Shiur #14:Psalm 127 ֠The Difference Between "In Vain" (Shav) and "Tranquility" (Shena) (Part V)
SEFER
TEHILLIM
Shiur #14: Psalm 127 The Difference Between "In
Vain" (Shav) and "Tranquility" (Shena) (Part
V)
By Rav Elchanan
Samet
(1) A Song
of Degrees, for Shlomo:
1
Unless God builds the house,
Its builders toil in vain.
2
Unless God watches over the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
3
(2) It is
vain for you to awaken early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of toil
For to His beloved He gives tranquility
(shena).
4
(3) Behold,
children are the heritage of God,
And fruit of the womb reward.
5
(4) Like
arrows in the hand of a mighty one,
So are the children of ones youth.
6
(5) Happy
is the man
Who has filled his quiver with them;
7
They shall not be put to shame,
When they speak with their enemies at the gate.
V. Emerton's Article:
"The Meaning of Shena in Psalm 127"
A new interpretation of the words, "For to His beloved He gives
tranquility (shena)," was suggested by the
In the first part of his article, Emerton surveys the various
explanations that had already been proposed for the word "shena."
Regarding the suggestion that shena with an alef be understood as
shena with a heh (the substitution of the alef for the
heh under the influence of the Aramaic) - i.e., in the sense of "sleep" -
Emerton raises objections similar to those that we ourselves raised in the
previous section.[2]
He then cites some of the other interpretations that have been proposed by
biblical scholars, who understood the word shena in other ways, and not
as "sleep," but argues that these interpretations lack all
basis.
Later in his article, Emerton surveys the views of several scholars who
for a long time have argued for the existence of a root in Hebrew,
shin-nun-alef, which means "to reach elevated status, or "to enjoy
elevated status," or "to rise, shine"[3]
(there is, of course, a connection between elevation and sunshine/sunrise). A
similar root is found in Syriac and in Arabic, and perhaps also in other Semitic
languages (Amharic and Ugaritic).
The Syriac root
Over the course of the twentieth century more and more scholars
recognized that this root is found in Scripture and in ancient Hebrew
literature. The meaning of several biblical verses containing a similar root has
long been unclear. Various scholars have suggested that these verses be
understood on the basis of this explanation of the root shin-nun-alef,
and some of these suggestions shed a whole new light on the verses in question.
I wish to present here several examples brought by different scholars,
and I will try to add further foundation to these interpretations. Some of these
interpretations were fully accepted by Emerton, while others he rejected owing
to the uncertainty, even though to us they appear to be persuasive examples. Let
us begin by presenting examples that appear as part of a parallel structure, in
which the root in question parallels another root that means
"light."
Mishlei
5:8-10:
8 |
Remove your way
far from her (= another woman) |
and do not come
near the door of her house. |
9 |
Lest you give
your splendor (hodkha) to others, |
and your
years (u-shenotekha) to the cruel
one. |
10 |
Lest strangers
be filled with your strength; |
and your labors
go to the house of a
stranger. |
The commentators understood the word "shenotekha" as "ha-shanim
shelkha" "your years." According to this understanding, however, there is
no clear correspondence between the words "hodkha" and
"shenotekha." According to the newly proposed interpretation,[4]
however, the noun "shenotekha" stems from the verb "shana" and it
means "your light," or something similar, and the correspondence to the word
"hodkha," "your splendor," is clear. The verse as a whole means that the
sinner's "glory" will be given into the hands of the cruel husband of the other
woman.[5]
Kohelet
8:1:
A man's
wisdom |
Makes his face
to shine (ta'ir), |
and boldness
|
brightens
(yeshune) his face. |
Here, too, as in our psalm, we find the root "shana" with an
alef at the end.
The commentators grappled with this verse and proposed various different
interpretations. Structurally, "yeshune" parallels "ta'ir, and
this fits in well with the meaning of the word "shana" in Arabic, "to
rise, to shine." According to this, the parallelism in the verse is synonymous,
incomplete and chiastic in the concluding portions of each hemistich:
A man's face
makes shine his face,
and [a man's]
boldness
his face brightens.[6]
The scholar who contributed most to this discussion and brought many
examples of the use of the root shin-nun-alef in Scripture (and also in
Ben Sira and in the Talmud) was D. Winston Thomas. Thomas returned to this issue
in several articles that he authored between the thirties and the sixties of the
twentieth century. I wish to present one of his examples:
Mishlei
14:17:
He that is soon
angry acts foolishly: |
and a man of
wicked devices
yisane. |
In general the commentators saw this verse as an example of synonymous
parallelism[7]
and they understood the word yisane in accordance with its traditional
vocalization in the sense of "hate."
