The Rider of the Clouds: Psalm 68:5

This is the second in a series of posts on Psalm 68. Since my first post, Lingamish has noted his fascination with the psalm's image of a wrathful deity reveling in the bloody demise of Israel’s enemies. I myself am above such trivial pursuits. Truth be told, the emotions described in the psalm are raw throughout. They repel and attract at the same time.

Bob MacDonald has drafted a diagram of the psalm. He consistently translates the verbs in Psalm 68:2-4 as indicatives. This has the advantage of making the psalm easier to pray in the modern age.

Modern day people no less than the ancients pray unceasingly with regard to [insert a favorite nemesis]. Many of us desire nothing more than full humiliation for [insert a favorite nemesis].

But we live in a particularly duplicitous age, so it is not uncommon to seek to hide the fact from God and even ourselves. The heart on the sleeve we do not wear when we turn our thoughts to God. Our hearts pray, but they do not pray to God.

Not so the ancients. They expressed their hopes of retribution to God’s face, no holding back. They imagined God’s pleasure in accomplishing it on their behalf. In so doing perhaps, they received the retribution they needed.

Psalm 68 continues in verse 5 with a call to sing to God and celebrate who God is. In verses 6 and 7, God is described in very precise terms. I will discuss them in a forthcoming post. Here is Psalm 68:5:

שִׁירוּ לֵאלֹהִים

זַמְּרוּ שְׁמֹו

 

סֹלּוּ לָרֹכֵב בָּעֲרָפוֹת*

בְּיָהּ שִׂמוּ*

וְעִלְזוּ לְפָנָיו

*text at variance with MT

 

Sing to God,

set his name to music!

 

Pave the way for the Rider of the Clouds,

set up for the sake of Yah,

exult before his face.

 As Suzanne McCarthy notes, English lacks an appropriate verb to translate Piel זמר. The sense of the original is nevertheless clear. The invitation is to make music the theme of which is to be God’s known characteristics (his ‘name’). The verb apparently covers both vocal and instrumental music.

One can speak of “making music of” someone’s poetry in English, which almost fits. The translation I offer works off the idiom reflected in “set your movies to music.” 

The first verb of the second set of versets has been translated in a variety of ways. As Marvin Tate notes, “The verb סלל in the qal (as here) has limited usage in the OT (12 times), but is used of the action of building up a roadbed” either literally (Isa 57:14; 62:10; Jer 18:15; 50:26; Prov 15:19; Job 19:12; 30:12; cf. Isa 40:3, where the noun מסלה is used) or figuratively (Job 19:12; 30:12; Prov 15:19).[1] There is no justification for translating the qal of סלל in a way that disagrees with the sense it has elsewhere in ancient Hebrew literature.

The reference is most likely to preparations for the transit of the ark of the Lord. A sense of what was involved may be gained by reading the episode recounted in 2 Samuel 6:12-19. If Psalm 68 is read in its entirety after reading the 2 Samuel passage, a plausible context for the psalm will begin to take shape in one’s imagination. Note especially 68:25-28 (24-27 in many translations).

As I mentioned in a previous post, it is hard not to read Psalm 68 without being reminded of passages elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. In particular, Psalm 68 shares a number of theological motifs with Ugaritic literature. Characteristics of Baal and Anat are transferred to the God of many names who is praised in Psalm 68.

Baal is described in Ugaritic mythology as “the Rider of the Clouds.” He is the storm god, the rainmaker. Baal as such was feared and praised. This was disputed in ancient Israel. According to 1 Kings 18:20-40, YHVH, not Baal, is lord of the rain.

It cannot be denied that Israelite worship appropriated imagery associated with Baal and other deities in praise of its God. The fact should not surprise. As Jeffrey Tigay notes, “It is natural for the Bible to appropriate [Baal] imagery for the Lord, not only because He incorporates the powers of all the pagan deities, but because Israel’s geography made it so dependent on rain that it was one of the primary media for the exercise of His providence.”[2]

To be sure, MT must be emended to yield “Rider of the Clouds” (בערבות to בערפות). But פ/ב interchanges are well-attested. A majority of post-discovery-of-Ugaritic-literature translations render accordingly (RSV, REB, NJPSV, NAB, NJB, (T)NIV, NET, HCSB, NRSV, and CEV).

Based on a phrase found later in the psalm (v 34) and in Deuteronomy 33:26, KJV in accordance with an exegetical tradition rendered ‘him that rideth upon the heavens.’ This approximates the sense the phrase is now thought to have had based on the recurrence of an equivalent epithet for Baal in Ugaritic literature.

If you’re not familiar with Ugaritic literature, that’s unfortunate, but help is available. If you have already purchased a suite of electronic resources, the best way to begin is to fully exploit the materials therein that present ancient Near Eastern texts in the original languages and/or in translation. For example, the standard bundle of aids to Bible study offered by Logos Software includes COS.[3] Annotated and fully searchable translations of a sample of Ugaritic texts are included.

