Paraphrase of the Psalms 58–78

Blameless David, writing for the inscription of a pillar, … to have a blameless end of hymns; bearing …, but … of former … so that in return for good things … death …; and this is the fifty-eighth hymn. … a free day for me; but also from destructive murderers … my heavily pained heart, which they tracked before, O Lord, may you save quickly. Having run without lawlessness, I found the way ready. Arise, O King, stand beside me, and see the work … May you stretch your all-seeing eye over all kinds of nations. Their speech is unheard, but on their lips is a sword …, so that anyone may hear; but you will laugh sweetly at them. May you despise the races of mortals for their evil transgressions. I will keep my strength for the very glorious King, because God always fights mightily for me. May you subdue … under our eyes, not killing them, so that they may not utterly forget your law; but may you easily scatter them with great force and strength … the transgression of their mouth, and the word of their lips … whose end … from curse and … may an end, and the limit of life, come to them in their wrath. … because God reigns over Jacob … he himself … your glorious strength, because you are my God, and you yourself have become my avenger, and you have been a ready tower to me in the day of evil … our King has become my mercy. [59] This inscription is for joy over events beyond what the king expected … the coasts of the Philistines …, destroying the lands of the Syrians, … to the general to sack swiftly …, and he sings the fifty-ninth song. O King, you cast down and thrust away all of us; being angry, you pitied after irresistible wrath … and hear my voice. The Lord spoke a word in agreement with his holy one … but Judah is my glorious king …; foreign races were subdued under our feet. In the mighty King let us accomplish ready force.

… hear my …, highest Shepherd, and stretch your far-seeing eye upon my prayer. In need I cried, O Lord, from the ends of the earth … lifting … upon the rock of my heart. You were my leader, since you have become my hope, my tower in the strife of attacking destroyers; and may you cover me with the divine shelter of your wings, because, Blessed One, you heard our … Day upon day may you grant to the king the paths of life; from generation to generation may he find … firm near God. Who … his truth and mercy together? I will always cry to my King with the dear lyre, until I pay my vows, Blessed One, day upon day.

… he wrote a revel for David, singing this sixty-first of the songs. Surely our heart will be subdued … for the help of the King is my light, because he himself is my God, and he stands over my strength; my defence, and I never expect to be a sinner. How long do you fight against a man and slay all …? I ran in thirst; and they considered how to make me inglorious; praying with their tongues, they struck with curses in their breasts. My soul, fall before the King; be subdued, trusting in God, because he has become the life-giving support of my hope. For he himself is my God, and has become my saviour. My defence: who could drive me from my dear nurse? My glory and light are under the commands of the Lord; my hope awaits the King, and the strength of help, because God has always been our helper. Yet the whole race of mortals is vain …: never keep a mind concerned with unjust things, nor set a rapacious heart on the goods of others. The King spoke once, and they heard two such things with their ears: that strength belongs to God, and that mercy is the Lord’s. You will give to all, O Lord, a reward worthy of their works.

A famous hymn of David in the desert of Judea; this is the sixty-second. In the twilight night, Blessed One, Blessed One, … and my soul longed for you, and my flesh still more, through a rough and waterless land, utterly desert. To you, Blessed One, in the holy place I appeared thus very confident, longing to see your power and glory. Your mercy, O Lord, is better than life … with our lips … your glory … of gladness my mouth always … If I remembered you on my bed, I fed my heart from dawn on your cares, and may I rejoice in the shelter of your wings. … following, my dear heart was supported; and your right hand … me. But those in vain sought to destroy my soul … they will be a terrible prey and portion for foxes. But the king will rejoice in God in his dear heart; and everyone who swears by him will be praised with immortal glory; for every violent mouth of the slanderers has been shut.

The sixty-third revel came to be. Hear my supplication, O Lord, when I pray to you; may you free my soul from … You hid me far from the evil ones going in a herd, from the multitude whose mind cares for lawless works. Nor do they fear in heart, striking him suddenly. They said: Who could see their dark work with his eyes? From below a man will come forward, having a knowing plan. Thus they shot arrows like a child … All were stirred up together who saw them. What mortal did not see, and seeing did not tremble in heart? … the righteous … in the hopes of the King, and boundless praise increases for all the upright.

