When Translation Becomes Tikkun

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.

This, from Wikipedia:

The Masoretes (Hebrew: בעלי המסורה‬ Ba'alei ha-Masora) were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked between the 6th and 10th centuries CE,^[1] based primarily in early medieval Palestine in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq (Babylonia). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes (niqqud) on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions and cantillation of the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, for the worldwide Jewish community.

The ben Asher family of Masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the Masoretic Text, although an alternative Masoretic text of the ben NaphtaliMasoretes, which has around 875 differences from the ben Asher text,^[2] existed. The halakhic authority Maimonides endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, Saadya Gaon al-Fayyumi, had preferred the ben Naphtali system. It has been suggested that the ben Asher family and the majority of the Masoretes were Karaites.^[3] However, Geoffrey Khan believes that the ben Asher family was probably not Karaite,^[4] and Aron Dotan avers that there are "decisive proofs that M. Ben-Asher was not a Karaite."^[5]

The Masoretes devised the vowel notation system for Hebrew that is still widely used, as well as the trope symbols used for cantillation.

The Masoretic text is the standard Hebrew text of Judaism. Our oldest complete manuscript of the Masoretic text only dates from the tenth century.

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint (abbreviated as LXX), is many centuries older, having been done around 250-150 BCE.

The Latin Vulgate was done by St. Jerome, around 400 CE, so even it is centuries older than our oldest copy of the Masoretic text.

St. Jerome must have cared greatly about the Psalms, because he offered Pope Damasus two different versions of them, one based on the familiar LXX, and the other based on the pre-Masoretic Hebrew text of his day. The Pope chose the more familiar translation based on the LXX, but my edition of the Vulgate contains BOTH translations.

The Vulgate is still the official Bible text of the Catholic Church, but in 1945 a new Latin translation of the Psalms was made (Liber Psalmorum cum Canticis Breviarii Romani). I have that version, too. It was, for better or worse, very influential.

(to be continued)