Thursday, June 6, 2019

Book of Psalms Chapter 1

One of the most beloved books of the Bible has been the Psalms, we find all human emotions and longings expressed in beautiful (but difficult) Hebrew. 

The Psalms have been translated many times, but many words and concepts can be left out of a translation. 
Each time a text is translated from one language to another word choices have to be made, whether to use one of many different nuances. This is in fact a way to slant a text to one side or another and make different intrepretations. 

In my Hebrew classes, we strive to come to a literal translation, and maybe it might not be in the best English grammar and syntax, but we want to get as closes to the orginial Hebrew as possible. 

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16222/jewish/Chapter-1.htm#lt=he



For each verse, one by one, 
Identify any difficult words, and look them up in a Hebrew-English dictionary.

Now we analyize each word finding the root, what letters are added, and figure out their function. 


For example the word  הָלַךְ֘  is in the past tense, 3rd person singular.  What does it mean?  Walked.  But this word could also mean walked in a metaphorical sense.  Why does this fit the verse better because of the next word בַּֽעֲצַ֪ת  means  "advice" so  הָלַךְ֘ must be not actually walking but following advice of someone. 

בַּֽעֲצַ֪ת  has the בַּֽ added, and the root is actually עצה  but it is in construct with the next word, as we can see with the ת so the two go together as a phrase.  

When you have class with me, we will go through the whole chapter in detail like this. 


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