harp and played with his hands, 1 Sam. XVI. 23, and music was employed in the prophets' school to awaken the prophetic charisma, as the example of Elisha shows upon whom came the hand of the Lord when the minstrel played, 2 Kings iii. 15. This energy of music continues and is still practicable.

Concordance and vowel patterns

 All 401 posts of the concordance have been refreshed. They now show the vowel pattern. I don't know about you, but I can now see and almost hear the SimHebrew as clearly, in fact more easily, than I can read the vowels of the square text. It's all there in the concordance and with some updated intro pages as well. The one on pronunciation is a copy of what I had on the SimHebrew Bible. That blog was one too many to handle so I have made it private. The concordance is a fixed set of pages - so only a slight regenerating pain when I have to change it. For the SimHebrew Bible, we won't use a blog apart from the few examples I have on this blog. You will need to buy the book. The wrappers are not yet finished. The Biblical text is done and designed, but we have the issue of getting just the right introductions and just the right set of 'helps' as appendices. And just the right set of acknowledgements etc.

The concordance will remain fully online. It is too useful as a teaching and analysis tool and the online format is perfect for it. It is my gift to y'all. It was not available anywhere in 2006 and now it is. 

< begin rant>The glossaries and dictionaries and analyses that I read when I began were like fighting with blankets in a nightmare. I met many people who learned just enough Hebrew to get through their exams for the ministry and then gave up with a sigh of relief. What a travesty for their learning. The 19th century analyses (the so-called Strong's numbers) have infected the learning of the last 2 centuries. All this exposure of a badly defined identifier is an atrocious way of teaching a language. A language can never live if you turn it into a bunch of numbers. (Unless you are writing AI speech recognition, but that's a different story.) </end rant>

Enough negatives. With the vowel patterns exposed, I think a little selective analysis will reveal some useful grammatical results. By all means study ctb again.

For instance: 

actbnh

_e_:_:a_e_a_

1

אֶכְתֲּבֶ֑נָּה

I will write it

Just look at the simplicity: the first /a/ in actbnh carries and _e_ vowel, the c carries a schwa, the t carries a lesser a vowel, the suffix is joined to the root ctb with a vowel pattern.

I expect to find consistent rules for forming vowel patterns, of course for the binyanim (conjugations  building blocks for verbs) and also for the prefixes and suffixes. I know, I could get them all from Lambdin or Gesenius or any of the many other online grammars, but just imagine if I were able to make it easier to learn with SimHebrew! To the point where you could read without the vowels. (That's not quite possible since there will be ambiguities, but when we can identify them, then perhaps we will know the language a little better.)

Notice too how actbnh is on a rest! You know where it's from, it's a unique form in Jeremiah 31. Just look at it.

Jeremiah 31:33

This was referred to in the lesson at Evensong today in Hebrews 8. Now there's a coincidence...

Moses may break the tablets, but God will write the law on their hearts. (Of course we all know how to break hearts!)

Reading in translation - an example Psalms 10:1

How much value is there in reading these texts in translation? This question is from Christopher Page in our blogging dialogue, currently in its 9th week. Here's the first post from April 17th.

My answer must be that there is much value in many ways. I responded quickly in a comment. I have been thinking about the question continuously since he raised it.

It is clear that no one has Biblical Hebrew as a mother tongue. No one ever coins a word or absorbs new words into Biblical Hebrew. Effectively, we can read only in translation. Even a native Hebrew speaker today does not think like an ancient Hebrew. Words change both their sense and their usage over time - and here we are not talking centuries but millennia.

Many people have given this advice, that where possible, we should consult alternate translations. Today that is more easily done than it was in the past. Of course, we may find it threatening to question our traditional words and phrases, and it is more difficult to remember what is unfamiliar, and the music would change - and there is such a long tradition of music from the psalms.

I remember loving the psalms as I gradually learned to sing them. We memorized Psalms 84 and 85 for a choir trip to Kingston, Ontario in the 1950's when I couldn't have been more than 12. 

O how amiable are thy dwellings *
thou Lord of hosts!
My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord *
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young *
even thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house *
they will be alway praising thee. ...

Ah, how that brings back memories, mostly good. Music covers a multitude of sins.

And who can forget the magnificent poetry of Psalms 85.

...

