Praise יה!
1 I acknowledge יהוה with a whole heart in the council and assembly of the
true;
2magnificent are יהוה’s accomplishments, retraced by all who cherish them;
3 glory, majesty describe his work, his beneficence stands forever.
4 Renown he won by his wonders, generous and merciful is יהוה;
5 spoil he gave to those who fear him, he
remembers his covenant
in perpetuity;
6 the power
of his deeds he evidenced to his people by granting them the estate of nations.
7 The actions of his hands are sure and just, trusted are all his dispositions,
8 established for all time in perpetuity, accomplished in surety and truth.
9 Redemption he sent his people, ordained his covenant in perpetuity;
holy,
awesome, his name.
10 The beginning of
wisdom: fear of יהוה; keen sense belongs to
all who act on them;
his praise stands forever.
Praise יה!
The colors signal lexical,
clause constituent, and information structure chains. For example, green marks
the objects of praise in the psalm; grey, attributes of the objects of praise; magenta, the performers of praise and the qualities they should possess: the beginning of wisdom: fear of the Lord, and keen sense.
John, this looks awesome. But it looks even better when done to the Hebrew text. I use a similar method in teaching Biblical Hebrew. In addition I indicate the major teamim and vavs in blazing color. I then break up the verse accordingly into semantic units. A little like the "Handbook on the Hebrew Text" series but more colorful.
Posted by: mokumalef | June 01, 2010 at 08:26 AM
Hi Mokumalef,
In fact, I marked the text up in Hebrew first of all, but had trouble getting it to formulate properly as a post. I will provide it in PDF form soon.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 01, 2010 at 08:43 AM
It's comforting to know that someone else has problems formatting Hebrew text.
Posted by: Carl Kinbar | June 01, 2010 at 08:52 AM
I don't have much trouble formatting pure Hebrew text, but I always have trouble mixing Hebrew and English on the same line.
I have a Hebrew-English diglot template worked up, but it is bicolumnar whereas I need something more complex in this instance. The bicolumnar format itself is a pain to work with, which makes me leery of trying to go the whole nine yards.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 01, 2010 at 09:22 AM
"I always have trouble mixing Hebrew and English on the same line."
Right. I use DavkaWriter, which works most of the time. Still, there are problems.
Posted by: Carl Kinbar | June 01, 2010 at 11:55 AM
Truly amazing, John. However: "keen sense belongs to all who act on them." What is the antecedent of "them?" Is it "his dispositions?" It took me a moment to find it, since the antecedent is so far back.
Posted by: Gary Simmons | June 01, 2010 at 03:24 PM
Ah -- I see you addressed this in the next post. Honestly, it seems strange to find "X=Y" and then a plural antecedent referring to "X+Y." It doesn't seem logical to me that it's referring to fear of Adonai and wisdom, although the 112 reference makes sense (logically, despite the grammatical disagreement in number).
Posted by: Gary Simmons | June 01, 2010 at 03:29 PM
I agree, Gary. It's a crux. "Dispositions" seems a bit far away. It is also strange, as you say, to find "X=Y" and then a plural antecedent referring to "X+Y." I can't think of any other examples.
Maybe the author simply had a brain burp, with something like "his commandments" to be understood as the unstated referent.
Can the truth be spoken in and through brain burps? I don't see (BURP) why not.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 01, 2010 at 05:37 PM
I love this. I have a question, though. I like that you opted to not translate the Tetragrammaton, however when you speak the psalm aloud, what do you say? Lord? Adonai? Something else?
Thanks.
EG
Posted by: Everett | June 07, 2010 at 11:42 AM
Hi Everett,
I prefer Ha-Shem, but that's just me.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 09, 2010 at 09:01 AM
I prefer HaShem too. When learnign cantillation from an Orthodox cantor he insisted that I say HaShem and not Adonay, as HaShem was "less holy." I prefer it because at least the number of syllables are the same as יהוה.
Posted by: Phil | June 18, 2010 at 03:50 AM