Devotional
Short-Note on Psalm 57 (Latin is 56/57 in Hebrew). Church Father Jerome was in
Bethlehem when he translated the Psalms from Hebrew manuscript copies that he
acquired somewhere. The manuscripts had slips on them and one can see it every
now and then.
When he came to
the same word that is the first word in the Hebrew Psalm line, but which is in
Job 34:36, he translated it in Job with “to the end” = ad finem but here in
Psalm 57:1 he translated it with “for victory” = pro victoria. Where Jerome got
victory from is a good question. The word had a meaning in Aramaic, Phoenician
and Syriac also as “victorious” like in conquering, so that is how Jerome chose
that meaning.
His way of
translation is literal so that the next phrase in Hebrew was translated by him “destroy
not”. It is correct and as literal as possible to the Hebrew text. Other
translations in modern times only read “Al-tashheth”.
Jerome’s copy
had many slips and was written continuously without the help of word-divisions
as we have it in modern times. So he had to divide it by himself. Jerome
misread or his reader to him misread or actually the copy that was made to
serve him was in letter not to clear so that he misread the original Hebrew
instead of the proper miktam it was read by Jerome as makak = humiliated so he
translated it as humilem whereas most modern translation read it as Michtam.
Those who
visited his cave where he did the translations of the Scriptures in Latin
during the 380’s, it is pretty dark in there and he was a geronti on top of it.
With all due respect, much can fall through the cracks. Many people thought
that Jerome just got to his translation based on semantics or understanding of
meanings. Not so. A degenerative Hebrew text, or failing eyes, or illegible
letters on a good text, or misdivision of letters could be the reason for
differences in his translation. In this case, Jerome misdivided two letters
tam, the last part of Michtam as “simple” and translated it as “simplicem”
inserting a non-existent “and” in the original Hebrew, in his translation. His
translation was: “For victory and not ruining humble and simple David, when he
fled from Saul in the cave”. The original read “For that which pertain to the
end, do not destroy to David Michtam in his fleeing from the face of Saul in a
cave”.
In verse two
where David starts to pray for God to be his refuge, Jerome is very literal
even following the original Hebrew word-order exactly in the following example:
“until calamities be overpassed” but Jerome had it more correct in order with “donec
transeant insidiae” = “until pass by incidents”. We see the desire of Jerome to
be faithful to the text he was to translate in 388 A.D. but he could not fully
since the text was degenerative and word-divisions made it complicated for him.
Sometimes the text was so bad that the letters kind of flow into each other so
that Jerome read in Psalm 57:3 instead of the original Hebrew “to God Who accomplished
over me” a rather fusion of two words in one: “to God Who revenge for me” in
which he made the word gomer alay as one word gemulay meaning “recompense” or “reward
of God” thus God’s vengeance on enemies as recompensation for the faithful. Jerome
had it as Deum ultorem meum.
Jerome sometimes
translated the tenses of the verbs correctly but in Psalm 57:4 we see him
leaning on his own understanding of the text instead of letting the text
dictates his translation: Instead of translating the future forms of the verbs
in verse 4, Jerome translated it as past. Jerome had it: “He has sent from
heaven and saved me” in Latin of the Vulgate as mittet de caelo et salvabit me.
This is not correct according to the original Hebrew that reads: “He will send
from heaven and He will save me.”
Jerome was eager
not to paraphrase but to bring a literal translation, yet here we find him
committing a very serious error. It will make what are promises in the Word of
God already established events in the past. Imagine what will happen with the
prophecies instead of future to use the past as if it already came to pass. The
same error was done it he last part of the verse. David did not yet receive
truth or mercy or a special team from heaven to come and save him. In this
sense all of us are waiting for the team to come at the Second Coming but here
Jerome wrote the verse off as locked in that past and of no value to us in the
present.
David is fond of
this phrase “like a lion” and in Psalm 7:3 one also finds him using a similar
phrase that his soul is in the presence of a metaphorical lion. It is all about
communication, language, words people use, the interplay between serious and
satire, upfront or gossip, open or hidden in indirect references and metaphors.
In an article that was reprinted in the late 1950’s in Signs of the Times from “United
Evangelical Action” it said about Catholic Spain the following: “…Spain no
longer kills Protestants - - it just makes it impossible for them to live. The
idea is to exterminate the Protestants by simply making life ‘rough’ for them….”
They cannot be in the government, cannot conduct weddings or funerals, cannot
distribute Bibles of literature without permission, and the list goes on in the
source.
This is also a
case of finding oneself among the lions. “whose teeth are spears and arrows and
their tongues a sharp sword” (57:5b-c). In this last part of the citation,
Jerome kept precisely to the Hebrew word order in his Latin translation: et
lingua eorum gladius acutus “and their tongues sharp swords” [and tongues their
swords sharp = Hebrew and Jerome’s Latin Vulgate].
Since Jerome
painstakingly translated hyper-literal, every deviation from the Hebrew
original that we have today needs an answer in the form of the text and not
necessarily just operations in his cognition.
In the
translation of 57:6b Jerome was translating against painstakingly literal in
word-order almost 100% in comparison to the original Hebrew. Unfortunately the
preposition in Hebrew does not read “in all the earth” but “over all the earth”.
Jerome translated exaltare super caelos Deus in omni terra gloria tua but
should have translated it as exaltare super caelos Deus [super] omni terra
gloria tua. David says that his enemies have gone to great length to work his
fall or downfall in many constructive ways but just like Haman and Mordechai,
the Haman syndrome led to their own downfall instead of that of David (57:7). There
are many Hamans around all of us. There is a God in heaven that takes care of
us as well. We also have nets and pits carved out for us but many times they
fall in it instead of us.
David is stable
and will sing praises to God (57:8). He will do it with musical instruments. Jerome
used the word cithara for “harp” which is kenor in Hebrew. Our English word
quitar is from these words. Let me cite from an article which I am working on
now:
Quitar
Cithara in Latin
is kenor in Hebrew; kenar in Syriac; kana’ara in Arabic. In Syriac there is a
loanword from Greek as qitar. In Greek it is kithara.
Hebrew k n r
Greek k t r
Latin c th r
Syriac k n r
Arabic k n ‘ r
English q t r
David wants to “awake
early” or at dawn. Neon lights, solar lights and LED lights have made it
possible for all of us to stay awake until past midnight so that we do not have
energy to wake with the dawn like David. Some people force themselves to go to
bed early so that they can wake at dawn. They say it is the best quality of
worship that they get that time of the morning. David is not only going to sing
to Hebrews or his own people. He is going to give thanks “among the peoples”
(57:10a) and “among the nations” (57:10b). God had no special race in the Old
Testament. He had a special faithful group of people from all nations. Ruth was
a Moabite and, and, and. God’s truth and mercy is very big (57:11) and yet the
Nano he created is very small. The Fingerprint of God is all over nature and
the universe. God’s glory is above all the earth and God is exalted over all
the earth, says David and we know what he is talking about.