Are You Paying Attention to the Fine Print?

Shiggaion – What is a shiggaion?  Oh, and why should we care?  First, let’s notice how Christian translations handle this Hebrew word.  The NASB footnote defines it as “Dithyrambic rhythm; or wild, passionate song,”  The NIV says it is “probably a literary or musical form.”  The NKJV translates it as “meditation.”  BDB simply lists it as a “doubtful word.”  The LXX avoids the word completely.  Basically it comes down to this.  No one knows what it means.

Except—except Hebrew commentators like Rashi and the Malbim do provide a definition.  In their view, this word should be translated “a mistake,” that is, an admission by the author that he made a mistake and is now confessing it.  You might wonder why Christian exegetes don’t seem to pay any attention to these Hebrew sources.  Could it be that their paradigm doesn’t allow Jewish wisdom for appropriated texts?  At any rate, once we see how the rabbis handle this very strange word, a new meaning appears in the psalm.  Oh, yes, you might also wonder why the Christian Bible relegates this verse to a sub-heading (or just ignores it), especially after you read what we learn from the Hebrew scholars.

Suppose the Hebrew interpretation of this psalm is correct.  Let’s look at the psalm and see if this fits.

The first stanzas implore YHVH to provide shelter from his enemies.  That seems reasonable and justifiable.  Then we come to verses (English) three to five.  Suddenly David is offering an apology, a confession, for any injustice he has unintentionally performed, even to his enemy.  Here the grammar gets tricky.

The English text reads: “or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary.”  Does the sentence suggest that David’s opponent is an enemy who has no cause to be such (as the English translation portrays), or does the Hebrew suggest that it is David who has no cause to plunder this adversary?  How are we to sort out the syntax of the Hebrew?  Notice carefully the translation of this Hebrew verse by Jews:

“if I repaid the one who did evil to me, and I stripped my adversary into emptiness,”[1]

Here the mistake is attributed to David without the caveat that the enemy might have had cause.  This helps us appreciate the heartfelt remorse of the next verse:

“may the enemy pursue my soul and overtake [me] and trample my life to the ground, and cause my soul to rest in the dust forever.”[2]

With the Hebrew-Jewish reading, this psalm is a confession of a mistake, and an acknowledgment that the author deserves what is coming to him.

And now the question, “If this is David’s poem, when did he do such a thing?”  To this the rabbis answer, “When he was tempted to wrest the kingdom from Saul by force.”  We recall how cautiously David treated Saul when Saul was still on the throne even though David has been anointed as Saul’s replacement.  We also know what David did that wasn’t so cautious.  In this psalm the rabbis find David’s confession of not waiting for God to deliver the kingdom into his hands.  As the midrash puts it, God reprimanded David saying, “Who are you to curse My anointed one?”

It’s such a shame that this wonderful insight is completely lost to Christian readers.  The paradigm that ignores the wisdom of the original audience simply because it considers itself the replacement has thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Topical Index: shiggaion, mistake, confession, enemy, Psalm 7:1 (Hebrew text)

[1] https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16228#v6

[2] Ibid.