… and, Jeremiah, cry out how … the day of slavery …, and the glorious people for the sake of their … This is the sixty-fourth hymn. To you, Blessed One, an unspeakable hymn is fitting in Zion, and in Jerusalem you receive the prayer paid back. Hear the supplication; all human flesh beseeches you. May you have a merciful heart for us in our distresses. Blessed is he who, chosen beforehand, dwells in houses beside you. Let us fill our dear heart with the good things of your house; your undefiled temple is to be admired for righteousness. The hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the sea; by your might, Blessed One, making the mountains shady, girded with your unapproachable strength as with a girdle — may the races of mortals be stirred, may they carry fears in their hearts; you will delight the rising of dawn and the evening together. … pregnant with good fruits … and as God you set forth ready food for them; gladden, O Lord, the furrows of your earth that bear fruit; and may the ground bring forth varied fruit for it. May you praise, O Lord, the crown of the year of your goodness, and the ground will be filled with your fat season. May the hills on high clothe themselves with joy.

He will not greatly marvel; for the song knows this end … this is also the sixty-fifth song. All the earth, shout a song to God the King; sing God-pleasing glory with praises upon his works. Say: Very wondrous are the works of your God. Sing to me, all the earth, and kneel to God; let all who sing, O King, … your name … Come, friends, look at the famous works of the great God; he made the sounding rivers paths for feet. There let us rejoice together in the immortal King … to their ruler and strength. The races of mortals … of the King; let not those who … think great things … who set my heart so as to be among the living, fixing the footstep of my feet unshaken in all things, … knowing well, as a smith [tries] silver in fire; and you held us in the deceitful net even against our will; … you set cares upon [our] backs … you brought us out … which, though worn down, I said before that I would fulfil: marrowy sacrifices burning with fire, and rams … and the fragrant smoke of incense. Hear me, all who fear the Lord, how many good things he has fashioned for our soul. I cried to the Immortal with my tongue … [the] Lord … hear me crying. Therefore the All-seeing heard our voice, nor turned his face away from my supplication. Praised is he who did not drive away mercy and my prayer.

… a royal hymn came to be, having the sixty-sixth song. … so that we may recognize your way on earth, your averting light among foreign nations. The peoples will sing your glory, Blessed One most high; let your resounding glory be the care of all peoples … may you lead … to walk in the dear land. The peoples will praise your glory, Blessed One …; let your resounding glory be the care of all peoples. The life-giving earth has brought forth its fruit; may our God grant us the most gracious praise.

A hymn struck from the songs of wise David, having the sixty-seventh place. … thus may they fail, helpless, like smoke. As when wax melts with flaming fire, so may sinners perish from the eyes of the holy. But let men who interpret justice be glad, always rejoicing before the divine eyes. Sing to the King, and sing his divine name; … a gracious road over … Immortal, this one is immortal, and his name has become Lord; and may … rejoice near the divine face. Let all be stirred through his … the leader of widows and … He himself grants those of one manner to dwell in houses; … he loosed the fettered swarm, and leads the dead from tombs to the light of life. How did he once traverse the glorious ground of the desert? The whole earth was shaken, and the blazing heaven poured down before God at Sinai; may the much-prayed-for ground hear. Willingly, O King, send good rain to your land; for you set it firm again when it thought it would perish, and the races of your flock dwell around it. … mighty ones signify; may the Lord direct the word … of the son, who will share the spoils of the house with the noble one; like the silver wings of a dove, the fair wings of a pigeon, … when the Immortal sends his kings upon it, snow covers its body on Salmon. The divine mountain, the flowering mountain, has become very fat; a fat mountain, like curdled cheese. Why do you watch all the curdled mountains? This is the mountain where God is pleased to dwell; there the Blessed One will always fix his mighty tent. The chariot of God is countless, and many are the dancers upon it. There the Blessed One, among … of Sinai … Let the Lord, good and highest, be praised always; praised always the Lord will be called, day upon day … The work of my King is to help those in need; the Lord alone has known how to save even from death. Yet may he shatter the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those whose heart is sinful in their minds. Again I will go back from under the barren sea, so that you may dip your undefiled foot in blood, the tongue of your dogs from your enemies, and of himself … mortals saw … paths, the steps of the King in the holy … Sing to the faithful, dear Lord in the tents. Their leaders were those who formerly ruled Judah, … together champions and … Kings [will bring] gifts to the much-famed God … the nations of bulls go …, so that those to whom there was openly a price may be shut out … will hasten from the cities of Egypt; the race of Ethiopians will stretch out hands to the Immortal. Sing to the King from everywhere on earth … from pole to pole of the rising … may they utter dear praise with a life-giving voice. He holds magnificent glory always upon Israel, … and his strength is admirable together with the clouds of the air. The Immortal is wonderful to his holy ones … May the Lord grant strength and good might to Israel.

