Donald Traxler's Poetry

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

PSALM 13

How long, O Lord, will you completely forget me?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I suffer doubts in my soul,

and grief every day in my heart?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Look at me, answer me, O Lord, my God!

Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep unto death,

and my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him."

My foes will rejoice when I have been shaken.

But I will trust in your mercy;

my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me.

Monday, February 6, 2023

PSALM 12

Help, O Lord,

for the devout are few

and the faithful have vanished

from among the children of men.

They speak deceptively

to each other, with

lying lips

and duplicitous hearts.

May the Lord cast off all

lying lips and

boastful tongues,

those who say:

"Let us strengthen our tongue,

our lips are with us,

who can be our master?"

"Because of the plundering of the poor

and the groans of the needy,

I will now rise up," says the Lord;

"and give them saving aid."

The words of the Lord

are pure;

they are silver tested in fire,

separated from soil,

and seven times refined.

You, O Lord, will keep them,

you will guard them

from this generation on

and forever.

The wicked shall roam on every side

when the vilest of men

are exalted.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Saturday, February 4, 2023

PSALM 11

I have taken refuge in the Lord:

How can you say to me,

"fly to the mountains

like a bird?"

For behold, sinners have bent

the bow and put the arrow

to the string to shoot

the upright in heart

from their hiding place.

When the foundations are destroyed,

what can a just person do?

The Lord is in His holy temple;

the Lord--His throne is

in the heavens.

His eyes see,

His eyelids test

the children of men.

The Lord tests the just,

but His soul hates

the wicked and those who love iniquity.

He will rain snares upon sinners:

fire and sulfur,

and a scorching wind

shall be the portion

of their cup.

For the Lord is righteous,

and He loves righteous deeds.

The upright will see

His face.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Psalm 10

Why, O Lord,

do you stand far off?

Why do you look away

in times of trouble?

In the arrogance of the wicked,

the poor are burned up:

let them be caught in the schemes

that they have devised.

For the wicked glories in

the desire of his heart,

and the greedy, congratulating himself,

blasphemes the Lord.

The impious says, "He will not seek out

to the full extent of His wrath,"

nor is there any God

in his thoughts.

His ways prosper at all times;

your judgments are far from him:

he scorns his enemies.

He says in his heart,

"I will not be moved:

I will not be unhappy

through all the generations."

His mouth is full of curses,

deceit, and greed;

under his tongue

are grief and iniquity.

He sits in ambush with the rich,

in hidden places,

to kill the innocent:

his eyes spy out the pauper.

He lurks in secret,

like a lion in his den:

he lurks to seize the needy:

to seize the poor

by dragging them off.

In his trap he will humiliate them;

he will stoop and fall

when he has dominated the pauper:

For he has said in his heart,

"God has forgotten:

He has hidden his face;

He will never see."

Rise up, O Lord God,

raise your hand:

do not forget the needy.

Why do the wicked blaspheme God,

saying in their heart that

He will not seek them out?

You do see, for you observe

hardship and anger,

to move them into your hands.

The poor have taken refuge in you,

you are the one who helps the orphan.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evil:

seek out their wickedness until you find none left.

The Lord is king forever and ever:

the nations will perish from his land.

O Lord, you have heard the desire of the poor:

your ear has inclined to the readiness of their heart,

to do justice for the orphan and the humble,

that nevermore should humans tyrannize

upon the earth.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Verse 21 of Psalm 9 is a troublesome one for translators, and they have produced wildly different results. The reason, though, is a simple one: the similarity of two Hebrew words, מוֹרֶה (moreh) and מוֹרָא (mora'). The first of these words means "teacher" or "lawgiver;" the second word means "fear, terror." In the Masoretic text that we have today (which goes back to the Leningrad Codex of 1010 CE), there is a mixed reading: מוֹרָה, which does not correctly correspond to either of these words, or indeed to any Hebrew word. Perhaps the Masoretes, faced with an impossible decision, decided to take a middle path. In the critical apparatus to the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS, see illustration), we are told that some (nonnuli) manuscripts (Mss), in addition to Jerome's Hebrew-based version and a couple of other texts, support the "terror" reading, while others, including the Greek of the Septuagint (LXX) and the Syriac (Aramaic) of the Peshitta, support the "teacher, lawgiver" reading.

How can we know for sure which reading is correct? The short answer is that we can't. But we can, and must, consider any clues that are available. In doing so, we will learn a lot about the history of the Hebrew text of this psalm.

The Peshitta (ca. 500 CE) supports the "teacher, lawgiver" reading. This is very important because Aramaic, a sister language of Hebrew, generally follows the Hebrew text of the OT. It is also important because at that time both Hebrew and Aramaic texts lacked vowel pointing. The two words in question, if spelled correctly, are already differentiated by their consonants, without any vowel pointing. For these reasons, a great deal of weight must be given to support from the Peshitta.

The Greek of the Septuagint (LXX, ca. 200 BCE) gives a word that means "lawgiver." We know that the Hebrew text underlying the LXX was in a better state of conservation than our Masoretic text (it includes, for example, the "missing" Nun-verse of the acrostic Psalm 145). It is also the oldest OT text that we have. For these reasons, the reading of the LXX must be given a lot of weight.

This brings us to the question of the state of conservation of the Hebrew text. By 1010 CE, the date of the Leningrad Codex, it was already defective. Some of the missing verses were known from other sources, but the Masoretes were afraid to supply them. Jerome's "Iuxta Hebraeos" version (392 CE), based on the Hebrew text of his time, gives us an interesting picture of the situation. In the edition of Harden (1922), which I think is the best edition, we find "terrorem" in verse 21. The scribal error (as I see it) had already crept into the Hebrew textual tradition by 392 CE. We need to see an earlier text. Unfortunately, the Dead Sea Scrolls are too fragmentary in the Psalms to be of help here. We have to go back to a time 600 years before Jerome did his Vulgate translations, to the Septuagint (LXX, ca. 200 BCE).

In the Vulgate translation of the Psalms (the version based on the LXX), The verset in question reads as follows:

constitue Domine legislatorem super eos (Set, O Lord, a legislator over them)

This was the version approved for use in the liturgy for some 1600 years, and so was familiar to all reciters of the Divine Office in the Breviarium Romanum.

I feel that "legislator" in the LXX and in the Vulgate is overly specific, since the Hebrew word מוֹרֶה can mean either teacher or legislator. Not knowing the intention of the psalmist, and because the second half of the verse has to do with "knowing," I have selected the broader term, "teacher," for inclusion in the verse.

It should also be noted, with regard to the second half of verse 21, that the word "only" should not be part of any translation of the verse. It is not present in the Hebrew, the Greek, or in either of the Latin versions. Indeed, it leaves open the possibility of a positive valuation of what it means to be human.