The Meaning of תּוֹרָה in Ps 119

Introduction

A major organizing principle of Psalm 119 is the frequent repetition of eight "Torah words." A number of scholars have noticed the preeminence of the word תּוֹרָה among the rest, due to its privileged position in the very first verse and having the highest number of appearances throughout the psalm (25; the others range from 19 to 23). This understanding also maintains a semantic distinction between the eight words, which all uniquely contribute to the message of the psalm, despite untenable claims of synonymity by some scholars. If תּוֹרָה provides such a central theme to Psalm 119, we must carefully determine its intended denotation, which seems to differ among translations, judging by their English rendering:

• Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! (ESV)
• Happy are those whose way is blameless, who follow the teaching of the LORD (NJPS)

Of course, the definition of a lexeme involves both a real-world conceptual denotation and the nominal sense, that is, what can be expressed by other words either in the source language or a foreign language. Furthermore, the lexeme itself serves as the tip of the iceberg of a much richer encyclopedic understanding of the lexeme's concept. Since it is impossible to determine precisely what conceptualization different translators brought to the word law or instruction, in the discussion below, we supply the encyclopedic data from the Hebrew Bible of what the denotation plausibly involved (or should involve) for the meaning of law and instruction, both of which fall within the semantic range of the dictionary definition of תּוֹרָה.

Let us now consider the merits of translating תּוֹרָה as either law or instruction with their respective denotations.

Argument Maps

Torah is the Mosaic Law

Translating תּוֹרָה as law most naturally activates the frame of the Mosaic covenant, so the denotatum in each instance would be the Mosaic law, possibly the Pentateuch as a whole or perhaps restricted to Deuteronomy.

