KJV-R (Webster) Psalms 61:7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
ASV Psalms 61:7 He shall abide before God for ever: Oh prepare lovingkindness and truth, that they may preserve him.
MLB Psalms 61:7 He shall remain forever before God;
ordain lovingkindness and truth to keep him.
Young's Literal Psalms 61:7 He dwelleth to the age before God, Kindness and truth appoint -- they keep him.
RSV: May he be enthroned for ever before God;
bid steadfast love and faithfulness watch over him!
JPS Tanakh: May he dwell in God's presence forever;
appoint* steadfast love to guard him.
*Meaning of Heb. uncertain
Hebrew (Masoretic):
יֵשֵׁב עֹלָם לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהִים חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת מַן יִנְצְרֻהוּ ׃
No one knows what "מן" is supposed to mean. But, in a way, that's the least of our troubles.
It has been fashionable in recent decades to say that the KJV (1611) is a "very bad" translation. It is not. The English is archaic, but quite beautiful. The translators stayed too close to the Masoretic text, but they were also much influenced by the Vulgate, which helped.
Both the KJV and the Vulgate have the advantage of translating words according to their original meanings, and not according to currently fashionable ones.
If you look up "mercy" in Strong's Concordance, which is based on the KJV, you'll find that it occurs in that translation about 320 times. In any currently fashionable modern translation it occurs far fewer times, if at all. In most of the modern translations it has been replaced by "steadfast love." Similarly, "truth" occurs about 270 times in the KJV, but far fewer in most modern translations, where it has been replaced by "fidelity." This is something that you can check for yourself, I'm not making it up.
Apparently "mercy" and "truth" are out of favor these days. We no longer have to show mercy to neighboring countries and peoples, and truth has become a vague and relative thing, to be played with according to our convenience.
I trace the beginning of these changes back to the RV of 1885. The ASV (1901) has "lovingkindness" and "truth." The MLB (1969) uses those same words, but the RSV (1952) has already replaced "mercy" with "steadfast love," and weakened "truth" by calling it "fidelity," not only here, but everywhere. In this day of computers and "search and replace," it's a simple matter to do this, and the NRSV, NIV, NAB, JPS Tanakh, and others have followed the RSV in doing so. This is something that you can check for yourself.
Now if I go to the vocabulary section of my book on Biblical Hebrew (1955), and look up the Hebrew word "chesed" (חֶסֶד), it tells me that the word means "mercy, kindness," which is true. I want kindness from my next-door neighbor and my local bartender, but I want mercy from God. I also want powerful countries and populations to show mercy to those that are not. For me, the concept of mercy is not passé, no matter how many times you search-and-replace it, wholesale, in texts that deserve better treatment than that.
Similarly, "emet" (אֶמֶת) means truth, as I've known for well over fifty years, no matter how much you may want to water it down.
These meanings were known to the Psalmist(s) in the tenth to fifth centuries BCE, to the translators of the Septuagint (LXX) in the second and third centuries BCE, to Saint Jerome and his helpers in 400 CE, to the Masoretes in the fifth to tenth centuries CE, and to King James' scholarly translators in 1611. Let's not lose sight of them now.
(to be continued)
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