Shin

Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words.  Psalm 119:161  NASB

שָׂ֭רִים רְדָפ֣וּנִי חִנָּ֑ם (ומדבריך) [וּ֝מִדְּבָרְךָ֗] פָּחַ֥ד לִבִּֽי

Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words.

שָׂ֣שׂ אָ֭נֹכִי עַל־אִמְרָתֶ֑ךָ כְּ֝מוֹצֵ֗א שָׁלָ֥ל רָֽב

I rejoice at Your word, like one who finds great plunder.

שֶׁ֣קֶר שָׂ֭נֵאתִי וַאֲתַעֵ֑בָה תּוֹרָתְךָ֥ אָהָֽבְתִּי

I hate and loathe falsehood, but I love Your Law.

שֶׁ֣בַע בַּ֭יּוֹם הִלַּלְתִּ֑יךָ עַ֝֗ל מִשְׁפְּטֵ֥י צִדְקֶֽךָ

Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous judgments.

שָׁל֣וֹם רָ֭ב לְאֹהֲבֵ֣י תוֹרָתֶ֑ךָ וְאֵֽין־לָ֥מוֹ מִכְשֽׁוֹל

Those who love Your Law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.

שִׂבַּ֣רְתִּי לִישׁוּעָתְךָ֣ יְהֹוָ֑ה וּֽמִצְוֺתֶ֥יךָ עָשִֽׂיתִי

I hope for Your salvation, Lord, and do Your commandments.

שָֽׁמְרָ֣ה נַ֭פְשִׁי עֵדֹתֶ֑יךָ וָאֹהֲבֵ֥ם מְאֹֽד

My soul keeps Your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.

שָׁמַ֣רְתִּי פִ֭קּוּדֶיךָ וְעֵדֹתֶ֑יךָ כִּ֖י כׇל־דְּרָכַ֣י נֶגְדֶּֽךָ

I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You.

Without cause – We need to address the qere/ketiv in this verse before we investigate ḥinnām (“without cause”).  We’ve seen this before.  Remember the  discussion of verse 147?  Exactly the same change occurs in that verse.  As you can see above, the word וּ֝מִדְּבָרְךָ֗ is missing a letter from the unpointed scroll text (ומדבריך).  Just like verse 147, this verse is read as a singular noun when the text in the scroll is plural.  The Chabad translation follows the traditional reading: “Princes pursued me for nothing, but my heart feared Your word,” treating the text as if were singular.  The NASB (above) translates the word as it is written, that is, plural.  We didn’t mention this before, but the same plural spelling occurs in verse 130 and there it is translated as plural, not singular, even by Chabad.  So, the reason for the qere/ketivcannot be linguistic.  It has to be based on something else.  Once again, we ask the question: “If it makes perfect sense to read the word as plural, why would tradition change it to be read as singular?”  And once again we are reminded of theological, not linguistic, bias.  You can look at the discussion on verse 147 to see the possible answers.

Now let’s consider the word translated “without cause.”  The Hebrew term is ḥinnām, from the root ḥānan.  But this seems odd.  ḥānan is the word in Exodus 34:6 that describes God as gracious.  In fact, the derivative ḥēn is the Hebrew word for “grace,” that is, unmerited favor.  How does it get translated as “without cause” in this verse?  The answer is the extrapolation of the translators.  The Chabad version renders this as “freely,” which is much closer to the meaning of the original root.  Of course, now it’s applied to the evil princes’ effort to harm the psalmist, so it can’t mean “grace.”  It must be taken as something without precipitating conditions, that is, something done completely as a free, and in this case, unwarranted act.  In this regard, and in this regard only, it is like “grace.”  Undeserved.

Consider the poet’s response to this unwarranted intention to harm.  Does he plead his case for God’s intervention?  Does he claim rescue on the basis of ḥesed?  He could, and in the past he has, but now he adds another dimension to God’s care.  Awe!  pāḥad.  And again we have a word that can mean something with a different nuance, just as ḥānancould mean “grace” but here means “undeserved.”  What we discover is that pāḥad is first and foremost about fear, dread, and trembling.  “pāḥad serves as a strong verb of fearing with emphasis either on the immediacy of the object of fear or upon the resulting trembling. The verb may refer to the kind of fear aroused by a paḥad ‘terror.’  Most of its occurrences are in poetic passages so that it could be considered a strong, poetic synonym for yārāʾ (q.v.).”^[1]  We are immediately reminded of that very unusual passage calling God the pāḥad of Isaac (Genesis 31:42).  Of course, we can easily understand how “fear” is connected to “awe,” but we need to remember that the connection plays on two nuances of the same word.  There is, in fact, a deep sense of real fear in the awe of God, and the poet wants us to experience this.  He’s quite aware that this kind of fear is not an abstraction.  It is emotional, overwhelming, terrifying—and magnificent.  We’re not dealing with theological constructs here.  We’re dealing with trembling before the Holy One, who also happens to be the God who cares (thankfully).

Now we understand why the poet doesn’t need to plead his case or call for an intervention.  God’s words (plural– d^ebārĕ) are enough.  These are the written promises, commandments, and, most of all, the descriptions of the character of God.  Both of these odd terms in this verse push us back to Exodus 34:6-7 where they are characteristics of the Lord.  And that’s enough to settle the matter.

Topical Index: pāḥad, fear, awe, ḥinnām, grace, undeserved, freely, Psalm 119:161

^[1] Bowling, A. (1999). 1756 פָּחַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 720). Moody Press.