… a hymn of David’s heart … Save me, O King, from the waters which have come about my heart. Fixed in the wooded depth, in the deep of life, … seized me. I lost the light, waiting for the Lord God with my eyes. Those who hate me in vain are more than my hairs … plunder, which I myself did not learn … You know, O Lord, what I did … Never, O Lord, let shame seize those …; nor let any man who longs for God hear blame … I became … and to my … and a stranger to the sweet … I am stung in heart by the reproaches of your enemies … and they contrived that I should fast for reproaches … I put on my graceful garment as a mourning garment; but even so I became … Sitting before the gates they sang about me, and played the lyre at me, heavy with much wine. … The season, O Lord, when you may willingly be present openly to me. Hear in the abundant rush of your mercy; may you grant me, O Lord, the great light of your truth. Save me from the mud, so that I may escape through the mire … nor let the boundless pit put its mouth about me. In the multitude of your mercies stretch out your all-seeing eye; never turn your face away from your servant … our enemies, O King … For you know my shame and reproaches and great blushing; before you are all who care for my ruin. My soul expected blame and abuse in its heart. Nor did any man come to share speech with me in my pains, nor did I find whence there might be comfort for our ruin. Let a net of many folds be made for them instead of a table, … and a deceitful snare and a reward upon their work; and may you subdue their backs continually with toil; and may you always prepare heavy-angered wrath against them, and may the onrush of your turbid anger surround them. Let their many-giving dwelling be desert among them, nor may anyone find an inhabitant in their halls, because they greatly persecuted him whom you struck, adding pains to our wounds and pains. Nor let them, trusting in righteousness, come to your seat, nor ever be counted among the dwellers of righteousness. I am poor, and brood over countless cares; but I hold the King as my champion … Dancing, may I hymn the divine and praised name, and exalt him continually … above a calf, to the King, because the immortal King … nor did he thus abandon a man fettered in evils. Let the heavens and the earth around dance to the King, the boundless sea and all that the swell of the sea nourishes, because the immortal King will save Zion; and those who dwell in it will possess the whole of it by lots, and the race of his servants will hold all of it.

He who knows all … This hymn is the sixty-ninth. Let shame seize as many as long to destroy my heart; let shame seize at once those who rejoice at my ruin. Let joy and gladness attend the holy race … your averting light … of the poor man, Blessed One, and …