The context of the verse, however, suggests contrasting parallelism.[8]
According to this, "ish mezimot" refers to a person who plans out his
actions in advance, and stands in positive contrast to one who is "ketzar
apayim," "short-faced", i.e., impetuous.[9]
Accordingly, "yesune/yeshune" should be understood in the sense of "will
be respected, will achieve elevated standing."[10]
Other instances of the root shin-nun-alef include the
following:
II Melakhim
25:29:
And he
[Evil-Merodakh] shina his [Yehoyakhin's] prison garments
While generally understood in the sense of "change," the word
"shina" might mean that Evil-Merodakh "raised the status" of
Yehoyakhin's prison garments, in a way that would honor their wearer.[11]
Daniel
7:23:
The fourth beast
shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which tishne from all
kingdoms
Though generally understood as saying that the fourth kingdom shall be
different from all kingdoms, G.R. Driver proposes that the verse be translated
as follows: "
shall be a fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be more
elevated than all the kingdoms."[12]
After citing the earlier scholars and considering each of their examples,
Emerton suggests that the clause in question in our psalm be understood in
similar fashion: "For He gives His beloved honor, elevated standing."[13]
What are the ramifications of Emerton's explanation for understanding the
verse under discussion, and for integrating it into the psalm as a
whole?
First of all, we must
define the "shena" the realm in which the honor that God gives His
beloved finds expression. In the context of our psalm, this should be understood
as the success bestowed upon the efforts of God's beloved, in that he enjoys the
fruits of his actions.
This indeed is the
context of in our psalm: Will the efforts of a person toiling to achieve an
essential objective meet with success? The first part of the psalm proclaims
that without God's favor and participation, man's efforts are doomed to failure.
Since this assertion
is made in a reproachful tone, it stands to reason that it should be understood
as referring to people who do not merit God's help because of their actions or
their negative outlook.[14]
And now comes the
clause under discussion, and proclaims by way of contrast that to "His beloved"
God will give honor and success. In the context in which this clause appears
following stanzas 1-3 - this means that the efforts of God's beloved will be
crowned with success and his objective will be achieved. This success will come
by virtue of God's participation and involvement, which will crown it with
"shena."
What then is the
meaning of the word "ken" standing at the beginning of the clause,
according to this interpretation? This word should be understood as a
demonstrative pronoun referring to one or more things mentioned earlier. This is
the way it was understood by the Meiri, but since he interprets the word
"shena" in the sense of sleep, the clause as a whole is understood as
standing in contrast solely to stanza 3 (which deals with hard labor that allows
for little sleep), and this gives rise to serious
difficulties.
According to
Emerton's explanation, on the other hand, the clause, "For to His beloved He
gives
," stands in contrast to all three preceding clauses, and the word
"ken" can allude to all the efforts described in these clauses which did
not achieve results since they were made by people who are not the
beloved of God: the building of a house that was in vain, the guarding of
the city for which the watchman stayed awake in vain, and the
efforts made to provide a living all of which were in vain.[15]
As opposed to all these the efforts of God's beloved to build a house, to
guard the city, and to bring forth bread from the earth will be successful
because of God's participation in his efforts, and the beloved of God will merit
the gift of "honor" from God.
Thus it follows that
the clause under discussion is the key to the psalm, for it sets up a positive
antithesis to the whole first part of the psalm! This clause clarifies that the
lack of success described in stanzas 1-3 stems from the fact that the active
characters in these three stanzas are not the beloved of God, and do not deserve
that God should bestow success upon their efforts.
The most important
thing about Emerton's proposal is that it "liberates" our psalm from the
explanation that sees in it a discussion concerning the relationship between
hard work and sleep, a discussion which is not found in either the first part or
second part of our psalm. According to his explanation, the clause, "For to the
beloved of God," completes by way of contrast the idea expressed in the first
three stanzas of the psalm regarding the relationship between human effort and
Divine blessing.
As stated above,
according to Emerton's explanation, the function of the clause, "For to the
beloved of God
," is not to serve as a footnote to stanza 3 (as follows from the
other explanations), but rather to stand in contrast to the entire first part of
the psalm. At the same time, however, this clause serves as a bridge to the
second half of the psalm the "positive" part, the atmosphere of which is
entirely different than that of the first part. The person described throughout
the second half of the psalm is undoubtedly God's "beloved," and therefore he
merits Divine reward fruit of the womb and this is clearly expressed in the
fourth stanza of the psalm.
It turns out then
that the blessing of children described in the second half of the psalm is also
included in the "shena" in the honor and elevated standing which the
beloved of God is given. This explanation opens the door to a discussion
regarding the connection between the two halves of the psalm, something which we
found difficult in the opening section of this study. The substantive connection
between the two parts of the psalm will be discussed in the coming sections, but
to conclude this section, I wish to discuss the structural connection between
the two halves of the psalm, because this connection depends in large measure on
the clause set between the two parts of psalm, the clause under discussion in
this section.
According to our
explanation, this clause serves as a bridge between the two halves of the psalm,
while it itself is not an integral part of either the first half or the second
half. The function of this clause is to "cross" the reader from the first half
to the second, so that the contrast between them (mainly with respect to the
atmosphere) is explained. The explanation arising from the "bridging clause" is
that the two halves deal with different people: the first half deals with people
who are undeserving of Divine blessing, whereas the second half deals with the
beloved of God who merits God's inheritance and reward.
