Biblicalelearning.org
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS
A NEW TRANSLATION
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL
By
J. J. STEWART PEROWNE, D. D.
Canon Residentiary of Llandaff
Hulsean Professor of Divinity at Cambridge
Hon. Chaplain to the Queen
Late Praelector in Theology and Fellow of Trinity College
VOL. I
PSALMS 1-72
George Bell and Sons in 1878, 4th edition.
Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt: Gordon College 2006
with the help of Kim Spaulding, Apurva Thanju, and Brianne Records
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
ALTHOUGH the Fourth Edition of this work does not differ
very materially from those that have preceded it, either in
the translation or in the notes, yet in one respect it will
I hope, be found much more complete and accurate. In
preparing it, I have had the advantage of consulting
many original authorities in Talmudical and Rabbinical
literature which before were not within my reach, and I
have consequently been able to correct several errors of
quotation from these sources, some of which have found
their way into many commentaries, one writer having often
merely copied and repeated the blunders of another. And,
further, I have had throughout the valuable assistance of
Dr. Schiller-Szinessy, the learned Reader in Talmudical and
Rabbinical Literature in this University, who is a master
of Jewish lore, and who has most kindly spared no labour
in verifying and correcting my references. Their greater
accuracy is, in a large measure, due to the conscientious
care which he has bestowed upon them, and of which
I am the more sensible, because I know that it has been
viii PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
bestowed notwithstanding the pressure of other numerous
and heavy engagements. It is a pleasure to me to take
this opportunity of expressing my obligations to him, and
my sense of the ready kindness with which his learning is
always placed at the disposal of others.
CAMBRIDGE,
March 7, 1878.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
IN preparing a Third Edition of this work for the press,
I have availed myself of the following critical aids and
authorities:--
I. Baer's critical text of the Psalter. His preface on the
Metrical Accentuation of the Poetical Books deserves notice.
2. Field's admirable Edition of Origen's Hexapla. I have
corrected by reference to it many quotations which were
given in my former editions on the authority of Montfaucon.
3. Moll's Commentary in Lange's Bibelwerk.
4. The 2nd Edition of Delitzsch's Psalter.
5. The 3rd Edition of Ewald's work on the Psalms.
6. The 2nd Edition of Hitzig's Commentary.
7. Dr. Kay's Psalms with Notes.
8. Professor Conant's Translation.
9. The 2nd Edition of Dr. Phillip's Commentary.
My special thanks are due to R. L. Bensly, Esq., Fellow of
Gonville and Caius College, who has been so kind as to
revise the sheets of the work as it passed through the press;
to his knowledge and accuracy I am greatly indebted.
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
April 22, 1873.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
THE Second Edition of this work will not be found to differ
very materially from the First. I have made a few additions,
more particularly to the Critical Notes in some of the earlier
Psalms; and I have corrected errors wherever I have dis-
covered them, or where they have been pointed out to me
by friends. All the references have been carefully revised.
Many of the apparent mistakes in the references of the First
Edition were due to my having used the Hebrew Bible,
without taking due care to mark where the Hebrew divisions
of chapters or verses varied from the English. Where these
differ, it will now be found, I hope, that both references are
given, those to the Hebrew text being enclosed in square
brackets. If, however, the double reference has still been
omitted in some cases, it may be borne in mind that in all
Psalms which have an inscription, the inscription is reckoned
as a verse (occasionally as two verses) in the Hebrew text,
whereas this is not the case in the English. Consequently
the first verse in the English may be the second or even the
third in the Hebrew, and so on all through. In the Critical
Notes the references are always to the Hebrew text.
xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In revising my translation I have approached in several
instances more nearly to the Authorized Version, and I have
more frequently than before left the literal rendering of a
clause for the note, giving the freer and more idiomatic in the
text. In doing this, I have listened to the suggestions of my
critics, some of whom, not agreeing in other respects, have
agreed in censuring my trnaslation. And now as there is at
last some reasonable hope that a revision of our Authorized
Version will be undertaken by competent scholars, this ques-
tion of translation possesses far more than a merely personal
or temporary interest. Even a translator who has failed, if
he has done his work honestly and conscientiously, may be a
beacon, if he cannot be a guide, to those who come after him.
