Too Much Poetic License

You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness and great faithfulness.  Psalm 119:138  NASB

In righteousness – Even in Hebrew this sentence doesn’t seem to work very well.  The English just makes it worse.

Chabad translates it as “You commanded Your testimonies, [which are] righteousness, and they are exceedingly faithful.”  The translators have to add “which are” to help, but it’s still a problem.  How can someone command testimonies? Remember the words?  To command – ṣāwâ.  Testimonies – ‘ʿēdōtê’.  Order Your appointed congregation?  Yes, I suppose we could say that God ordered Israel to be appointed as a congregation.  Or maybe we could say that what God did with Israel was divinely directed.  But it seems a stretch to say that God commanded the history of Israel.  Did He order their apostacy, their idolatry, their treachery?  I suppose you could argue this way if you thought that God knew it all beforehand (from His timeless vantage point) and it was therefore destined to happen.  But is that the same as commanding it?

Let’s suppose that we soften this a bit and treat it as if it said, “God commanded the appointed times.”  That makes sense.  But then we run into the supplied preposition, “in.”  The problem is that this preposition isn’t in the text.  Here is the text:

צִוִּיתָ צֶ֣דֶק עֵֽדֹתֶ֑יךָ וֶֽאֱמוּנָ֥ה מְאֹֽד

You see that the first word, “You commanded” (from ṣāwâ), a Pi’el perfect (finished) action, is immediately followed by צֶ֣דֶק (ṣedeq – rightness, justice), with no attached preposition.  And then comes ‘ēdōtê’ka (“Your testimonies”).  Literally, “You commanded rightness Your testimonies,” or perhaps a bit better, “You commanded conformity Your appointments.”  Finally, “and ʾĕmûnâ mĕʾōd”—reliable great.  What does this mean?  That the appointments are greatly reliable?  That the act of commanding them is reliable?  That the straightforward command is greatly reliable?  Alter offers:

“You ordained Your just precepts, and they are most trustworthy.”

The LXX breaks up the thought:

“You commanded your testimonies to be righteousness and truth, very much.”

The NIV (and others) treats the sentence almost as a paraphrase:

The statutes you have laid down are righteous; they are fully trustworthy.

Too much poetic license.  All the translations play with the text in order to make some kind of sense out of it.  We get the idea (maybe) but we really don’t know what the poet precisely had in mind.  There’s just not enough material to work with.  So, be content with what you have, and consider all the alternatives.  Maybe that was the point all along.  Sometimes messy is the right way to go.

Topical Index: ‘ēdōtê’, testimonies, ʾĕmûnâ mĕʾōd, reliable, great, ṣedeq, right, Psalm 119:138

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Richard Bridgan

So few words… yet so much to consider. “The unfolding (pētaḥ) of your words gives light, giving understanding to the simple.” (Cf. Psalm 119:130)

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise;
you shall apply your heart to my teaching.
For it is pleasant if you guard them within you;
together they will be ready upon your lips.
In order for your trust to be in Yahweh,
I have made them known to you today—even you.
(Proverbs 22:17–19)

How is one who is simple to consider the testimony of Scripture?… S/he is to come to understand that testimony as revelation… realizing that it serves as a testimony of witness whereby even one who is simple is able to “…differentiate between the God who sustains the creature and a mere supreme being, identifying that sustaining God with the God of the biblical revelation…” (Cf. Barth, CD, III/3 §49, 58 [emphasis mine])

The testimony of Scripture directs even its poetic character and language toward an attestation of revelation that is grounded in the Logos of God, Jesus Christ, as the material and formal reality of Holy Scripture’s attestation.