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Repeated words +

Discussion

*דֶּרֶךְ – “Pathway” (דֶּרֶךְ) in v. 1 re … *דֶּרֶךְ – “Pathway” (דֶּרֶךְ) in v. 1 refers to the characteristic lifestyle of people, in this case, that of God-hating sinners. So also in v.6, it seems to refer to the life of each group, the righteous’ and wicked’s lives being described as a path/road/journey metaphorically (see v. 1). In this verse, the “way of the wicked” may refer to their course of life (Ps. 146:9; Pr. 4:19; Jer. 12:1), their sinful behavior (Pr. 12:26; Pr. 15:9)—or both, with the latter means implying the former inevitable result.*רְשָׁעִים – Who are the ‘wicked’ as opposed to the Law-loving ‘righteous’? They are not merely bad and immoral people, but actively enemies of the Law and God’s people. The wicked were not only the unbelieving people of neighboring pagan nations opposed to Israel and persecuting it, but also Israelites not living lives aligned to the Law and persecuting those who are, the righteous ones. In the psalms, רְשָׁעִים describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Pss. 10:2, 10:4, 10:11), who hate God’s principles and commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps. 50:16-20), and cheat or deceive others (Ps. 37:21). Rendering it as mere ‘bad people’ will be weak.*צַדִּיקִים – The righteous are more than mere good people, they are Torah-loving people, they are people in line with God’s will, they are the true people of the Covenant. Translating the word with ‘good people’ will be inadequate. Maybe a term like faithful ones, or aligned ones, or even straight ones, will work better. But the chosen word needs to be considered in the light of other Hebrew Biblical terms like the upright ones, the blameless ones, and so on.*תּוֹרָה – The word תּוֹרָה can refer either to instruction in general or specifically to God’s instruction as contained within the first five books. The choice to render this key concept is important because it will appear many more times. It has been translated "law (ESV, NRSV, NASB, NIV, NLT, TEV, NET (commands)), "teaching" (NJPS, CEV). In English, the translation “commands” is too limiting (and legalistic!) a rendering for תּוֹרָה; in this context, “instructions” is closer to the original meaning, and even “God’s word” would also be broadly appropriate. Yet it may also refer specifically to the Pentateuch.:"Often the Hebrew word ''torah'' is identified with ''the'' Law – the primary identifying document of Israelite (and later Jewish) faith. The Torah in this sense refers to the first five books of our Old Testament–Genesis through Deuteronomy–which as a unified collection came to a final form as authoritative Scripture only in the exilic period (ca. 450-400 B.C.). While this is an appropriate understanding of ''torah'' in many contexts, the word often has a much more general sense of 'guidelines, instruction.' This sense is by far the more common use in wisdom contexts, and since our psalm clearly moves in the wisdom environment, many have suggested it is the more general meaning that is appropriate here."'"`UNIQ--ref-000008B2-QINU`"':"It may be possible to affirm both levels of meaning. As James L. Mays has shown us, Psalm 1 is the first of several Torah psalms strategically placed within the book of Psalms (1; 19; 119). These psalms exhort the hearers/readers to pay close attention to God's commandments and to be faithful in their response to them. At the same time, however, the wisdom understanding of ''torah'' prevents easy limitation to the first five books of ''the'' Torah. Biblical wisdom literature had already begun to identify ''torah'' (the life-giving commandments of Yahweh) with the life-giving insights given by Yahweh through the wisdom tradition. Thus, most likely ''torah'' here implies the traditional commandments of God in ''the'' Torah–commandments Israel is expected to obey–as well as the life-giving guidance God gives elsewhere in Scripture."'"`UNIQ--ref-000008B3-QINU`"':"Our comprehension of this verse and of the whole psalm now depends on the interpretation of the term תורה (Torah)... תורה is 'instruction' in the sense of the 'merciful revelation of the will of God (Von Rad). In Psalm 1 this merciful revelation of the will of God is presupposed as something fixed and written. For an understanding of this view of תורה we must in the first place adduce the late Deuteronomic, or Deuteronomistic, conception. The תורה is the complete, written revelation of the will of God, which may be read in public (Deut. 31:9-11) or in private (Josh. 1:7)... The תורה in this sense is the authoritatively valid 'Sacred Scripture.' The scope of sacred Scripture in Ps. 1:2 cannot be determined. Is the reference to Deuteronomy, to the Pentateuch, or even to the (partly) completed canon? This question is related to the uncertainty of the dating of Psalm 1. Indeed, in its nature as a preamble to the Psalter, the concept תורה in any case–and even primarily–includes the scriptural scroll of the Psalms."'"`UNIQ--ref-000008B4-QINU`"':"Torah was in the pre-exilic period not so much 'law' in our sense as 'teaching, instruction.'"'"`UNIQ--ref-000008B5-QINU`"':"Given these wisdom connections, it seems natural to understand תורה in Psalm 1:2 as 'instruction.' This sense seems to be confirmed by the antithesis of תורה, which is 'the advice (עצת) of the wicked' (v.1), not their legal commands." However, "it seems that at the time of writing of Ezra and Chronicles the תורת יהוה, given through Moses, was identical to the תורת משׁה, given by the Lord, and that both refer to the Five Books of Moses (cf. 2 Chron. 34:14; Ezra 7:6). So the תורת יהוה in Psalm 1 naturally refers to the Five Books of Moses." "When we combine the sense of תורה as 'instruction' with תורת יהוה as the Five Books of Moses, we conclude that the book of Psalms invites believers to meditate on the Five Books of Moses as a source of instruction for experiencing the joys/blessings (v.1) and prosperity/success (v.3) held out in Psalm 1."'"`UNIQ--ref-000008B6-QINU`"'*מוֹשָׁב – Here the Hebrew term מוֹשָׁב, although often translated “seat” (cf. NEB, NIV), appears to refer to an entire assembly of evildoers. The word also carries the sense of “assembly” in Ps. 107:32, where it stands in synonymous parallelism with קָהָל (“assembly”).*יָשָב – To “sit in the assembly” of לֵצִים means to completely identify with them in their proud, sinful plans, discourse, and behavior. יָשַׁב here may mean more than just ‘sit,’ though it is having physically sat in the company of scoffers (to hear their evil speech) that is the problem; it may indicate something more long-term like ‘dwelt’ in parallel with the other two verbs (הלך and עמד).{|style="border-spacing: 10px;"|-| 1a || |-| 1b || <big>'''רשׁעים'''</big>|-| 1c || || <big>דרך</big> || חטאים|-| 1d|-| 2c || || || || תורה || <big>'''יהוה'''</big>|-| 2d || || || || תורה || |-| 3a|-| 3b |-| 3c |-| 3d |-| 4a || <big>'''רשׁעים'''</big>|-| 4b|- | 5a || <big>'''רשׁעים'''</big>|-| 5b || || || חטאים || || || צדיקים|-| 6a || || <big>דרך</big> || || || <big>'''יהוה'''</big> || צדיקים|-| 6b || <big>'''רשׁעים'''</big> || <big>דרך</big> |}| <big>'''יהוה'''</big> || צדיקים |- | 6b || <big>'''רשׁעים'''</big> || <big>דרך</big> |}

Feature Index

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Tableless

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Psalm 1/Lexical Semantics +

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