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[Law]: "Torah" primarily refers to the Mosaic "law" in Psalm 119.#dispreferred
 + <Ancient versions>: The ancient versions all consistently render the word "Torah" as their equivalent for "law".#dispreferred
  + [Ancient versions]: νόμος; ܢܡܘܣܐ; lex; אורייה.#dispreferred
 + <Other "Torah Psalms">: "Torah" refers to the Deuteronomistic law in Pss 1 and 19.#dispreferred
  + <The king's meditation>: Ps 1 describes the blessing of the king's meditation on the law (cf. Deut 17: 18-20), while Ps 19 is explicitly Davidic.#dispreferred
   <_ <Date of Ps 119>: Ps 119 is almost certainly post-exilic (Hurvitz 1972, 130-152 :M:; Freedman 1999, 90-91 :M:) – without a reigning Davidic king but with a larger written corpus of Scripture – and may very well have been the last psalm to be added to the final form of the Psalter, which already existed as a written collection (Hossfeld 2019, 1 :A:).
 + <Canonical Placement in Book 5>: Ps 119 is placed between the Egyptian Hallel collection (≈ Exodus) and the Psalms of Ascent (≈ entry into the promised land), so historically represents Sinai (Zenger 1998, 101 :A:).#dispreferred
 + <Torah's written nature>: The references to Torah in Ps 119 are most likely written (v. 18; cf. the use of שִׂיחָה ("meditation") throughout the psalm, particularly referring to תּוֹרָה in v. 97; Whybray 1997, 35 :A:), possessed (v. 29), and publicly known (v. 85).#dispreferred
  <_ <Torah's spoken nature>: One reference to Torah in Ps 119 is unambiguously spoken (v. 72), so cannot be limited to a written document, but more naturally includes also YHWH's spoken actions.
  <_ <The written content>: In v. 85, the term תוֹרָתֶֽךָ cannot refer to the Deuteronomistic law because the word שִׁיח֑וֹת, "pits" is not mentioned until an identical phrase is used in Jer 18:22.
   + [Ps 119:85; Jer 18:22]: Compare Ps 119:85: כָּֽרוּ־לִ֣י זֵדִ֣ים שִׁיח֑וֹת אֲ֝שֶׁ֗ר לֹ֣א כְתוֹרָתֶֽךָ; and Jer 18:22: כִּֽי־כָר֤וּ שִׁיחָה לְלָכְדֵ֔נִי.
 + <Parallel terms>: The collection of the eight "Torah words" in the psalm are typical of legal and royal contexts.#dispreferred
  + [Parallel terms]: See, for example חֹ֥ק וּמִשְׁפָּ֖ט in Josh 24:24; חֻקֹּתָ֤יו מִצְוֺתָיו֙ וּמִשְׁפָּטָ֣יו וְעֵדְוֺתָ֔יו in 1 Kgs 2:3; and כְּחֻקֹּתָם֙ וּכְמִשְׁפָּטָ֔ם וְכַתּוֹרָ֣ה וְכַמִּצְוָ֗ה in 2 Kgs 17:34.#dispreferred
 <_ <Post-exilic references to Torah>: Ps 119 is almost certainly post-exilic (Hurvitz 1972, 130-152 :M:; Freedman 1999, 90-91 :M:), at which time mention of the "Torah of Moses" is generally referred to explicitly as "written in the book" and/or "by the hand of Moses" (e.g., Neh 8:14; 2 Chr 25:4, 34:14, 36:26).
  <_ <Nehemiah 9:3>: Nehemiah 9:3 is an exception to this tendency.#dispreferred
   + [Nehemiah 9:3]: וַֽיִּקְרְא֗וּ בְּסֵ֨פֶר תּוֹרַ֧ת יְהוָ֛ה אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֖ם רְבִעִ֣ית הַיּ֑וֹם ("And they read in the book of the תּוֹרַת of YHWH their God for a quarter of the day").#dispreferred
  <_ <Post-exilic parallel terms>: The collection of the eight "Torah words" in the psalm are typical of legal and royal contexts and the term תּוֹרַת יְהוָה is explicitly found among other legal terms in the post-exilic text of Ezra 9:7.#dispreferred
   +[Post-exilic parallel terms]: עֶזְרָא֙ הֵכִ֣ין לְבָב֔וֹ לִדְר֛וֹשׁ אֶת־תּוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָ֖ה וְלַעֲשֹׂ֑ת וּלְלַמֵּ֥ד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל חֹ֥ק וּמִשְׁפָּֽט (Ezra 9:7).#dispreferred
 - <Poetic function of Psalm 119>: One major poetic function of the psalm, caused by its length and repetition of the "Torah words", is its mimetic nature of the content of delighting in Torah merging with the act of delighting in Torah, such that the psalm itself comes to belong to the conception of Torah (Burt 2018, 688-89 :A:).
 - <Lack of mention of "covenant">: Somewhat surprisingly, Ps 119 never uses the term בְּרִית, which would naturally lead one to think of Sinai (Reynolds 2010, 130 :M:).
  + <v. 126>: v. 126 employs the verb פרר with תּוֹרָה, where בְּרִית is more naturally expected.
   + [v. 126]: הֵ֝פֵ֗רוּ תּוֹרָתֶֽךָ.
   + [פרר with covenant]: See, for example, Gen 17:14; Lev 26:15; 26:44; Deut 31:16, 20, Judg 2:1; 1 Kgs 15:19; Isa 24:5; 33:8; Jer 11:10; 14:21; 31:32; 33:20, 21; Ezek 16:59; 17:15, 16, 18; 44:7; Zech 11:10; 2 Chr 16:3.
  

Torah is God's instruction in general (preferred)

Translating תּוֹרָה as teaching is broad enough to encompass all of YHWH's communicative acts from creation to the time of the psalm's composition.

