Wednesday Bible Study: Flunking the vocabulary test

Psalms 7 through 9 contain a few words of uncertain meaning. This serves to remind us that, of course, everything we read is a translation from a language that was long dead at the time the translation was made. Note that modern Hebrew is an attempt to resurrect Biblical Hebrew and of course that means it is also a kind of translation -- what the words mean today cannot really be what they meant in the 5th Century BC because the context is entirely different, and of course many words had to be invented for things that didn't exist then. Conversely, many things that did exist then no longer exist, so the words have either been adapted to other meanings or are simply unused. 

Regarding Psalm 7, the meaning of "shiggaion" is disputed. One source very confidently maintains "from the verb shagah, "to reel about through drink," occurs in the title of Psalms 7 . The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Habakkuk 3:1 . The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode."However, others are not so sure and provide a variety of guesses, including entirely different etymology. In Psalm 8, the "gittith" is apparently a particular type of stringed instrument, but it's exact nature is unknown. In Psalm 9, in the title "muth-labben" is thought to refer to the death of a person named Labben, in other words this is a funeral lament. The word "higgaion," which appears coupled with Selah, is generally said to refer to the sound of a harp, although translators assign it other meanings when it appears elsewhere in the Bible. In any case, this does suggest that Selah indicates an instrumental sound or a musical motif of some sort. However, this writer says it means "meditation," meaning a moment of silence, and that Selah also therefore indicates a pause. So we just don't know.  (However, since Psalm 9 and some others actually end with "Selah," the idea that it indicates a pause doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.)

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush a Benjaminite.

7 O Lord my God, in thee do I take refuge;
    save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
² lest like a lion they rend me,
    dragging me away, with none to rescue.

³ O Lord my God, if I have done this,
    if there is wrong in my hands,
⁴ if I have requited my friend with evil
    or plundered my enemy without cause,
⁵ let the enemy pursue me and overtake me,
    and let him trample my life to the ground,
    and lay my soul in the dust.Selah

⁶ Arise, O Lord, in thy anger,
    lift thyself up against the fury of my enemies;
    awake, O my God;^[a] thou hast appointed a judgment.
⁷ Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about thee;
    and over it take thy seat^[b] on high.
⁸ The Lord judges the peoples;
    judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
    and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹ O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
    but establish thou the righteous,
thou who triest the minds and hearts,
    thou righteous God.
¹⁰ My shield is with God,
    who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who has indignation every day.

¹² If a man^[c] does not repent, God^[d] will whet his sword;
    he has bent and strung his bow;
¹³ he has prepared his deadly weapons,
    making his arrows fiery shafts.
¹⁴ Behold, the wicked man conceives evil,
    and is pregnant with mischief,
    and brings forth lies.
¹⁵ He makes a pit, digging it out,
    and falls into the hole which he has made.
¹⁶ His mischief returns upon his own head,
    and on his own pate his violence descends.

¹⁷ I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
    and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 7:6 Or for me
2. Psalm 7:7 Cn: Heb return
3. Psalm 7:12 Heb he
4. Psalm 7:12 Heb he

 

8 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
²     by the mouth of babes and infants,
thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
    the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
⁴ what is man that thou art mindful of him,
    and the son of man that thou dost care for him?

⁵ Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
    and dost crown him with glory and honor.
⁶ Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands;
    thou hast put all things under his feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the sea.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

 

To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.

9 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
    I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.
² I will be glad and exult in thee,
    I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High.

³ When my enemies turned back,
    they stumbled and perished before thee.
⁴ For thou hast maintained my just cause;
    thou hast sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.

⁵ Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked;
    thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.
⁶ The enemy have vanished in everlasting ruins;
    their cities thou hast rooted out;
    the very memory of them has perished.

⁷ But the Lord sits enthroned for ever,
    he has established his throne for judgment;
⁸ and he judges the world with righteousness,
    he judges the peoples with equity.

⁹ The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰ And those who know thy name put their trust in thee,
    for thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken those who seek thee.

¹¹ Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!
    Tell among the peoples his deeds!
¹² For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
    he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹³ Be gracious to me, O Lord!
    Behold what I suffer from those who hate me,
    O thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴ that I may recount all thy praises,
    that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
    I may rejoice in thy deliverance.

¹⁵ The nations have sunk in the pit which they made;
    in the net which they hid has their own foot been caught.
¹⁶ The Lord has made himself known, he has executed judgment;
    the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.Higgaion. Selah

¹⁷ The wicked shall depart to Sheol,
    all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸ For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.

¹⁹ Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
    let the nations be judged before thee!
²⁰ Put them in fear, O Lord!
    Let the nations know that they are but men!Selah