Now Hear This
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your salvation all day long;
For I do not know the art of writing. Psalm 71:15 NASB
Art of writing – A bit ironic, don’t you think? According to this translation, here is a poet writing that he doesn’t know the art of writing. Does that make sense? Everything thus far in this psalm demonstrates just the opposite. The choice of words, the odd syntax, the cadence—all of it suggests that this author knows his stuff. Or is he just being coy?
The Hebrew is yāda’ti sep̄ō·rôṯ, literally “I know numbers.” But that makes no sense at all. Alter comments: “The Hebrew is as obscure as the English version. Seforot, the noun that is the object of the verbs, appears to derive from the root that means to count or number, but the form of the word here is anomalous. Perhaps the sense is ‘I know not the numbers of Your bounty,’ but that is only a guess.”[1] Other English versions translate these words as “how to relate to them” (NIV, clearly a gloss), “not skilled with words” (NLT, and just as unwarranted), “past my knowledge,” (ESV, again just a guess), “sum of them” (NASB 1995, at least a correction to the 1991 version), “not known plain writing,” (Aramaic Bible, and not much better), “what the outcome will be,” (International Standard Version). This is a “pay your money and take your chance” verse. Pick anything you like. Oh, and notice, please, there is no negative in the Hebrew text.
So where do all these guesses come from? Well, almost all of them (except the obvious glosses) are based on the LXX which reads γραμματεία, that is, “art of writing.” The Vulgate follows the LXX. Nobody really knows what the Hebrew means. It seems to me that the poet is expressing the enormity of God’s righteousness. He’s not talking about writing, or, for that matter, arithmetic. My guess is he doesn’t use the Hebrew negative because he’s saying “I know the sep̄ō·rôṯ,” that is, “I know its number.” That number is over the top, too big to calculate. But, it’s just a guess.
Here’s the lesson. When in doubt, make it up. Oh, that doesn’t seem so comfortable, does it? Certainly not when it comes to God’s Word. But look at the variety in the translations. Following the LXX turns the text into a negation—and from that point on it’s anybody’s guess. What’s the real lesson? There are parts of our Bible that are immune to translation. We just don’t have any real idea about what they mean. And that’s okay. Actually, it can’t be helped. These are ancient documents. They are subject to the thought patterns of the ancient world—a world we don’t have experiential access to anymore. And they’re poetry, making them all the more difficult. What do we do? Well, we do the best we can. We guess. Fortunately, all the text isn’t like this, but some of it is. Adjust your doctrine accordingly.
Topical Index: sep̄ō·rôṯ, sum, number, art of writing, Psalm 71:15
[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Volume 3 The Writings, p. 172.