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[Instruction]: "Torah" refers to "instruction" in general in Psalm 119 (Freedman 1999, 90-91 :M:; TDOT, García-López & Fabry 2006, 631 :D:; Zenger 2011, 259-260 :C:; Procházková 2021, 36 :M:).
 + <Verbs of the same root>: Both instances of the verbal root ירה in Ps 119 (vv. 33 and 102) are unambiguously "teach." Even translations, both modern and ancient, which render תּוֹרָה as "law" throughout the psalm translate the verbal forms in vv. 33 and 102 as "teach". In other contexts where the nominal and verbal form occur together elsewhere the sense is also "teach."
  <_ <Exceptions>: Both the LXX and Jerome's Iuxta Hebraeos differ from "teach".#dispreferred
   + [Exceptions]: The LXX uses νομοθετέω "legislate" on both occasions, while Jerome has ostendere and inluminare (≈ reveal, show).#dispreferred
    <_ <LXX>: The LXX is wooden at best, nonsensical at worst.
     + [NETS]: v. 33: "Make the way of your statutes, O Lord, my law"; v. 102: "you legislated for me."
  + [Similar contexts]: See, for example, Isa 2:3: וְיֹרֵ֙נוּ֙ מִדְּרָכָ֔יו וְנֵלְכָ֖ה בְּאֹרְחֹתָ֑יו כִּ֤י מִצִּיּוֹן֙ תֵּצֵ֣א תוֹרָ֔ה וּדְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה מִירוּשָׁלִָֽם (ESV: that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem). 
 + <Torah's spoken nature in creation>: One reference to Torah in Ps 119 is unambiguously spoken (v. 72), so cannot be limited to a written document, but more naturally includes also YHWH's spoken actions, offering an allusion to the contextual domain of creation, the seven days of which plus the eighth for enjoying the creation already serves an iconic analogy to the eight repeated words throughout the psalm (Freedman 1999, 78 :M:).
  <_ <Other allusions>:The eight "Torah words" also have an iconic analogy to the establishment of both temples and the beginning of the levitical service (Lev 9:1; 1 Kgs 8:66; Neh 8:1-8; Zenger 2011, 257-258 :C:), which are all explicitly found within the contextual frame of the Mosaic covenant.#dispreferred
 + <Torah's spoken nature in the prophets>: One reference to Torah in Ps 119 is unambiguously spoken (v. 72), so cannot be limited to a written document, but more naturally includes also YHWH's spoken actions. The term "Torah" is found in parallel with דְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה in Isa 1:10; 2:3, the latter being a particularly important parallel verse for understanding Ps 119 (see, especially v. 46).
 + <First use of Torah>: The first use of the word "Torah" in the Bible appears long before establishment of the Deuteronomistic law, referring to the life of Abraham, whose intertextual presence is apparent from the very first verse of the psalm (Ḥakham 1979, 378).
  + [First use of Torah]: Gen 26:5: עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָהָ֖ם בְּקֹלִ֑י וַיִּשְׁמֹר֙ מִשְׁמַרְתִּ֔י מִצְוֺתַ֖י חֻקּוֹתַ֥י וְתוֹרֹתָֽי (ESV: because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws”).
  + [Abrahamic theme]: Compare הִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ לְפָנַ֖י וֶהְיֵ֥ה תָמִֽים in Gen 17:1 and אַשְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַֽ֝הֹלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָֽה in Ps 119:1.
 + <Intertextuality>: Psalm 119 alludes to and interacts with countless other passages from the Hebrew Bible (Deissler 1955 :M:; TDOT, García-López & Fabry 2006, 631 :D:), which indicates a concern larger than the Deuteronomistic law.
  + [Intertextuality]: See, for example, Isa 53:6 (119:176); Jer 37:15-18 (119:23, 161); Ezek 34:4, 6 (119:10, 176).
 - <Mosaic intertextuality>: Psalm 119 also alludes to references to sojourning nature of God's people in the land (vv. 19, 54), for which see Lev. 25.23, YHWH as the psalmist's portion (v. 57) and his testimonies as the psalmist's inheritance (v. 11), for which see Deut 10:9; 12:12: 14:27; 14:29; 18:1), and the Aaronic blessing in Num 6:25 found in vv. 130, 132, 135.#dispreferred
  - <Intertextuality>: Psalm 119 alludes to and interacts with countless other passages from the Hebrew Bible (Deissler 1955 :M:; TDOT, García-López & Fabry 2006, 631 :D:), which indicates a concern larger than the Deuteronomistic law.
   + [Intertextuality]: See, for example, Isa 53:6 (119:176); Jer 37:15-18 (119:23, 161); Ezek 34:4, 6 (119:10, 176).

Conclusion {B}

Despite the ancient translations' consistent use of law and the possible activation of regal and legal contextual frames by the collection of all eight Torah words in Psalm 119, the post-exilic dating of Psalm 119 is quite decisive in determining the denotation of תּוֹרָה in the psalm. The intertextual references to other portions of the Hebrew Bible – particularly Abraham and Jeremiah in relation to תּוֹרָה – are too numerous for the denotatum of תּוֹרָה to be limited to the Deuteronomistic law, or even the Pentateuch more broadly. This is supported by the verbal uses of the same root, ירה, in vv. 33 and 102 – both unambiguously intended as "teach." Nevertheless, the expansive view of instruction does not exclude the Deuteronomistic law. Indeed, a number of intertextual connections in the psalm are drawn from the Pentateuch.