I shal therefore be pardoned perhaps, if I discuss more fully
than I should otherwise have done, some of the points that
have been raised.
The objections that have been brought against me are of
this kind. One of my reviewers observes that, after having
said that I had not “needlessly departed” from our Authorized
Version, I have “judged if needful often enough to give an
entirely new air to my translation.” Another writes: “The
gain which is acquired by the greater accurarcy of the version
by no means compensates for the loss of harmony and
rhythm and sweetness, both of sound and of association.
An English reader could undrestand the Psalms no better,
and he could not enjoy them half so well.” I have been
charged with going directly against “existing standards of
public tastes and feeling,” in following the Hebrew order of
the words, where such order is not the most natural in
English. This is “to undo the work of such men as
Wordsworth and Tennyson.” Again, “In the original, the
paronomasia or alliteration” [to preserve which the structure
of the sentence in English has been made to accomodate
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xiii
itself to the structure in Hebrew] “amounts only to a delicate
hint, which may pass unnoticed except to an observant eye;
in the translation it obtrudes itself as a prominent feature of
the style.” And both critics concur in thinking that I have
myself fallen into the very errors in point of taste which
I have condemned in other translations.
Now I may at once say that to some extent, if not to the
whole extent alleged by the reviewers, I plead guilty to the
indictment. I have carried minute and punctilious accuracy
too far. I have sometimes adhered too closely, without any
adequate and compensating result, to the order of the words
in the Hebrew. It will be an evidence of the sincerity of my
reprentance on this head, that in the present edition I have in
many instnaces corrected both the one fault and the other.
But I cannot concede all that the critics demand of me.
I. In the first place, I did not say, in the preface to my
first edition, that I had not “needlessly departed from our
Authorized Version,” but that I had “not needlessly departed
from the sound English of our Authorized Version;” and
my meaning was evident, because I immediately gave as
instances of departure the use of the verb “to seize” and
of the noun “sympathy.”*
2. In the next place, I feel quite sure that those who lay
so much stress upon “harmony and rhythm and sweetness,”
are thinking more of the Prayer-Book Version of the Psalms,
than of that of King James’s translators. The former is far
more musical, more balanced, and also more paraphrastic
than the latter; and from constantly hearing it read in the
Church Services, we have become so thoroughly habituated
to it that almost any departure from its well-known cadences
* So it ought to have stood: the verb “to sypmpathize” was put by
mistake for the noun “sympathy.” I have only used it once in Ps. lxix.,
and there to express a Hebrew noun which occurs nowhere else.
xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
offends the ear. Indeed our familiarity with this version is
such, that not only would most English Churchmen having
occasion to quote a verse of a Psalm quote it as it stands in
the Prayer-Book, but they would often be very much sur-
prised if they were told that the very sense of the Bible
Version was different. Of the multitude of persons who are
familiar with the phrase, "The iron entered into his soul," how
many are aware that the rendering in our Bible is, “He was
laid in iron” There can be no question as to which is
the more rhythmical and the more expressive; but there can
also be no question that the Authorized Version faithfully
represents the Hebrew, which the other does not. It would
be no difficult task to quote a number of passages from the
Bible Version of the Psalms which fail essentially in rhythm
just because they are faithful to the original.
Take for instance the following (Ps. lviii. 7):—"Let them
melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth
his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces."
Now contrast with this the freer but inaccurate rendering
of the Prayer-Book Version:--"Let them fall away like water
that runneth apace; and when they shoot their arrows, let
them be rooted out."
Again, the Bible version of lix. 19 is:---"God shall hear
and afflict them, even He that abideth of old. Because they
have no changes, therefore they fear not God."