Mercy and truth are met together *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall flourish out of the earth *
and righteousness hath looked down from heaven.
Yea, the Lord shall shew loving-kindness *
and our land shall give her increase.
Righteousness shall go before him *
and he shall direct his going in the way.

(O dear, what have I done to these words! Don't look now - but it's not that bad. The Hebrew here is quite transparent. Notice how compact it is.)

ksd-vamt npgwu.
xdq vwlom nwqu.

amt marx txmk,
vxdq mwmiim nwqf.

gm-ihvh iitn h'tob,
varxnu titn ibulh.

xdq lpniv ihlç,
viwm ldrç pymiv.

But what did I know of these 5 books even after a lifetime of singing them? Selah... the stories of David (book 1+), the exile, the poems of the children of Korah, and Asaph, Ethan the Ezrahite, Jeduthun, (books 2 and 3), the massive laments, the response of what has been called the book of Moses (book 4) to the two books from the exile, the 8 acrostics and the two oracles (books 1 and 5), the patterns of worship in the Temple, the movement from exile to praise, (book 5+). 

The complexity is overwhelming. As I think of school and how much we memorized, I ask myself why we didn't memorize in French and Latin as well. Imagine what we might have learned with a tri-lingual reading.

Today, we can scan many different translations on the web at one go. As we begin Psalms 10, I thought to look at the first verse. Psalms 10 is the continuation of the acrostic of Psalms 9. 

King James Version	Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Coverdale	Why standest thou so far off, O Lord * and hidest thy face in the needful time of trouble?
Jerusalem Bible	Yahweh, why do you stand aside, why hide from us now the times are hard?
Revised English Bible	Why stand far off, Lord? Why hide away in times of trouble?
Hebrew, the Square text, pointed, from the Leningrad Codex	לָמָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה תַּעֲמֹ֣ד בְּרָח֑וֹק תַּ֝עְלִ֗ים לְעִתּ֥וֹת בַּצָּרֽ͏ָה׃
SimHebrew, a partially vocalized text one for one with the unpointed text.	lmh ihvh tymod brkoq, tylim lyitot bxrh?
Greek	ἵνα τί κύριε ἀφέστηκας μακρόθεν ὑπερορᾷς ἐν εὐκαιρίαις ἐν θλίψει
New English Translation of the Septuagint	Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you overlook, at the right moment, in affliction?
Latin	Ut quid, Domine, recessisti longe; despicis in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione?
French	Pourquoi, ô Éternel, te tiens-tu loin, et te caches-tu au temps de la détresse?
English	Other renderings.

My translation for this 'L' verse is:

LORD why do you stand in the distance,
obscure in times of trouble?

I used Lord for the initial 'L' where I would normally let the letters of the divine name i-h-v-h stand alone or write Yahweh, a pattern I copied from the Jerusalem Bible, partly because the name can be sung. Note that I don't repeat the 'Why', because that rhetorical flourish  is not there in the Hebrew.

Why did I use the gloss obscure and not the common find? Because it is not the common root str for hide. It is the root ylm, (roughly 'olam). Click the link to see that this root is sometimes in the domain of Hide, but is really a much more interesting, almost cosmic root than hide would suggest. I think that obscure catches that hidden sense of the invisible eternal. And I didn't need that gloss for any other Hebrew stem. (I try to keep the locks of my beloved both well combed and braided.)

Besides the myriad of possible renderings in English, there is also the music in the text of the Hebrew itself. I think we could learn Hebrew much easier if we began with singing and memorizing the melodies embedded in the hand-signals in the text. We are doing this a bit at a time at the parish of St John the Divine in the Hebrew Bible Music project. Our third recording is in the final stages of production. The first is a simple live recording on my Iphone of Isaiah 12 sung as the psalm for the day. The second (which includes a 4 minute introductory lecture) is a part of Psalms 145, the last acrostic in the Psalms. The third is Psalms 100, the Jubilate Deo, soon to be available.

The music is sometimes an aria, sometimes a chorus, sometimes a hymn, somtimes a recitation, sometimes slow and tender, and sometimes for robust congregational singing.

The score for psalms 10 is here. You will find all the scores for the whole Bible (929 chapters) in the shared directories on the music page, and many examples of arrangements and performances on this blog.

Psalms 33

This was an experimental piece and I had never put it to a score. So here is the psalm for my today.

