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  • From: JBarach AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Psalm 22 Translation Help
  • Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:09:55 EDT

BHaverim --

After a few years away from this list, I've returned in need of Hebrew help.
=)

I'm working my way through the psalms, largely because we use them each week
in our church's liturgy and because I'd like eventually to have the church
chanting good translations of them, and I've come to Psalm 22 this week.

(1) Any suggestions on Psalm 22:16, which is often rendered "They pierced my
hands and my feet"?


The word rendered "they pierced" (LXX and many English translations) looks
like it's actually "Like a lion" But then it's hard to make sense of the
flow of the line ("Like a lion [they clawed?] my hands and my feet"
perhaps).
As far as I can tell, though, there's no way to get "they pierced" from the
root of this Hebrew word. On the other hand, they *did* actually pierce
Jesus'
hands and feet. On the third hand, this verse isn't explicitly cited in
connection with that piercing....

(2) How do you understand the last word of v. 21 (yehidati)? It seems to
mean "my only one" and to be parallel with "my soul/life" (naphshi) in the
previous stich. Does it mean "my only life" -- that is, I only have one and
it's
precious to me?

(3) How about Psalm 22:21? The cola are nicely balanced:

Rescue me from the mouth of the lion
And from the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me

But the second line doesn't make a lot of sense in English (maybe not in
Hebrew either?). It appears to mean "You have answered my request, which
was
that you would deliver me from the horns of the wild oxen." And so some
English translations treat the two "from" clauses together and connect them
with
"rescue" and make the "answered" clause separate:

Rescue me from the mouth of the lion
And from the horns of the wild oxen!

You have answered me.

The gist turns out to be the same -- the cry has been answered -- but is
there something to the first translation that better gets at the meaning of
the
Hebrew than the second, more interpretive one?

Help?


John


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John Barach (541) 531-2906
Pastor, Reformation Covenant Church (CREC)
706 Beekman Avenue
Medford, OR 97501
_http://barach.us_ (http://barach.us)






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