Whereas the Prayer-Book Version (again very inaccurate,
but much smoother) is:—"Yea, even God, that endureth for
ever, shall hear me, and bring them down: for they will not
turn nor fear God."
In the Bible, Ps. lxviii. 19 stands:—"Thou, 0 God, didst
send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine
inheritance, when it was weary."
In the Prayer-Book Version it is: “Thou, 0 God, sentest
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xv
a gracious rain upon Thine inheritance, and refreshedst it
when it was weary."
Or compare the two versions in xlix. 7-9, or in cxxx.
1-4, and the same phenomenon presents itself, as it does in
many other instances; the Bible is the more accurate, the
Prayer-Book the more rhythmical version. But if this is the
case, then in estimating a new translation, the object of which
is avowedly to give as exactly as possible the sense of the
original, justice requires that it should be compared with the
language of the Authorized Version, not with that of the
Prayer-Book.
3. Thirdly, I have been censured for adhering too closely to
the form of the Hebrew, both in its idiom and in the structure
of the clauses. Perhaps I have gone too far in this direction.
But before a question of this kind can be decided, it is im-
portant to lay down as clearly as possible to the mind what
it is we aim at in a translation. "There are two maxims of
translation," says Goethe: "the one requires that the author
of a foreign nation be brought to us in such a manner that we
may regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, de-
mands of us that we transport ourselves over to him, and,
adopt his situation, his mode of speaking, his peculiarities.
The advantages of both are sufficiently known to all in-
structed persons, from masterly examples." Each of these
methods "is good," says Mrs. Austin, the accomplished trans-
lator of Ranke's History of the Popes, "with relation to its ends
—the one when matter alone is to be transferred, the other
when matter and form." And she adds very truly: "The
praise that a translated work might be taken for an original,
is acceptable to the translator only when the original is a work
in which form is unimportant." She instances Pope's Homer
as essentially a failure, because we want to know not only
what Homer said, but how he said it. "A light narrative," she
xvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
continues, “a scientific exposition, or a plain statement of
facts, which pretends to nothing as a work of art, cannot be
too thoroughly naturalized. Whatever may be thought of the
difficulties in the way of this kind of translation, they are
slight compared with those attending the other kind, as any-
body who carefully studies the masterpieces in this way must
perceive. In the former kind the requisites are two—the
meaning of the author, and a good vernacular style; in the
latter, the translator has, as far as possible, to combine with
these the idiomatic tone of the author—to place him before
the reader with his national and individual peculiarities of
thought and of speech. The more rich, new, and striking these
peculiarities are, the more arduous will the task become; for
there is manifestly a boundary-line, difficult if not impossible
to define, beyond which the most courageously faithful trans-
lator dares not venture, under pain of becoming unreadable.
This must be mainly determined by the plasticity of his lan-
guage, and by the taste of his fellow-countrymen. A German
translator can effect, and may venture, more than an Egnlish;
an English than a French;--and this, not only because his
language is more fulll and pliant, but because Germans have
less nationality, and can endure unusual forms of speech for
the sake of gaining accurate insight into the characteristics of
the literature of other countries.”
It is on these grounds that Mrs. Austin defends her own
“Germanisms” in her translation of Goethe into English.
It is on similar grounds that I would defend “Hebraisms”
in the rendering of the Psalms and the poetical portion
of the Hebrew Scriptures into English. In the poetry of a
people, more than in any other species of literature, form is
of importance. Hence we find Mrs. Austin, whose skill as
a translator has been universally admitted, not shunning
*Characteristics of Goethe, vol. i. pp. xxxv-xxxxvii.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xvii
inversions of language in her translations from Goethe, where
“fidelity” and “literalness” are her object. Thus, for in-
stance, the lines in the Metamorphose der Pflanzen:
“Dich verwirret, Geliebte, die tausendfaltige Mischung,
Dieses Blumengewuhls uber dem Garten umber;”
are rendered by her—
“Thee perplexes, beloved, the thousandfold intermixture
Of this flowery throng, around in the garden.”