The sons of great-hearted Jonadab, whom formerly … led into the day of slavery, … a clear song of the decade … since you are my hope … Care for me, Blessed One, in your righteousness, and guard me. Be [my] God, as is due, firm like a house where one can escape evil; you yourself are my bronze-founded seat and steady defence … from the hand, O King, of the evildoing man, from the unjust hand … and my hope, Most High, always … I am very confident in you from my mother’s womb; you yourself were my shelter in my dear mother’s belly. In you, Best of all, is … but you appeared to me as a strong helper among them. Let my mouth be full of graceful songs on every side, so that, Blessed One, I may sing your ageless glory, singing your magnificent praise all day. Do not let me go, Undefiled One, on the evil threshold of old age; when I lose my dear strength, then do not let me go; because evil and hostile men said these things to me … the guards of our … came and considered, saying that the Immortal has let go his servant: “Hasten, and seize him, since there is no helper for him.” But you, King of all, never turn far from me. Let shame seize as many as strike my heart with evils; let blame and blushing seize as many as think evil of me. But may I be very confident in God the King, and I will sing to him a praiseworthy hymn still more than before. Our mouth will declare your righteousness; I will sing your immortal light all day. Ignorant of trade and free from ruin, I will go confidently to the temple of the Immortal. I will remember your righteousness alone, O King. You taught me from youth what is lawful, immortal Shepherd; therefore I will cry out your wondrous works even until now, proclaiming your strength and lovely righteousness. Who indeed is like you, who made so many cares for me? And turning me back again, you gave unspeakable strength of life; you called me from the bottom of the dark earth of the deep. … Indeed I will sing you, Blessed One, … singing greatly about you with my lips and soul, which you freed, O King, from destructive diseases. And my tongue too will sing your righteousness, when those who seek my pain are put to shame.

This was then untitled among the children of the Hebrews; … of the [seventh] decade, and first. Give your righteousness to the king’s son, so that they may judge your people in righteousness. Mighty peace for the mountains and the hills together … to help the sons of … when they are stirred up … may he come like rain onto fleece, as when heaven quietly casts snowflakes on the earth. This day will then be the mother of righteousness and lovely peace, as long as the strength of the moon shines … and from the holy rivers to the countless ends of the earth. The races of Ethiopians will swiftly bow the knee to him; his enemies, subdued, will lick the dust around him. Islands, … gifts, and bring them, rulers of Tarshish. May all the kings of the whole earth bow the knee to him together; may he set the neck of all kinds of nations under the yoke, since he freed the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and the one hurt by poverty, who had no defender near. From interest and from unjust force … them … and their admired name will appear before him. May they call on the King with unceasing prayers for him, and sing to him all day with good revels. On the highest mountains there will be a famous seat of the earth; may they spring up from the city like the grass of the whole field. The divine name is praised for unceasing generations; before the sun the famous divine name remains, … and before the life-bearing moon. May the nations of the earth take thrice-desired glory around him; may all nations always call God most blessed. Praised always is the immortal God of Israel, who alone always performs wondrous works. The divine name is praised …, now and hereafter and for generations to come. May the glory of God fill the whole earth; so be it.

The divine mind of David ceased from songs, … and cried out by the divine spirit, sending forth the second hymn of the seventh decade. … And my feet were nearly shaken by necessity, and the footsteps of my foot were sliding here and there, because in my heart I envied sinners, for whom fate has always been inescapable and without return, … and mighty scourges … they are always without experience of toils; nor would they be subdued like men, as is due; … like some fat … will go forth … They set their violent mouth even to the gates of heaven, … their tongue … over the whole circle of the earth. Therefore my people will turn back here again, and full days will appear among them. And I said: How then will God perceive these things in his heart? … if truly the King is most high and understanding, how are these interpreters of transgression glad? Perhaps I said in vain that I kept a holy mind, washing [my hands] clean in most undefiled water, subdued daily in body by the scourge, … struck in heart by mighty rebukes … whence shall I speak so clearly? I melt together with the works of the generation of your children; and this toil appeared before my eyes, and I inquire into the last end of their chambers. You gave them toil worthy of their deceitful works; whence were they suddenly subdued, overpowered thus? As a feeble dream of beds when one wakes, so may you deprive them of their form in your city, because my heavy-angered spirit burned in my heart. But I, subdued by the scourge, did not know in my heart; I became like a beast with you, highest Shepherd, … always caring for good things with your eyes. What portion is mine in the heavenly halls? Or what did I wish to have more than you on earth? My heart and my body melted, immortal Shepherd; but for me it has become good to draw near to the King, and to set my unceasing hope in the immortal God, so that I may sing your praise, O Lord, in the gates of Zion.

