Psalm 61

Psalm 61

Hear my petition, O God,
give ear to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
when my heart is in darkness:
lead me to a refuge that is higher than myself.
For you have been a shelter to me,
a tower of strength against the enemy.
I will abide in your dwelling forever:
I will take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

For you, O God, have heard my prayer:
you have given me the heritage
of those who revere your name.
You will add to the king's days,
and make his years as generations.
He shall abide before God forever.
Pour forth mercy and truth,
that they may watch over him.

So I will sing praise to your name forever,
that I may daily fulfill my vows.

Translation Copyright © 2018 by Donald Traxler

Translating Psalm 61 - III

Now we come to a rough patch, and some dictionary work will be required. The numbers, prefixed by H, are the numbers in Strong's Hebrew dictionary.

 lead me to a rock 6697 (or refuge) that is higher than myself.
For you have been a shelter 4268, fr 2620 to me,
 a strong tower against the enemy.
I will abide 1481 in your tent (or dwelling) 168 forever:
I will take refuge 2620 in the cover 5643 of your wings.     Selah 5542. (Pause.)


lead me to a refuge that is higher than myself.
For you have been a shelter to me,
a tower of strength against the enemy.
I will abide in your dwelling forever:
I will take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

[I have decided to represent "selah," which means "pause," by skipping a space.]

For you, O God, have heard my prayer:
you have given me the heritage
of those who revere 3373 your name.
You will add to the king's days,
and make his years as generations.
He shall abide before God forever.
Pour forth 4487 mercy and truth,
that they may watch over 5341 him.
So I will sing 2167 praise to your name forever 5703,
that I may daily fulfill 7999 my vows 5088.

[The literal meaning of H3373 is "to fear," but it also means to "morally revere." I think it is about time that we adopted the secondary meaning in this context. H4487 literally means to "weigh out," or figuratively to "allot." The assumption here (not mine, but of the editors of Strong's) is that the mysterious "מַן" of the Masoretic text is missing a final "h" ("ה") and should be "מנה," an assumption that fits and I agree with it. But "weigh out" sounds like "way out" to contemporary ears. I have therefore changed it to "pour forth," by analogy with "pour forth your spirit into our hearts." I have kept the other words within the boundaries of the extended definitions on the Strong's dictionary.]

So let's put it all together:


Psalm 61

Hear my petition, O God,
give ear to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
when my heart is in darkness:
lead me to a refuge that is higher than myself.
For you have been a shelter to me,
a tower of strength against the enemy.
I will abide in your dwelling forever:
I will take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

For you, O God, have heard my prayer:
you have given me the heritage
of those who revere your name.
You will add to the king's days,
and make his years as generations.
He shall abide before God forever.
Pour forth mercy and truth,
that they may watch over him.

So I will sing praise to your name forever,
that I may daily fulfill my vows.

Translating Psalm 61 - II

I promise you a superior translation. You will get to know my methods as we proceed. They involve:

1) Avoiding the use of post-1885 translations as aids. There is enforced (coerced?) conformity of mistranslation there, so agreement among them means nothing;

2) translating directly from the Hebrew as much as possible, also giving consideration to ancient sources.


So let's get started.


Psalm 61

Hear my petition, O God,
give ear to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
when my heart is in darkness:

[When the Hebrew is easy to understand and there is much agreement among ancient translators, our work is light. My reading "in darkness" differs from the "weary," "faint," "overwhelmed," etc., of previous translators. But the very diversity of their readings indicates that they didn't really know the meaning of עטף. I would not have known either, but in Strong's it is linked to H5848, from a verb that means "to shroud." It has a constellation of meanings, but most are centered on the idea of darkness, which fits well here. The ancients did not have Hebrew texts with vowels, or concordances with wonderful built-in dictionaries. We do have those things, and we need to use them.]

Now we come to a rough patch, and some dictionary work will be required. The numbers, prefixed by H, are the numbers in Strong's Hebrew dictionary.

 lead me to a rock 6697 (or refuge) that is higher than myself.
For you have been a shelter 4268, fr 2620 to me,
 a strong tower against the enemy.
I will abide 1481 in your tent (or dwelling) 168 forever:
I will take refuge 2620 in the cover 5643 of your wings.     Selah 5542. (Pause.)

(to be continued)

Translating Psalm 61 - I

This blog post assumes the following previous posts have been read:

When Translation Becomes Tikkun        28 Nov. 2018

When Translation Becomes Tikkun - II  28 Nov. 2018

When Translation Becomes Tikkun - III 29 Nov. 2018


If you haven't already read the above, related posts, please do. It's all part of the story of producing a correct translation of Psalm 61,

The word "tikkun" (תִקּוּן) = repair (n.), but to me it means a little more. I see it as renewal and restoration to original, pristine condition. In this translation we will try to do nothing less.

So let's get started.


Psalm 61

Hear my petition, O God,
give ear to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
when my heart is in darkness

(to be continued)

When Translation Becomes Tikkun - III

I was raised as a Catholic, and I remember being taught a litany that was part of the Mass, called the Kyrie Eleison. The nun proudly told us that it was a relic of the time when the early Christians spoke Greek instead of Latin. It was, in fact, the only part of the Mass that was still in Greek.

"Kyrie, eleison" means "Lord, have mercy." It does not mean, "Lord, have steadfast love."

We are studying Psalm 61:7 (the verse is numbered 8 in the Masoretic text and in the Septuagint (LXX), where they count the introductory formula as a verse). The word used in the LXX is "eleos." If I look it up in my Greek dictionary, the definition I am given is "mercy."

In the newest translation of the Septuagint, called NETS, the translation given here is "steadfast love." What is wrong with these people? Because the RV (1885) mistranslated with the euphemism "lovingkindness,," followed by the ASV (1901), and the RSV (1952) mistranslated with the euphemism "steadfast love," now they ALL have to do it?

Yes, even the JPS Tanakh (1985, 2000) has "steadfast love," and they neglected to translate the word "truth" at all. So it's not just a Christian thing.

Isn't this akin to moving the goalposts in the middle of the game, because you don't like the size of the field?

It appears that, to get back to a world where mercy and truth are still important, you have to go back to the King James Version,

KJV-R (Webster) Psalms 61:7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

or the Latin of the Vulgate, which gives you a choice between a translation based on the LXX:

permanet in aeternum in conspectu Dei
misericordiam et veritatem quis requiret eius

or one based on an unpointed Hebrew text of ca. 400 CE:

sedebit semper ante faciem Dei
misericordia et veritas servabunt eum

Of the two Latin translations given above, that based on the Hebrew is closer to being correct. Neither is correct, but at least they do translate "mercy" and "truth" correctly.

In desperation, we go forward in time, to the new Latin Psalter of 1945:

Regnet in aeternum coram Deo:
gratiam et fidelitatem mitte, ut conservent eum.

This doesn't really solve our problem, either. It is better than Jerome's LXX-based translation, but it is worse than Jerome's Hebrew-based one, and unfortunately it calls "mercy" "gratia," and "truth" "fidelitas," instead of using their correct names as both of Jerome's translations did.

So what are we to do? I guess we'll have to translate the Psalm ourselves (including the meaning of the mystery word).

(to be continued)

When Translation Becomes Tikkun - II

To review a bit:

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)

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)