 2012 was the last time I posted about this psalm - the only psalm between 3 and 41 without an inscription. This makes it stand out in Book 1 as important - not only that but it is celebrated by Psalms 34. (All acrostic psalms celebrate the immediately preceding non-acrostic psalm.)

This psalm anticipates later themes in the Psalter. There's a conversation beginning here with Ken Schenck on reading the whole Bible. Ken is among the most disciplined teachers I have come across. This psalm made me think about how we read the Biblical Story.

	Psalms 33	Fn	Min	Max	Syll
רַנְּנ֣וּ צַ֭דִּיקִים בַּֽיהוָ֑ה לַ֝יְשָׁרִ֗ים נָאוָ֥ה תְהִלָּֽה	1 Shout for joy, righteous ones, in Yahweh. To the upright praise is lovely.		3e	4B	7 8
הוֹד֣וּ לַיהוָ֣ה בְּכִנּ֑וֹר בְּנֵ֥בֶל עָ֝שׂ֗וֹר זַמְּרוּ־לֽוֹ	2 Give thanks to Yahweh on a harp. On a ten-stringed lute sing a psalm to him.		3e	4B	7 7
שִֽׁירוּ־ל֭וֹ שִׁ֣יר חָדָ֑שׁ הֵיטִ֥יבוּ נַ֝גֵּ֗ן בִּתְרוּעָֽה	3 Sing to him a new song. Well-practiced, perform with jubilation.		3e	4B	5 8
כִּֽי־יָשָׁ֥ר דְּבַר־יְהוָ֑ה וְכָל־מַ֝עֲשֵׂ֗הוּ בֶּאֱמוּנָֽה	4 For upright is the word of Yahweh, and all he makes is in faithfulness.		3e	4A	6 10
אֹ֭הֵב צְדָקָ֣ה וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט חֶ֥סֶד יְ֝הוָ֗ה מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ	5 loving righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the mercy of Yahweh.	g	3e	4B	8 9
בִּדְבַ֣ר יְ֭הוָה שָׁמַ֣יִם נַעֲשׂ֑וּ וּבְר֥וּחַ פִּ֝֗יו כָּל־צְבָאָֽם	6 In the word of Yahweh the heavens are made, and in the wind of his mouth all their hosts,		3e	4B	9 8
כֹּנֵ֣ס כַּ֭נֵּד מֵ֣י הַיָּ֑ם נֹתֵ֖ן בְּאֹצָר֣וֹת תְּהוֹמֽוֹת	7 garnering as a heap the waters of the sea, giving abysses in treasuries.		3e	4B	7 9
יִֽירְא֣וּ מֵ֭יְהוָה כָּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ מִמֶּ֥נּוּ יָ֝ג֗וּרוּ כָּל־יֹשְׁבֵ֥י תֵבֵֽל	8 From Yahweh all the earth will fear. From him let all those sitting in the world be in awe.		3e	4B	9 11
כִּ֤י ה֣וּא אָמַ֣ר וַיֶּ֑הִי הֽוּא־צִ֝וָּ֗ה וַֽיַּעֲמֹֽד	9 For he himself promises and it is, he himself commands and it stands.	C	3e	4C	7 7
