The Lowly Preposition

Even though rulers sit and speak against me, your servant meditates on Your statutes.  Psalm 119:23  NASB

Against – You will translate this tiny preposition according to the way you read the previous verse.  Why?  Because bĕhas a very wide range of meanings and context is often the only way to tell which English word to use.  Harris notes:

[bĕ is] A very common preposition with a wide range of meanings. BDB list mainly: in, at or by, with (of accompaniment or of instrument), a verbal complement of specialized meaning, and, used with the infinitive construct, to introduce a temporal clause. Currently the Hebrew prepositions are recognized as having an even wider range of meaning. Ugaritic evidence indicates that bĕ also often means “from,” as does the preposition lĕ(Gordon, UT 19: no. 435; AisWUS 486).^[1]

You’ll remember that the previous verse might describe the poet as either perpetrator or victim.  So the same applies here.  It’s easier to read this as if he is the victim.  Rulers sit and speak (that is, cast blame) on him.  In this case, bĕ becomes “against.”  Accordingly, he rejects their evaluation and claims he continues in his faithfulness.  Basically he says, “I don’t care.”

But if the poet is the perpetrator, then the verse is something like “Rulers sit and talk with me,” or “talk at me,” or “talk concerning me.”  Now the rulers (or chieftains, wise leaders) are counselors, offering advice to the poet.  The meaning of the verse is turned upside-down.

These options force us to consider the adverb, that is, “even though” (gam).  Once more we have a word with multiple meanings.

גַּם (gam) Again, alike, as, but, even, likewise, in like manner, so much as, then, though, with, yea. A particle occurring over 750 times, gam denotes addition. It is often repeated in a sentence, in which case the most frequent translations are both … and; either … or; nay … neither; so … and. Sometimes in English translations gam is completely ignored.  gam has at least ten distinctive usages in the ot. ^[2]

It gets complicated, doesn’t it?  Perhaps this helps you understand why Alter said that translation was an art, not a science.  Word-for-word literal translations often leave out many possibilities.  I guess we’ll have to ask the author what he really meant.

In the meantime, we should look at the context of the entire Gimel section.  It seems to me that the verses in this part of the poem emphasize the inner personal struggle of the poet.  He asks for God’s grace in order to be obedient.  He wants the blindfold removed from his eyes.  He feels like a stranger because God seems hidden.  He doesn’t want to be found among the arrogant.  There is little here that would cause me to think that he suddenly shifts to what others think about him.  Furthermore, in the last verse of this section, he proclaims his personal joy about God’s testimonies.  A verse that focuses on outside opinion seems displaced.

Finally, there’s śîaḥ.  We do know what “meditate” means.  We’ve seen śîaḥ before (The Silent Majority, July 21, 2024).  In the ancient world, it’s not silent musing.  It’s vocalization of religious expression.  Perhaps the psalmist is saying that he also speaks, that this is a conversation with others.  What do you think?

Topical Index: bĕ, gam, śîaḥ, meditate, Psalm 119:23

BDB Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1905

UT C.H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, 1965 (Grammar cited by chapter and section; texts cited by chap (16) and no. of line. Glossary cited by chap (19) and no. of word)

AisWUS J. Aistleitner, Wöterbuch der ugaritischen Sprache, 4th ed., 1974

^[1] Harris, R. L. (1999). 193 בְּ. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 87). Moody Press.

^[2] Smith, J. E. (1999). 361 גמם. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 167). Moody Press.