A tentative translation of Psalm 47
A brief example, with notes, of how I believe we ought to handle scripture in English.
A core tenet of True Magic (and “re-enchantment” in general) is that it is fundamentally a hermeneutical project, as I explain here:
In view of this, many of our readers have expressed much interest in my theology (not philosophy) of translation. If the telos of Christian life is transformation into the image of Christ, and this is fundamentally achieved through receiving the mind of Christ, which is infallibly and supremely expressed in the word of Christ…then how we represent that word in English matters a great deal.
I made this point initially here:
(Since then I have made a number of posts that impinge on translation in various ways, which I leave to the eager reader to find.)
This is not a theoretical concern for me, as my chief ministry work is shepherding a small church. I have been preaching through Judges, and translating as I go, so my interest is highly practical. This translation of Judges is too large a project to be suited to Substack; at some point I will create a website for it. However, since I preached on Psalm 47 yesterday for the new year, and a single psalm is a much more managable chunk of content, I am sharing it here with the translation notes, for those who are interested in such things.
I have not included any comments about my overall approach to translation; I have 17,000 words on that in the “preface” (rapidly becoming a separate book) to my translation on Judges. It won’t fit here.
Psalm 47
For the director,1 by the sons of Qorah, a psalm.
All ye peoples blast your palms2
bellow3 unto God in voices ringing.4For Yahweh most ascended5 is fearsome
king of greatness over all the land.6He subdueth peoples beneath us
and countries7 beneath our feet.He chooseth for us our inheritance
the liftedness8 of Jacob that he loveth (selah).9God ascendeth in a bellow
Yahweh in a voice of ramshorns.10Psalm ‹to him›—God—psalm ‹to him›
psalm ‹to him›, unto our king, psalm ‹to him›.11For king of all the land is God
psalm to him a masterwork.12King is God over the nations13
God dwelleth on his throne of holiness.Nobles of peoples are gathered
with the people of the God of Abraham14
for unto God are the shields15 of the land
very ascended is he.16
For the director. Traditionally “the chief musician,” but the head of the lemma for this word is 1 Chronicles 15:21, where it refers to leading the music—a verb, not a noun. Nearly every instance of this word in scripture refers to liturgical direction of some kind, whether supervising work on the temple, or leading music. The term leader seems a little too generic to me, and conductor is certainly too specific, and incorrect since in Western music the conductor does not play.
blast your palms. Not, as most Bibles have it, “clap your hands.” The word “blast” here is the same one used when God blasted the locusts into the Red Sea (Ex 10:19), and when Ehud first blasted the sword into Eglon’s belly, and then blasted the ramshorn for battle (Jdg 3:21, 27). The term “palms” is also not the general term for a hand (yad), but the specific term for the soft part of something, like the sole of the foot or the palm of the hand. What is being emphasized is not so much “applause” (as we think of clapping), but the making of a thunderous noise.
bellow. Traditionally “shout,” but this is the word also used of blowing trumpets, both for liturgical celebration and to sound an alarm (e.g., Lev 23:24; Num 10:5–6; the latter of which combines the word “blast” and the word “bellow”). It does not seem to me that the word “shout” is quite right for describing the sound of a trumpet, but certainly horns can bellow. I resisted saying “yawp,” only because it seems to hit the wrong register of diction, eliciting Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself,’ which is hardly psalm-like.
in voices ringing. More literally, “in the voice of a ringing cry,” but translating poetry is a tradeoff between directly representing meaning, and directly representing cadence. This is an especially confounding challenge with Hebrew, which is so extremely compact compared to English. The Hebrew here reads b’qol rinna, so the choice was a no-brainer in this case.
Yahweh most ascended. Traditionally “Most High,” but the Hebrew elyon has its root in olah, which I believe is best translated “ascend.” This is the same root as the terms used in verses 5 and 9, and is a very significant sacramental term, referring to the “ascension” offering (traditionally, and utterly wrongly, the “burnt offering”). To obscure this would not only obliterate the connection to Old Testament sacramentology, but also to its fulfillment (and the fulfillment of this whole psalm) in the ascension of the Lord Jesus.
all the land. I resist translating erets as earth, since its central meaning is the land as opposed to the sky and sea; the face of the world which man inhabits. It does not refer to a “planet” as we tend to conceive it. However, it is important to recognize—as should be clear contextually—that “all the land” means the whole face of the world, and not merely the land of Israel.
countries. Or people-groups, races, ethnicities. This is not the word for nations (goy) used in verse 8.
liftedness. I.e., loftiness, pride, exaltation.
selah. I follow the majority view that this is likely a musical term. I question the value of including it in translation when we have no idea what it means, but I also question the idea of removing any words from scripture.
in a voice of ramshorns. Traditionally “with the voice of a trumpet,” but shofar does not refer to a brass instrument with valves; it is the hollow horn of a ram. The Hebrew here is singular, but I could not find a satisfying way to make this work in English and still capture the general cadence, which as Alter is fond of saying is “terrifically compact:” b’qol shofar. We could track the rhythm better with “in ramshorn’s voice,” but I resist using possessives like this as they seem beneath the liturgical diction of scripture, and it also reverses the Hebrew word order, which I believe we should try to maintain where possible. My general goal is not to mimic the Hebrew rhythm, but rather to find the best balance between evincing it in English without sacrificing meaning or thought sequence.
Psalm to him…psalm to him. Literally “psalm ye,” but I have preferred a rendering that better captures the Hebrew rhythm, with its chanting repetition of zammeru. Hence “to him” is enclosed in brackets to indicate that it is not in the Hebrew. (The traditional use of italics for this is confusing in modern English.)
a masterwork. The Hebrew maskil has its root in a very difficult word whose head is Genesis 3:6, where it is traditionally translated as “wise” (“the tree was desirable to make one wise”). This word has an extraordinary range of meaning, from wisdom to success to skill to understanding, and more besides. In my view, the concept of mastery in English maps onto most instances of its use. What Eve desires is mastery; kingly wisdom. In Joshua 1, murmuring in God’s word will give him mastery; success. In 1 Samuel 18, David does masterfully in his ways; he behaves astutely. And in the psalms, many of them are called maskils, which in my view refers to something like a “masterwork;” i.e., a skillfully-written song.
King is God over the nations. The word for king in Hebrew is a verb as well as a noun, so another way to translate this would be, “God kings over the nations;” i.e., God reigns over the nations. I have preferred a less odd-sounding option that preserves the Hebrew word order.
with the people of the God of Abraham. The “with” is only implied in Hebrew, and so some translations take the nobles to be the people of the God of Abraham. In defense of my translation, I offer Isaiah 49:23; it is impossible to separate theology from translation, and I am taking a holistic view of this psalm that integrates the postmillennial promises of God that kings and princesses shall be taught by the church.
shields. Dynamically, defenders, referring to the nobles or rulers.
very ascended is he. Traditionally “exalted,” but see note on verse 2.
Roman Catholics: “Protestants don’t read or know the Bible”.
Protestants: