Psalm 89:3 - Olam Chesed Yibaneh

 

I have been very impressed by a song, now a sort of Jewish anthem, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor. Here is a link:

Olam Chesed Yibaneh

The song is based on three Hebrew words from the third verse of Psalm 89, "olam chesed yibaneh (עוֹלָם חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה). These words can be, and have been, translated in a variety of ways. That variety very well illustrates the difficulty of Bible translation.

Here is a sampling of how the verse has been translated, through time:

There are two versions in my edition of the Vulgate. The first is based on the Septuagint (LXX), the translation of the entire Hebrew Bible into Greek, by scholars in the Jewish community of Alexandria, circa 200 BCE:

quoniam dixisti in aeternum misericordia aedificabitur

(for you said that mercy would be built forever)

And, in the same edition of the Vulgate, a translation based on the Hebrew text, as it existed and was known in the late fourth century CE:

quia dixisti sempiterna misericordia aedificabitur

(for you said that eternal mercy will be built)

We now move ahead more than a thousand years, to the King James Version (KJV):

For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever:

The New American Standard Bible (NASB):

For I have said, "Lovingkindness will be built up forever;"

The Revised Standard Version (RSV), of 1952, and the NRSV:

For thy steadfast love was established for ever,

The New King James Version (NKJV):

For I have said, "Mercy shall be built up forever;

The New International Version (NIV):

I will declare that your love stands firm forever,

The Liber Psalmorum published by the Vatican in 1945:

For you said: "Grace is established forever;"

There are, obviously, problems of disagreement between/among all these translations.

I looked at the English translation in my Tanakh (Hebrew Bible):

For I have said, The world is built by love:

So, what the heck does the actual Hebrew say?

כִּ־אָמַרְתִּי עוֹלָם חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה

Translated (as best I can), this means:

For I have said, "Let a world of mercy (or loving kindness) be built."

Why so much variation? Well, first of all, pre-Masoretic Hebrew texts had no vowel points. Secondly, Biblical Hebrew grammar admits of different interpretations. For example, when God says in Genesis "Y'hi or," we take it to mean "Let there be light," but then it says "va y'hi or," which we take to mean "and there was light." But it could also mean, "there will be light." The same verb form, in other words, has three possible meanings. A lot depends on context.

Further clarifications: The Masoretic Text clearly says "I have said," not "you have said." But it may not have been so clear in an unpointed Hebrew text underlying the LXX or St. Jerome's version that was based on Hebrew. In addition, the Hebrew word "chesed" traditionally means "mercy," but it does also have connotations of love and kindness.

Also, the normal way to say "forever" in Hebrew is the idiom "l'olam," which literally means "to the world." But what we see in this Hebrew verse is not "l'olam," but simply "olam," which means "world."

So when we see differences of the kinds that we see above, we should not immediately assume that someone is trying to "twist" a meaning (which is very unlikely), but rather that they are honest differences of reading or interpretation. For this reason, it seems to me that one should pick a Bible translation that they like, and stick with it.

The song says (in English), "I will build this world from love . . ." / "And you must build this world from love . . ." / "And if we build this world from love . . ." / Then God will build this world from love . . ."

What Rabbi Menachem Creditor has done here, in this song, is absolutely brilliant.

Text Copyright © 2022 by Donald C. Traxler aka Yablom.