יְֽהוָ֗ה הֵפִ֥יר עֲצַת־גּוֹיִ֑ם הֵ֝נִ֗יא מַחְשְׁב֥וֹת עַמִּֽים	10 Yahweh frustrates the counsel of nations. He hinders the devices of peoples.		3e	4A	8 7
עֲצַ֣ת יְ֭הוָה לְעוֹלָ֣ם תַּעֲמֹ֑ד מַחְשְׁב֥וֹת לִ֝בּ֗וֹ לְדֹ֣ר וָדֹֽר	11 The counsel of Yahweh forever will stand, the devices of his heart from generation to generation.		3e	4B	10 9
אַשְׁרֵ֣י הַ֭גּוֹי אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו הָעָ֓ם ׀ בָּחַ֖ר לְנַחֲלָ֣ה לֽוֹ	12 Happy the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people chosen as his inheritance.		3e	4B	12 9
מִ֭שָּׁמַיִם הִבִּ֣יט יְהוָ֑ה רָ֝אָ֗ה אֶֽת־כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י הָאָדָֽם	13 From the heavens Yahweh takes note. He sees all the human children.	g	3e	4B	7 9
מִֽמְּכוֹן־שִׁבְתּ֥וֹ הִשְׁגִּ֑יחַ אֶ֖ל כָּל־יֹשְׁבֵ֣י הָאָֽרֶץ	14 From his established seat he peers, at all those sitting on the earth.		3e	4B	7 7
הַיֹּצֵ֣ר יַ֣חַד לִבָּ֑ם הַ֝מֵּבִ֗ין אֶל־כָּל־מַעֲשֵׂיהֶֽם	15 He fashioned together their heart. He understands all their deeds.		3e	4B	7 9
אֵֽין־הַ֭מֶּלֶךְ נוֹשָׁ֣ע בְּרָב־חָ֑יִל גִּ֝בּ֗וֹר לֹֽא־יִנָּצֵ֥ל בְּרָב־כֹּֽחַ	16 There is no king victorious by abundant force. One who prevails is not delivered by abundant power.		3e	4B	10 9
שֶׁ֣קֶר הַ֭סּוּס לִתְשׁוּעָ֑ה וּבְרֹ֥ב חֵ֝יל֗וֹ לֹ֣א יְמַלֵּֽט	17 A false hope is the horse in victory, and in his abundant force he will not escape.	B	3e	4B	7 8
הִנֵּ֤ה עֵ֣ין יְ֭הוָה אֶל־יְרֵאָ֑יו לַֽמְיַחֲלִ֥ים לְחַסְדּֽוֹ	18 Note this: the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, on those in hope of his mercy,		3e	4C	9 7
לְהַצִּ֣יל מִמָּ֣וֶת נַפְשָׁ֑ם וּ֝לְחַיּוֹתָ֗ם בָּרָעָֽב	19 to deliver from death their being, and to keep them alive in scarcity.		3e	4B	8 7
נַ֭פְשֵׁנוּ חִכְּתָ֣ה לַֽיהוָ֑ה עֶזְרֵ֖נוּ וּמָגִנֵּ֣נוּ הֽוּא	20 Our being tarries for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.	g	3e	4B	7 9
כִּי־ב֭וֹ יִשְׂמַ֣ח לִבֵּ֑נוּ כִּ֤י בְשֵׁ֖ם קָדְשׁ֣וֹ בָטָֽחְנוּ	21 For in him our heart will be glad, for in his holy name we have trusted.		3e	4C	6 8
יְהִֽי־חַסְדְּךָ֣ יְהוָ֣ה עָלֵ֑ינוּ כַּ֝אֲשֶׁ֗ר יִחַ֥לְנוּ לָֽךְ	22 Let your mercy Yahweh be on us, for it is of you that we hope.		3e	4B	10 7

