Below the fold, I offer Psalm 35: 11-16 in Hebrew and in English translation. The versions of KJV and Robert Alter, though excellent in many ways - are reviewed and found wanting. It is often assumed that KJV hews to the diction and style of the Hebrew, but that is not always true, as this series demonstrates. Robert Alter’s translation is more successful than others in mapping the compactness of the Hebrew into English, but the decision to engage in syntactic transliteration in cases in which the effect is far from identical to that which obtains in Hebrew is a weakness of his translation technique. Finally, Alter’s practice of concordant translation occasionally results in the coinage of unnecessarily obscure and unnatural expressions. The translation technique I adopt shares a number of affinities with that of Alter, but owes more to that of David Curzon.
Psalm 35:1-16, at least as I scan it, contains 22 lines, in accordance with the length rule that seems to be operative in ancient Hebrew poetry generally. 35:17-28 consists of 18 lines, giving a cumulative total of 40 lines. 40 line poems in ancient Hebrew are fairly easy to come by.
15 11 יְקוּמוּן עֵדֵי חָמָס אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדַעְתִּי יִשְׁאָלוּנִי
16 12 יְשַׁלְּמוּנִי רָעָה תַּחַת טוֹבָה שְׁכוֹל לְנַפְשִׁי
17 13 וַאֲנִי בַּחֲלוֹתָם לְבוּשִׁי שָׂק
18 עִנֵּיתִי בַצּוֹם נַפְשִׁי וּתְפִלָּתִי עַל־חֵיקִי תָשׁוּב
19 14 כְּרֵעַ־כְּאָח לִי הִתְהַלָּכְתִּי כַּאֲבֶל־אֵם קֹדֵר שַׁחוֹתִי
20 15 וּבְצַלְעִי שָׂמְחוּ וְנֶאֱסָפוּ נֶאֶסְפוּ עָלַי
21 נֵכִים וְלֹא יָדַעְתִּי קָרְעוּ וְלֹא־דָמּוּ
22 16 בְּחַנְפֵי לַעֲגֵי מָעוֹג חָרֹק עָלַי שִׁנֵּימוֹ
15 11 Malicious witnesses arise, of things I know not they question me;
16 12 they repay me evil for good, bereaving me to the quick.
17 13 I, when they were sick, my attire was sackcloth.
18 I afflicted myself with fasting, but my prayer will return to my breast!
19 14 I behaved as for a friend or brother, as if mourning a mother, face down in black despair:
20 15 but when I stumbled, they gleefully gathered, they gathered beside me;
21 Idiots I know not gaped without ceasing.
22 16 With derisive mocking chatter they ground their teeth at me.
KJV [scansion not original]
11 False witnesses did rise up; They laid to my charge things I knew not.
12 They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth:
I humbled my soul with fasting; And my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother:
I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together;
Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not;
They did tear me, and ceased not:
16 With hypocritical mockers in feasts, They gnashed upon me with their teeth.
Robert Alter
11 Outrageous witnesses rose,
of things I knew not they asked me.
12 They paid me back evil for good -
bereavement for my very self.
13 And I, when they were ill, my garment was sackcloth,
I afflicted myself with fasting.
May my own prayer come back to my bosom.
14 As for a friend, for a brother,
I went about as though mourning a mother,
in gloom I was bent.
15 Yet when I limped, they rejoiced, and they gathered,
they gathered against me,
like strangers, and I did not know.
Their mouths gaped and they were not still.
16 With contemptuous mocking chatter
They gnashed their teeth against me.
Comment
Psalm 35:11-12 contains yiqtols which are, aside from isolated instances in archaic poetry, modal in aspect and/or present-future in temporal situation in ancient Hebrew. There is a contrast in the psalm between a situation of distress, narrated as something which is ongoing, with past and present aspects, and a past in which the supplicant was a faithful friend to those who now distress him. KJV and Alter obscure the contrast by translating the yiqtols with past tense verbs: “did rise, laid, rewarded,” and “rose, laid, paid back,” respectively.
עדי חמס is an interesting idiom. KJV has ‘false witnesses;’ Alter ‘outrageous witnesses.’ KJV is inexact; Alter is, at least to my ears, pseudo-etymological. The idiom is found in the Torah and correctly translated there by ‘malicious witness’ in NJPSV, NRSV, NASB, and NIV (Exod 23:1; Deut 19:16). ‘Malicious witnesses’ is found in NRSV, REB, NAB, NLT, and NASB Ps 35:11.
KJV ‘to the spoiling of my soul’ gives the false impression that the supplicant’s psychological integrity is at issue. Alter’s ‘bereavement for my very self’ seeks to correct this, but the wording is obscure. My translation is not particularly literal but captures, I think, the point of the idiom.
In 35:14, Alter has “As for a friend, for a brother, // I went about as though mourning a mother, // in gloom I was bent,” a tripartite division, which goes against the masoretic accents. Alter's construal is not impossible, but the traditional construal poses less problems.
In 35:15, KJV has ‘they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together,’ and Alter has ‘they rejoiced, and they gathered.’ These translations overlook the fact that Hebrew, which is poor in adverbs, often conjoins one verb with another to form an idiom most naturally expressed in English by means of an adverbial or similar expression. So here, as countless translation teams understood (NJPSV, NRSV, REB, NAB, NJB, NIV, NLT). ‘They rejoiced, and they gathered’ gives the wrong impression, as if they first rejoiced, and then gathered.
נכים is difficult. Literally, perhaps, it means something like “lame-o,” a colloquialism that may not be familiar to everyone. In virtually all languages, it’s possible to use words like ‘dumb,’ ‘retard,’ ‘crazy,’ and ‘sick’ in a disparaging, but non-literal sense. Alter says that MT ‘lame people’ makes no sense, and he therefore emends to כנכרים ‘like strangers,’ with the Syriac. I would retain MT and interpret it as a term of disparagement. KJV seems to have done likewise.
KJV ‘and I knew it not’ at least makes sense. Alter’s ‘and I did not know’ is obscure to the point of incomprehensibility. With most exegetes and translations, I understand the phrase to function adjectivally relative to נכים.
קרעו ולא־דמו is difficult. A case could be made for all three translations.
The first part of 35:16 is obscure. KJV seems unlikely. Alter’s translation and mine are based on a proposal made by Radaq.
Herein ends this series on Ps 35 in which I compare the versions of King James and Alter, and I seek to offer an alternative.
Psalm 35 Series
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