… against the flocks of your sheep was your wrath armed? … rescue the sceptre of your …, the famous mountain of Zion, where you dwell in famous halls; … boasted in the middle of your feast. They did not know their own signs, setting signs …, breaking with axe and the tools of a craftsman …; and besides, burning your whole God-pleasing temple, they made your undefiled name profane on the ground … whom, gathering in heart, [they said] these things: “Come, let us stop the feasts of the Blessed One on the earth.” No longer is the Lord God an overseer for us, nor is there a prophet. Say, Blessed One, how long will the hostile man increase his insolence … the hostile man … your name? Why have you so turned away your averting hand, and laid your right hand in the middle of your bosom? God has always ruled, even before human life; the boundless sea is firm by your strength; and taking it you gave it as a feast to the peoples of the Ethiopians … wintry rivers and springs … and the sounding stream of rivers … Day together with night are the possessions of your command; your tireless hand made all the ends of the earth …, O King, of the works you created … formerly the royal might, and a people of evil counsel greatly provoked the Lord. Do not give up to beasts my heart, which is cared for by God; … of your servant, O Lord, look … Let the poor and needy, O Lord, sing your name. To you, Blessed One, comes up the arrogant insolence of the enemies.

Never destroy the good guardians of song; this fourth hymn upon seven wise decades came to be. When your season appears, I, Blessed One, will judge uprightly. The earth melts together with all its dwellers; I … its tireless pillars. And to the wicked [I said] not to lift the horn at all, nor to raise the horn on high beyond due measure, nor against the Immortal …: neither from the glorious east nor from the west, nor from the tree-clad mountains of the desert. For God is always …: he set one low, and lifts another on high. Let all the servants of wickedness drink together; but I will rejoice among them continually; I will play sweetly on the lyre to the immortal God; and … all the horns of the overweening, so that only the horn of the pious may be exalted.

… of the decade, and fifth. The King alone has become conspicuous in Judea; … in lovely Zion his dear and undefiled house; there … the strength of bows, shield and sharp sword, and the unshakable battle-cry. You shine glorious light from immortal mountains … pouring out helpless sleep, they found nothing … men confident in their hands; a sleep without waking took all the horsemen. You, Blessed One, are dreadful; who could match your might? … your wrath has exceeding strength … from heaven … justice to mortals … and the sweet remnant of thought will keep feast to you. Pray to the Immortal and give him gentle vows; let all who serve God bring famous gifts to the mighty one, to whom the fate of the strength of rulers is a care.

He cried the sixth song upon the holy seventh decade. I sent up our cry to the King in my need; with my hands I prayed to the immortal God in the day of toil, going near through the night, and I was not deceived; … my heart endured, though it was stirred. … the most ancient day of life in my heart; and, remembering the years, I sang of former generations. All night in my heart many cares …, and my mind searched always, seeking: Will he forget the human race …? Or will he no longer remember those whom he planted? Now, hardly beginning to think rightly in my heart, I recognized it; I remembered the works of the immortal King. Immortal One, your path is always in the undefiled place; what god is like our Lord? The Lord alone is God, doing very famous wonders. You revealed your force to all peoples together … A terrible crash rose through the clouds of the air; and your arrows sped here and there; nor will the footstep of the King be clear to men. Leading the peoples as one shepherds fair sheep …