And again,
“Blattlos aber und schnell erhebt sich der zartere Stengel,
Und ein Wundergebild zieht den Betrachtenden an,”
is translated—
“Leafless, however, and rapid, up darts the slenderer flower-stalk,
And a wonderful picture attracts the observer’s eye.”
I have in the same way deliberately preferred, where the
English idiom did not absolutely forbid it, to retain the order
of the words in the Hebrew, because I felt that in sacrificing
the form, I should be inflicting a loss upon the reader. How-
ever, as I said, in revising my work I have somewhat
modified my practice in this respect, and have contented
myself on several occasions with putting the more literal
rendering in a note.
4. Besides being guilty of too great “punctiliousness” and
“inelegance,” where idiom and harmony are concerned, I
have sinned, according to one of my reviewers,* in the intro-
duction of the word “Jehovah” instead of “the Lord,” which
has for centuries been its customary equivalent. The change,
he says, would be perfectly legitimate, if I were professing to
make everything give way to verbal exactness. But as I
allow other considerations to come in, he thinks that the
perpetual recurrence of the Hebrew form of the word is in
the highest degree strange and unpleasant. “As the name
*Saturday Review, July 2, 1864.
xviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
had fallen out of use in the Jewish Church, and never became
current in the Christian, our old translators did well to prefer
the idea to the name; and the attempt to bring back the
name seems now to force into prominence its local and
national character, where everything calls for a word which
has nothing local or national about it." In reply to these
objections, it might be almost sufficient to observe that in
retaining the Hebrew name I have only followed the example
of every modern translator of eminence. But of course it is
still a question for consideration, whether there are sufficient
grounds for the change. I think there are very cogent
grounds, which the reviewer in his dislike of novelty, or his
dislike of Puritanism, has entirely overlooked, (I) In the
first place, our translators in their use of the word "Lord"
make no distinction between two names, "Jehovah and
"Adonai," perfectly distinct in Hebrew, and conveying
different conceptions of God. (2) In the next place, it is
well known that whole Psalms are characterized, just as
sections of the Pentateuch are characterized, by peculiar
names of God, and it is surely of some importance to retain as
far as possible these characteristic features, especially when
critical discussions have made them prominent, and questions
of age and authorship have turned upon them. (3) What the
reviewer regards as a disagreeable innovation, has been held
by very good authorities to be a desirable emendation in our
Authorized Version. "Why continue the translation of the
Hebrew into English," says Coleridge, "at second hand,
through the medium of the Septuagint? Have we not
adopted the Hebrew word Jehovah? Is not the Kur an interrogative in Greek.
To return, however, to Horsley's explanation, what meaning
after all does it convey? What sense is there in saying,
"Heal my soul, for I bear the blame before Thee. Heal
my soul, for I am not a sinner, but only in the character
of a sinner"? Such interpretations introduce the idea
* ]All ] i!na h[ grafh> plhrwq^?, o[ trwn a@rton e]p^?ren e]p ]
e]me> th>n ptej tou? a]nqrw de> katestaj u[p ] au]tou? . . .
diaggelw?n to> pro th?j swthri
prodire meum, i.e. auctor proditus mei ex utero, per metonymiam effectus,"
&c. But such a metonymy is harsh and grammatically unnecessary.
d yrxk. There is scarcely any passage of the Old Testament, the true
reading and interpretation of which have given rise to so much discussion.
The grounds for a critical conclusion are furnished, first, by the MSS;
and secondly, by the Ancient Versions.
