Low Hanging Fruit

For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me.  For I admit my guilt; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.  Psalm 38:17-18  NASB

Ready to fall – These two verses are so full of deeper meanings that it’s impossible to feel the full impact in a one-page analysis.  Let’s explore these Hebrew words, one phrase at a time.

“I am ready to fall” doesn’t quite capture the nuance here.  Robert Alter’s translation is preferable.  “For I am ripe for stumbling and my pain is before me always.”  You’ll notice the NASB penchant to internalize Hebrew words describing physical conditions, in this case “sorrow” for the Hebrew makʾôbâh, “pain” (more about this later).  But as you know, the Hebraic consciousness of anguish and affliction is primarily communal, not private.  What matters is public reputation.  Internal psychological struggle is far less important.  We must keep this in mind when we approach the opening phrase, “ready to fall” in the NASB.  Alter’s version helps us understand the nuance.  The psalmist isn’t writing about loss of balance.  He’s writing about his current instability, an instability that will soon be obvious to others.  “Ripe for stumbling” conveys the real situation, especially since the noun is ṣelaʿ, found only twice (here and in Jeremiah 20:10).  It means “limping” or “stumbling.”  But the root takes us back to another story.  ṣālaʿ is found in Genesis 32:32, the story of Jacob and the “man” on the wrong side of the Jabbok.  The psalmist’s use of this rare word immediately calls to mind the naming of the entire people, Israel, and the implication of struggle with God and men.  “I am ripe for stumbling” might portend disaster, but at the same time it reasserts covenantal identity.  Perhaps the rabbis found their insight here:

“One never comes to stand upon the words of Torah unless one stumbles over them.”  Stumbling, slipping becomes the condition for stability.  It is by way of errors, misconceptions, inadequacies that one moves beyond the banality of first assumptions.  A richer, more imaginative experience opens up as prejudices are abandoned and one dares to stumble in unknown territory.[1]

Does the poet express two contradictory thoughts at the same time?  “Ripe for stumbling,” that is, on the verge of collapse, and, at the same time, “established in covenantal identity”?  The verb translated “ready” (NASB) or “ripe” (Alter) is kûn, which means “establish, prepare, made ready, fixed, certain.”  Which is it?  Is the author about to fall or is he one of those who knows Torah because he is stumbling over it?  Or both?

Doesn’t the awareness of sin require a consciousness of law?  Paul seems to think so.

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.  Romans 2:14-15  NIV)

If there is no “law written on their hearts,” then there is no sin because sin is not an ethical category.  It’s a religious category.  Social offense may require awareness of mores and customs, but sin requires an awareness of something deeper—ultimately of a divine law-giver.

“Ripe for stumbling” not only describes the possibility of social humiliation, it also confirms communal identity.  It acknowledges the standard of Torah in the presence of witnesses.  This is the true context of the “pain” ever before me.  Once we understand this, we can investigate what makʾôbâh implies.

Topical Index:  makʾôbâh, sorrow, pain, affliction, ṣālaʿ,  ṣelaʿ, stumble, Genesis 32:32, Jeremiah 20:10, Psalm 38:17-18

[1] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, p. 75.