Look with your eyes, my people, at the God-pleasing ordinance … The works of the ancients are not hidden from their sons, and how great a strength he showed together with wondrous works; and he gave a famous law to mighty Israel, which the Lord formerly established for the fathers, so that another generation might learn all these things afterwards, the sons whom they would beget in later generations, so that they might set their hope on the immortal King, and not forget the works of their God the King, but track the commands of the Blessed One in their hearts, and not become at all like their dear fathers. But O shuddering and crooked generation of mortals, O generation whose heart has always been evildoing in mind, which did not find a faithful mind toward its God … they fled from the battle, turning their backs badly; nor did they wish to serve under the bonds of the King, but forgot the good benefaction of God, nor were they bent in counsel by so many wonders in the land of Egypt, over flowery Tanis; how, breaking the sea in two, he led the peoples, setting the dense stream here and there like a wineskin; and by night he led them over the mountains by the light of a torch … the shameless rock in the desert; you would say, seeing it, that as much drink seemed to creep up from the deep as the water he brought out of the holy rock, and a great stream with ever-flowing … They provoked the wrath of the heavenly King, … testing the heart of the Immortal, demanding food that pleased their ruin. “For surely, since he brought waters out of the solid rock, …” — because they did not trust the heavenly King, nor did they hold counsel at all about the divine light. … sweet manna known to eat; … he sent forth heavenly … for mortals to eat; God granted them a plentiful wayside feast. The breath of the south wind … he handed them flesh like dust of its own accord, and it fell suddenly among the assembly of men, round about …, directing … of many-sown … Feasting together, all were filled with food; and he granted them, in their desire, the feast of their heart. The feast was not yet finished, and their heart still lacked satiety, when the ready wrath of the Immortal came upon them … But not even then did they forget their evil-devising …; they wasted away thus in years swiftly chased away. Wretched ones, then … the Lord; from dawn, going, they cried to him as helper, … what he had given them, granting them a day of freedom. But they loved him with the tips of their lips; for they did not have upright hearts nor thought. But you, O King, always have a compassionate counsel …, how you swiftly restrain your wrath when it is kindled; for you know what the race of feeble mortals is like, whose life cannot be taken back once Hades holds it. How often they armed themselves, provoking him in the desert, and stirred his heart in waterless places, testing the might of the most high God against what is right, and provoking the Undefiled with words … wild … For the path of men does not hold back … How they forgot the toils of his life-giving hand, how he rescued them all from the Egyptians, how he made unspeakable signs in Egypt … and over the plain of Tanis. Water was blood, and it denied its former form, and … falsified its sweet taste. First the dog-fly, all-devouring, went over the land; the frog, coming next, then sacked the fields; … the locust … the labours of the land; and the burning flame consumed their possessions. But even so he did not cease, always increasing his wrath upon them, wrath and dreadful anger together with grievous toil. With stirred heart he made a path of much pain; and he bound even the field-ranging herds with destruction. The earth lamented the fate of as many firstborn as … But the Lord rescued his people like fair sheep, shepherding them like a splendid flock on the long mountains, trusting in hope, and …; and the great gulf of the sea covered their enemies. They walked by the commands of the Immortal to the mountain, the famous mountain which his dear hand had acquired before. And the Lord drove out the former inhabitants from the land, and bringing these in, divided the fields by lot … by tribes … taking away their heart, from their former fathers lawless works …, like a bow …; and they provoked his heart with their idols. And he gave their beauty as prey to enemies. The sword no longer ceased, always slaying them; divine fire devoured the young men pitiably … and he gave them reproach for unceasing generations. And he chose the famous tribe of godlike Judah, the divine mountain of Zion, which he loves in his heart. Then the Lord chose David, his servant, and called him well from the many sheep-givers; and he shepherded them justly with the gentleness of his heart, and led his people with the wisdom of his hands.

… the clear eighth song … Savage races have come upon your portion, Most High, and defiled your undefiled temple with lawlessness. They made Jerusalem like a guard-hut for fruit; they gave the remains of your workers to the birds of the air; they made the flesh of your holy ones prey for beasts. Like water on the ground they poured out the blood of your servants … like laughter and a dreadful plaything to those around. Blessed One, how long do you remain angry with us, and your wrath stirred continually like a torch? Pour out wrath on the races that did not know your glory, and on the kingdoms which … Do you yourself, O Lord, forget former follies; send your compassions swiftly, Blessed One, as helpers to us; for we alone have become very poor among all. Being the only defender, God, may you always help us; rescue your suppliants, O King, for your honour’s sake. Let them never say: Where then is their God? May the avenger of the blood of your servants, which they poured out before, be seen openly among the nations before our eyes … And as great as is the force of the Immortal’s arm … turn back sevenfold dreadful things into the bosom of outsiders; for we are your people, O Lord, and the flock of your pasture. From generation to generation … your glory.