I. The MSS., almost without exception, have (I) the present Massoretic
reading, i.e. either yrixEKA or yrixEKa, "like a lion." The Targ. in the Antwerp
Polyglot has ylgrv ydyx Nytkn with a various reading, "post Nytkn add. in
aliis hyrxk jyh (or hyrx jyh)," and with this addition it is found in
Walton's Polyglot. (2) In only two genuine Jewish MSS. do we find
vrxk. But in one of these (Kenn. 39) it would seem that the y has
been altered by a later hand into v, and the other (De-Rossi, 337) has
vrxk, a union of both readings. Jacob Ben Chayyim, however, in the
Massora finalis, says that he had found vrxk as the K'thîbh, and yrxk as
the Q'ri in good MSS., and this is supported by the Massora Magna on
PSALM XXII. 247
Numb. xxiv. 9. (3) For vrk there is still less to be said. It is only found
in three late MSS., and in two of these on the margin; and is generally
attributed to Christians, as it is by Joseph and David Qimchi. In the
Bereshith Rabba of R. Moses Hadarshan, however, if we are to credit
R. Martini (Pug. Fid. fol. 244), it is ascribed to the Tikkun Sophiherim.
II. On the other hand, the Ancient Versions are all in favour of a verb,
though they attach to it different significations: (I) "They pierced,
bored through” (the root rxk being regarded as a cognate form of rvk
and hrk). So the LXX. w@rucan, Syr. , Arab. , Vulg. foderunt.
(2) "They bound." So Aq. in his 2d edition, e]pej a]nomi curo>n h]k. e]poi pren Bo ga>r a]peiqou?ntej tou?
kataskhnw?sai.
o -smAfEya. This verb (like xWn and lbs) seems to combine the two
meanings, (i) to put a burden upon another, and (2) to bear a burden. In
the former sense it is always construed with lfa. Of those who adopt (a),
some, as Calv., and the E. V., take it in a good sense, "who daily loadeth
us (with benefits);" others, as L. de Dieu, De W., Reuss, make UnlA-smAfEya the
protasis to what follows, "If any lay a burden upon us, (still) God is,"
&c.; others, again, as Gei., take lxehA as the subject, "He who lays (or
laid) a burden upon us is the God who is also our salvation," i.e. this
burden was a discipline and so a means of blessing. But these con-
structions are harsh, and (2) seems preferable. Comp. Is. xlvi. 1, 3,
Zech. xii. 3. Then UnlA either stands here (according to later usage) for
the accus., as Hupf. takes it, "schleppt uns" (and so Jerome, portavit
nos); or, which is better, retains its proper force as a dat. commodi,.
"Who beareth for us (our burden)." So Ew. and Del., and De Wette
says of this rendering, "besser vielleicht."
p tOxcAOT tv,mAla, lit. "means of escape for death," or with reference to
i.e. against or from death." So Ew. explains, " God gives to Israel the
means to escape from death." Similarly De W., "Vona Tode Rettung;"
Zunz, "Ausgänge vom Tode." And the E. V., "issues from death."
(2) Others, "goings forth to death," i.e. God has means of leading the
enemy to death. So Symm. ai[ ei]j qa ei]j ton tou? sw?sai< me. The insertion of kai< does not prove that they read
zOfmvA (as Davidson); they took rUc as a proper name of God, and zOfmA as a
distinct word. The words tAyUici dymitA xOblA look, as Hupf. remarks, as if they
were formed out of the fragments of tOdUcm; tybel; in xxxi. 3, and tAyUici seems
to have been put in to form a support for the following ynifeywiOhl;.
b yziOG instead of yHiGo, in xxii. 10. This has been rendered, "Thou who
bringest me forth," as if it were the participle transitive of zvg; but the
form in o is usually intransitive, though this is not always the case. See
on xxii. note c. (In xc. 10 zGA is probably the preterite, not the participle.)
Hence others, as Hengst., would take the form here, as well as in xxii.
io, as infin., "my bringing forth," i.e. the agent in bringing me forth.
And so Maur. "transire meum, i.e. ejus auctor per metonym." But
perhaps it is better, following Schult., Animadv. Phil., to derive the word
from a root hzg (cognate with the Arab. retribuere), signifying to
distribute, to requite, to reward. Hence haz,Go would mean literally, one who
dispenses, tami ................
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