Conjunctions

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Psalm 51:11  NASB

And – Oh, the extent of this mighty little letter.  Attach a vav to a Hebrew word, and all kinds of things can happen.  Here, in particular, we are faced with some significant translation choices.  You see, vav can mean, “so, then, and, with, together, so that, also, even, or, but, indeed” and when affixed to a verb, even more interesting changes occur.  Which one of these conjunctives fits here?  Well, as usual, context must provide some hint at the proper choice.  With the translation “and,” the force of the verse suggests two distinct actions in combination.  That’s what “and” does.  But what if I chose “or”?  Does that imply two separate actions, or could it mean the same action from a different perspective? Like, “You could look at it this way or that way.”  And what about “so that”?  What if we translated the verse, “Do not cast me away from Your presence so that Your holy spirit is taken from me”?  Means something different, doesn’t it?

If we make a real attempt not to import a theological construct into this verse, and read it as David’s concern about the animating breath of God (rû^aḥ qôdš^ekā’), then we don’t have to treat this as if David is requesting two different but complementary actions.  That means we can read the conjunctive vav as a repeating indicator.  In other words, David is pleading that God not cast him away which is the equivalent of removing God’s animating breath.  To be cast away in the Hebrew culture is not simply to be in exile.  It is to be let go, turned away from the people, the chosen, the community that provides the lifeblood of existence.  The scapegoat was cast away, never to return, with the implication that the animal dies in the wilderness.  In Hebrew poetry, an initial idea is often repeated in a subsequent phrase providing another facet of the meaning.  That’s what’s happening here.  David is not pleading for two separate religious events; one, to be cast off, and two, to lose God’s spirit.  He’s giving us two views of the same circumstances.  To be cast away is to lose God’s animating spirit.  Don’t let the translator’s choice of “and” throw you a curve ball.

Just another note: “from Your presence” is really “from Your face,” and in the royal court, if the the “face” of the king turned away, that was a death sentence.  We miss that in translating the word as “presence.”  We also miss the connection between the “face” of God and the “spirit” of God.

It always comes down to choices, doesn’t it?  How you read the text is often how you, unconsciously, import a theological idea to provide the filter for reading the text.  The most important, and most difficult job of the exegete is to be aware of the filters, to refuse to let cultural assumptions silently dictate what the text means.  Always step back!  Always ask, “And where did that idea, my idea, come from?”  Only when you can answer that question are you capable of reading the text with the eyes of the author.

Topical Index: and, vav, theological assumptions, holy spirit, cast away, Psalm 51:11