In conclusion, the general term instruction is a much more appropriate translation for תּוֹרָה in Ps 119 than the more context-specific law. Despite the claim that "Those who speak of 'law' point out that this term does not refer here to the laws of Moses or the Pentateuch in the strict sense, but to 'all divine revelation as the guide to life' (TDOT, vol. 15, 628), it does not seem at all intuitive that this would apply to an encyclopedic approach to the conceptualization of law in the Hebrew Bible. The psalmist is meditating on and delighting in – and invites others to meditate on and delight in – all of YHWH's acts of communicative instruction from the law, prophets and wisdom writings.

Research

Translations

We offer translations of Psalm 119:1 as an example.

Ancient

• Μακάριοι οἱ ἄμωμοι ἐν ὁδῷ οἱ πορευόμενοι ἐν νόμῳ κυρίου.
  • "Happy are the blameless in way, who walk in the Lord's law."

• Beati inmaculati in via qui ambulant in lege Domini.
  • "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord."

• Peshitta: ܛܘܒܝܗܘܢ ܠܐܝܠܝܢ ܕܕܠܐ ܡܘܡ ܐܢܘܢ ܒܐܘܪܚܐ܂ ܘܡܗܠܟܝܢ ܒܢܡܘܣܗ ܕܡܪܝܐ.
  • "Blessed are those who are without blemish in the way and who walk in the law of the Lord."

• Targum: טוביהון דשלימי אורחא דמהלכין באוריתא דייי.
  • "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord"

Modern

Law

• Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! (ESV; cf. CEV, GNT, KJV, NABRE, NASB, NET, NIV, NJB, NRSV, REB, REV, RVR)
• Heureux ceux dont la conduite est intègre, ceux qui marchent suivant la loi de l’Eternel! (SG21; cf. TOB)
• Glücklich sind, die im Weg untadelig sind, die im Gesetz des HERRN wandeln (ELB; cf. Luther 2017)
• Bienaventurados los íntegros de camino, los que andan según la ley del SEÑOR. (RVA)

Instruction

• Happy are those whose way is blameless, who follow the teaching of the LORD (NJPS; cf. CEB, CSB, NLT)
• Selig, deren Weg ohne Tadel ist, die gehen nach der Weisung des HERRN (EÜ; cf. ZÜR)
• Felices los que se conducen sin tacha y siguen la enseñanza del Señor (DHH)

Secondary Literature

Bolinger, Dwight. 1977. Meaning and Form. London: Longman.

Burt, Sean. 2018. ""Your Torah Is My Delight": Repetition and the Poetics of Immanence in Psalm 119." JBL 137, no. 3: 685-700.

Clark, David J. 2007. "Translating Psalm 119: Some Practical Suggestions." The Bible Translator 58, no. 4: 185-189.

Deissler, Alfons. 1955. Psalm 119 (118) und seine Theologie. Munich: Karl Zink Verlag.

Freedman, David N. 1999. Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

Geeraerts, Dirk. 2010. Theories of Lexical Semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ḥakham, Amos. 1979. ספר תהלים: ספרים ג–ה (in Hebrew; The Book of Psalms: Books 3-5). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Hossfeld, Frank-Lothar. 2019. "The Connections of the Torah-Psalm 119 to the Fifth Psalter of David (Ps 138-145)." Verbum et Ecclesia 40, no. 1: 1-6.

Hurvitz, Avi. 1972. בין לשון ללשון: לתולדות לשון המקרא בימי בית שני (in Hebrew; The Transition Period in Biblical Hebrew: A Study in Post-Exilic Hebrew and its Implications for the Dating of Psalms). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute.

Mel'čuk, Igor & Milićević, Jasmina. 2020. An Advanced Introduction to Semantics: A Meaning-Text Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reynolds, Kent. 2010. Torah as Teacher: The Exemplary Torah Student in Psalm 119. Leiden: Brill.

Riemer, Nick. 2010. Introducing Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Whybray, Roger. N. 1997. "Psalm 119: Profile of a Psalmist." Pages 31-43 in Wisdom, You are my Sister: Studies in Honor of Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association. Edited by Michael L. Barré.

Zenger, Erich. 1998. "The Composition and Theology of the Fifth Book of Psalms, Psalms 107-145." JSOT 80: 77-102.

Zenger, Erich. 2011. A Commentary on Psalms 101-150. Linda M. Maloney (trans.). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

References

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