According to the
terminology used in the structural analysis of literary units in Scripture, the
element that is set in the middle of a literary unit and does not belong to
either of its two halves, but serves as a transition from the first half to the
second, is referred to as the "central axis" of the unit. The words, "For to the
beloved of God He gives elevated standing," serve then as the central axis of
our psalm.
Do the two parts of
the psalm constitute two equally long halves of the entire psalm? Yes: the first
half of the psalm is comprised of 26 words, whereas the second half is comprised
of 27 words.[16]
The two equal halves of our psalm stand then in contrasting parallelism around
its central axis.
Let us once again
present our psalm in a manner that will best illustrate its
structure:
(1) A
Song of Degrees, for Shlomo: | ||||
1 |
Unless God
builds the house, its builders
toil in vain. |
For to His
beloved He gives elevated standing. |
4 |
(3) Behold,
children are the heritage of God, And fruit of
the womb reward. |
2 |
Unless God
watches over the city, the watchman
stays awake in vain. |
5 |
(4) Like arrows
in the hand of a mighty one, so are the
children of ones youth. | |
3 |
(2) It is vain
for you to awaken early, to sit up
late, to eat the
bread of toil. |
6 |
Happy is the
man Who has filled
his quiver with them; | |
|
|
7 |
They shall not
be put to shame, when they speak
with their enemies at the
gate. |
(To be
continued)
(Translated by David
Strauss)
[1] The article was
published in Vetus Testamentum, 24 (1974), pp.
15-31.
[2] Emerton discusses
the explanations proposed by the modern biblical scholars who understood the
word in this manner, whereas our discussion revolved around the explanations
offered by the traditional Jewish commentators.
[3] Already in 1792,
Michaelis suggested in his biblical dictionary that the biblical term
"shani" be understood in light of a similar Arabic word meaning
"splendor," and his suggestion was accepted by Gesenius and others.
[4] This is the way the
word was explained by Ehrlich in his German commentary to this verse (1913),
where he relates the word "shenotekha" to the word "shani" and
translates it into German as "your splendor."
[5] It is interesting to
note that as in our psalm, in these verses as well, there is an allusion to a
(contrasting?) connection between "shenotekha" and "atzavekha"
your hard work.
[6] This explanation was
suggested by I. Eitan in his book, "A Contribution to Biblical Lexicography"
(New York, 1924), p. 10. Emerton cites this explanation with reservations, but
it seems to me that this is one of the strongest proofs in Scripture to the
existence of the root shin-nun-alef. It is interesting to note that
Rashi, even though he understands the word "yeshune" in the sense of
"shoneh," different, explains the verse as follows: "And boldness changes
his face from that of other people, to the point that people will be afraid to
approach him, because his face shines."
The shuruk and
the cantillation note do not fit in so well with this understanding, but this
stems from the fact that the Masoretes were not familiar with the meaning of the
root shin-nun-alef.
[7] "Ish mezimot"
is understood as one who thinks "thoughts of evil counsel" (Rashi, and similarly
Ibn Ezra).
[8] In the surrounding
verses we find similar parallels, and they are contrasting parallels: v. 15:
simple man/prudent man; v. 16: wise man/fool; v. 18: the simple/the
prudent.
[9] The root
zayin-mem-mem is connected to thoughts, but not necessarily evil ones. As
the Radak explains in his Sefer ha-Shorashim, s.v. zamam: "All
instances of zama thoughts, whether good or bad, each instance to be
interpreted in accordance with its context."
[10] According to this,
the word should be read with a shin, and the traditional vocalization of
the word with a sin stems from the fact that the Masoretes were not
familiar with the root shin-nun-alef (see end of note
6).
[11] The biblical
scholars do not bring this example (at least not those cited in Emerton's
article).
This verse brings to
mind the verse in Esther 2:9: "And he moved her (va-yeshaneha)
and her maids to the best place." Thomas brings this verse, suggesting that
the word va-yeshaneha be understood as "he elevated
her."
Thomas also suggests
that this is the way to understand the words of Rav in Shabbat 10b: "A
person should never yeshaneh one son among other sons" he should never
elevate and honor one son more than the rest of his
sons.
[12] Eikha 4:1
reads: "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold yishne."
The connection between shin-nun-alef in the sense of "shine" accords well
with gold, but the verse seems to be saying the very opposite: "yishne"
parallels "yu'am," "become dimmed." Indeed, Rashi explains:
"Yishne its appearance will change." The matter requires further
study.
[13] Or perhaps: "a
bright countenance," as an expression of the satisfaction felt by God's beloved
with his successful actions.
[14] The reproachful tone
of stanzas 1-2 was noted above at the end of section 2, and the sharpening of
this tone in stanza 3 was noted at the end of section
3.
[15] According to this,
the word "ken" alludes to what was explicitly mentioned in the previous
stanzas: the toil of building, the guarding of the watchman, and the labor of
the workers.
[16] In such a short
psalm the equal length of the two halves is measured by the number of words,
rather than the number of verses. The surplus of one word in the second half of
the psalm will be discussed in the next shiur.