A number of passages in the Ugaritic mythological corpus furnish a background against which Psalm 68 is more easily understood. For example:

 
KTU 1.19: I: 38-46

’apunaka dānī’ilu mut rapa’i

yaṣluyu ʿurpata

 

bi ḥummi ’auni yari

ʿurpatu tamṭarū bi qiẓi

ṭallu yaṭlulu lê ǵanabīma

 

šabaʿ šanati

yaṣruku baʿlu

ṯimānâ rākib ʿurpati

 

balû ṭalli

balû rabibi

 

balû šaraʿi tahamātima

balû ṭubani qāl baʿli

 

Then Dānīʾilu man of Rapaʾu

adjured the clouds:

 

In the awful heat let it rain;

let the clouds make rain in the summer,

the dew drop dew on the grapes.

 

Seven years

Baʿlu is lacking,

eight, the Rider of the Clouds.

 

No dew,

no showers,

 

no dilation from the deep,

no goodly voice of Baʿlu.

 

KTU 1.2: IV: 7-9

wa ʿanû . kôṯaru wa ḫasīsu

 

la ragamtu lêka

lê zabuli baʿli

ṯanîtu lê rākib ʿurpati

 

hatti ’êbaka baʿluma

hatti ’êbaka timḫaṣ

hatti  taṣammit ṣarrataka

 

In answer Kothar wa-Hasis:

 

Did I not tell you,

to Prince Baʿlu.

I repeated to the Rider of the Clouds:

 

Now, your enemy, Baʿlu,

now your enemy smash!

Now vanquish your rival!

 

KTU 1.3: III: 37-38

 

mīna ’êbu

yapaʿa lê baʿli

ṣarratu lê rākib ʿurpati

 

What enemy

stood up to Baʿlu,

rival, to the Rider of Clouds?

 The best universities and seminaries offer Ugaritic as a graduate level course. Excellent grammars are now available and others are due to appear in the near future. I have a copy of the Ugaritic Library marketed by Logos.  Used along with other available Logos resources, COS and DDD[4] in particular, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a powerful research tool.

The clause in Hebrew I vocalize and translate as ‘set up for the sake of Yah’ is a notorious crux interpretum. It is usually translated ‘the Lord is his name,’ but there is no justification for doing so. If one wants to retain the MT, it is only honest to translate ‘in Yah (is) his name.’ But that doesn’t make sense.

The solution I offer retains the consonantal text and recovers a verset in semantic and syntactic parallelism with the preceding verset. On this reconstruction, ‘setting up’ refers to preparations for the transit of the ark. The reconstructed verb is written defectively elsewhere in MT. The verb often means ‘set up.’ The preposition ב is attested with the meaning of ‘on account of’ in Genesis 18:28; Deuteronomy 24:16; Isaiah 7:4; etc. MT שְׁמוֹ seems to represent an assimilation to שְׁמוֹ in 68:5 earlier.

---

[1] Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (WBC 20; Dallas: Word, 2002) 162.

[2] Jeffrey Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPSTC; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996) 334.

[3] The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions, Monumental Inscriptions and Archival Documents from the Biblical World (3 vols.; gen. ed. William W. Hallo; ass. ed.  K. Lawson Younger, Jr.; Leiden: Brill, 1997, 2000, 2002).

[4] Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2d ed.; ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden: Brill, 1999 [1996]).

Comments

[Lingamish]

My fascination with God's wrathful side comes down to this: either he is a big ogre like the Scriptures depict him and I just don't want to admit it, or Psalms like 68 are just a projection of the Jewish hatred of everyone but themselves. Option 1 results in a reevaluation of how I should perceive God. Option 2 results in a reevaluation of how I read and apply Scripture.

[JohnFH]

Or perhaps a God who takes delight in smashing those who produce orphans and widows among the people that call themselves his is not the same thing as an ogre.

[Lingamish]

That's another possibility...

[Duane]

As I'm sure you know, Dahood wanted to read one or both of the occurrences of שׁמו as "his heaven" on the basis of a presumed linguistic association with smm and rkb 'rpt in KTU 1.3:39-40 (RSP I, 357 and elsewhere). I don't think this is supportable in the case of זַמְּרוּ שְׁמוֹ, but it might work in the case of ביה שׁמו. It is in parallel with סֹלּוּ לָרֹכֵב בָּעֲרָפוֹת in Psalm 68:5. Perhaps one might translate this part of the verse:

Pave the way for the Rider of the Clouds,
On account of Yah of his heaven.

Or the like. But then one seems to have a problem with the spelling of שׁמו. But that didn't seem to bother your teacher. Unless we want to further emend the text, I take "his heaven" to mean "the Rider of the Cloud's heaven."

I'm not so sure how hard I would argue for this. There are several problems. But I thought I'd throw it out for the sake of discussion.

[JohnFH]

Thanks, Duane, for your comments.

ביה שׁמו certainly is a difficult phrase. Dahood messed with the masoretic vocalization if he saw a need for it, but hardly ever emended the consonantal text.

My own preference is to trust the vocalization more often than he did. But I think his caution about emending the consonantal text is commendable.

[Duane]

I didn't mean to imply that Dahood emended the consonantal text. He didn't. I only wanted to say that maybe he should have if he wanted to preserve his understanding.