The Music for Psalms 1

What do those accents / diacritics signify. Called te'amim, marks of taste, they are patterns of signs above and below the Hebrew text that are used for singing the psalm. They are hand signals telling the singer to go up or come down or to ornament the passage. Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura determined in the best tradition of the application of Occam's razor, the the signs below the text are reciting notes in a scale, and those above the text are ornaments. If we apply her key to Psalm 1, here's what we get.

And here is a performance: Psalms 1

Applying the music of 1 Samuel 2 to the Magnificat

I took some time with this. I think I may have started it 6 months ago, but today it got its first 'completion'. (While I was listening to Mahler in the background!) 

At first I was going to integrate the magnificat into 1 Samuel, but that proved too long for liturgical usage. I kept the first and last part of 1 Samuel 2:1 as an optional incipit and coda in Hebrew or English and I borrowed verse 10 for the gloria. 

The original transcription is first, then the pdf of my new Magnificat. It was difficult to map the allusions in Luke and use the corresponding music. Some parts of Luke's text have no part in the source.

1 Samuel 2	1 Samuel 2	Min	Max	Syll
וַתִּתְפַּלֵּ֤ל חַנָּה֙ וַתֹּאמַ֔ר עָלַ֤ץ לִבִּי֙ בַּֽיהוָ֔ה רָ֥מָה קַרְנִ֖י בַּֽיהוָ֑ה רָ֤חַב פִּי֙ עַל־א֣וֹיְבַ֔י כִּ֥י שָׂמַ֖חְתִּי בִּישׁוּעָתֶֽךָ	1 And Hannah prayed and she said, My heart is elated in Yahweh. My horn is exalted in Yahweh. Open wide is my mouth over my enemies for I am glad in your salvation.	3e	4C	21 15
אֵין־קָד֥וֹשׁ כַּיהוָ֖ה כִּ֣י אֵ֣ין בִּלְתֶּ֑ךָ וְאֵ֥ין צ֖וּר כֵּאלֹהֵֽינוּ	2 There is none holy like Yahweh, for there is nothing without you, and none a rock like our God.	3e	4B	10 7
אַל־תַּרְבּ֤וּ תְדַבְּרוּ֙ גְּבֹהָ֣ה גְבֹהָ֔ה יֵצֵ֥א עָתָ֖ק מִפִּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י אֵ֤ל דֵּעוֹת֙ יְהוָ֔ה וְל֥וֹ נִתְכְּנ֖וּ עֲלִלֽוֹת	3 Not with excess speak with the haughtiness of the haughty to let arrogance come out from your mouth, for a God of knowledge is Yahweh and of him, stabilized are practices.	3e	4C	19 14
קֶ֥שֶׁת גִּבֹּרִ֖ים חַתִּ֑ים וְנִכְשָׁלִ֖ים אָ֥זְרוּ חָֽיִל	4 The bow of the valiant ones is dismayed, and they that stumble are girded with ability.	3e	4A	7 8
שְׂבֵעִ֤ים בַּלֶּ֙חֶם֙ נִשְׂכָּ֔רוּ וּרְעֵבִ֖ים חָדֵ֑לּוּ עַד־עֲקָרָה֙ יָלְדָ֣ה שִׁבְעָ֔ה וְרַבַּ֥ת בָּנִ֖ים אֻמְלָֽלָה	5 Those sated find themselves earning bread and the famished are given relief, until the barren has given birth to seven, and of many children is enfeebled.	3e	4C	15 16
יְהוָ֖ה מֵמִ֣ית וּמְחַיֶּ֑ה מוֹרִ֥יד שְׁא֖וֹל וַיָּֽעַל	6 Yahweh puts to death and gives life, descends to Sheol and ascends.	3e	4B	7 7
יְהוָ֖ה מוֹרִ֣ישׁ וּמַעֲשִׁ֑יר מַשְׁפִּ֖יל אַף־מְרוֹמֵֽם	7 Yahweh dispossesses and enriches, abases, also, celebrates,	3e	4B	8 6
מֵקִ֨ים מֵעָפָ֜ר דָּ֗ל מֵֽאַשְׁפֹּת֙ יָרִ֣ים אֶבְי֔וֹן לְהוֹשִׁיב֙ עִם־נְדִיבִ֔ים וְכִסֵּ֥א כָב֖וֹד יַנְחִלֵ֑ם כִּ֤י לַֽיהוָה֙ מְצֻ֣קֵי אֶ֔רֶץ וַיָּ֥שֶׁת עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם תֵּבֵֽל	8 raises from dust the weak, from the dump, exalts the needy to sit with princes and the throne of glory to inherit, for to Yahweh are the distresses of the earth and he has set on them the world.	3e	4C	28 16
רַגְלֵ֤י חֲסִידָיו֙ יִשְׁמֹ֔ר וּרְשָׁעִ֖ים בַּחֹ֣שֶׁךְ יִדָּ֑מּוּ כִּֽי לֹ֥א בְכֹ֖חַ יִגְבַּר־אִֽישׁ	9 The feet of those who are under his mercy he will keep and the wicked in the darkness are mute, for not in power does anyone prevail.	3e	4C	16 8
יְהוָ֞ה יֵחַ֣תּוּ מְרִיבָ֗יו עָלָיו֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם יַרְעֵ֔ם יְהוָ֖ה יָדִ֣ין אַפְסֵי־אָ֑רֶץ וְיִתֶּן־עֹ֣ז לְמַלְכּ֔וֹ וְיָרֵ֖ם קֶ֥רֶן מְשִׁיחֽוֹ פ	10 Yahweh will dismay those who strive over him. In the heavens he thunders. Yahweh makes the case for the ends of the earth, and he gives strength to his king and he will exalt the horn of his anointed. P	3e	4B	22 16

Resources required SSATB. There's a little bit of everything here, even a nod to Rockingham, a Eucharistic hymn.

 

Ancient Hurrian Song

 I have come across this before, but this time I decided to analyse it in a bit more depth. This transcription is approximate. There are two performances both quite close to the pitches I have chosen. Unfortunately 5 flats is not the easiest key signature for the eyeball! But I didn't trust my ear to transpose it to a sharp key. Richard Dumbrill's transcription and reasoning is available in a PDF here.

Clearly this is tonal, but not conforming to our requirement to have a hymn start and end in the same key. This could not be accompanied with an instrument that has fixed pitches, nor would it lend itself to much in the way of what I understand as modal or harmonic cadences, but there are clear rest points.

What really surprised me at first were the sequences, particularly the rising third. In music formed by the verses and interpreted by the te'amim in the Hebrew Scriptures, there are understood rest points, and there are clear phrasal structures formed by the te'amim among many verses and also connections between verses and groups of verses. But I have not observed the idea of sequences. 

A second feature of this song is the five note descent (in so many multi-modal variations). I wondered if this might influence the interpretation of some ornaments among the te'amim, e.g. as treated in Appendix 4 of David Mitchell's The Songs of Ascents.

What I am asking myself is what influence would this sort of music have had on Biblical singing in the temple. In solo singing, there might have been more adjustments of the pitch of the notes by a few cents up or down here and there. But I don't have any example of a Biblical melody ending on anything other than the tonic it started on. 

Transcription by ear of Hurrian Song below

The September Carnival

 Brent Niedergall has posted Biblical Studies Carnival 175. This will give your spirit a lift. 

I am listening to a little pastoral Bach as I scan it - and it really scans.

My mind is full of pith this morning. I am a bit like an old orange.

The first thing I note is that God is our bootstrap.

God is not an arbitrary invention but a necessary one.

We are under the power of oligarchs because we worship money.

I have had brushes with nihilism. It is unreal.

We are attacked in our discernment of truth but faithfulness prevails.

Violence is a degradation of the thrust of care in evolution.

Dr. Fauci: "I don't know how to teach you that we must care for each other."

Are there any seeds among the pith?

That's the key - who teaches kindness?

Considering the maqaf

The maqaf is in English a hyphen. So Here is an example: Amos 8:10

Amos 8
וְהָפַכְתִּ֨י חַגֵּיכֶ֜ם לְאֵ֗בֶל וְכָל־שִֽׁירֵיכֶם֙ לְקִינָ֔ה וְהַעֲלֵיתִ֤י עַל־כָּל־מָתְנַ֙יִם֙ שָׂ֔ק וְעַל־כָּל־רֹ֖אשׁ־קָרְחָ֑ה וְשַׂמְתִּ֙יהָ֙ כְּאֵ֣בֶל יָחִ֔יד וְאַחֲרִיתָ֖הּ כְּי֥וֹם מָֽר	i vhpcti kgicm labl vcl-wiricm lqinh vhyliti yl-cl-motniim wq vyl-cl-raw-qrkh vwmtih cabl ikid vakrith ciom mr	י והפכתי חגיכם לאבל וכל־שיריכם לקינה והעליתי על־כל־מותניים שק ועל־כל־ראש־קרחה ושמתיה כאבל יחיד ואחריתה כיום מר	10 And I will change your festivities to lament and all your songs to a dirge and I will bring up over all endowments, sackcloth, and over every head, baldness. And I will set it as a unique lament and following it, as a day of bitterness.

Lambdin writes that the maqaf (maqqep in his spelling), indicates that a preposition is proclitic, i.e. has no stress of its own. 

Does it affect the music? The music determines stress much more than the maqaf. And it is clear from bars 2 to 4 that an avoidance of inner-word stress is not necessarily justified. I made some early assumptions in the music transcription program to ignore the maqaf entirely. It caused no problems, because the music acts in its place. Note that in music, the hyphen joins syllables of the libretto separated by note changes, whereas in Hebrew the maqaf joins separate words.

Nonetheless, my attitude towards this jot may have been a little too dismissive. For the maqaf show the words where the music is going. A maqaf joins a word without stress to the next word. The word joined will have no accent on it. Typically (but not always) it will be joined to a word following that has an accent. It is redundant, because you can reconstruct the need for it from observing the words that are missing an accent. Its role is as an aid to finding the direction of the musical line.