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תהלים קכ | Psalms 120, an “up song” (shir la-ma’alot) translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi

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Source (Hebrew)Translation (English)
שִׁיר לַמַּעֲלוֹת
An up song
אֶל־יְהֹוָה בַּצָּרָתָה
לִּי קָרָאתִי
וַיַּעֲנֵנִי׃
In my misery
I called to You, YaH
and You answered me
 
יְהֹוָה הַצִּילָה נַפְשִׁי
מִשְּׂפַת־שֶׁקֶר
מִלָּשׁוֹן
רְמִיָּה׃
So now, too, I cry—
YaH, rescue my life!
A web of lies,
false reports,
defame me.
מַה־יִּתֵּן לְךָ וּמַה־יֹּסִיף לָךְ לָשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה׃
חִצֵּי גִבּוֹר שְׁנוּנִים
 
עִם גַּחֲלֵי רְתָמִים׃
They hurt like piercing arrows,
as if they were tipped
with blazing cinders—
searing, where it hurts the most.
אוֹיָה־לִי כִּי־גַרְתִּי מֶשֶׁךְ שָׁכַנְתִּי עִם־אׇהֳלֵי קֵדָר׃
רַבַּת שָׁכְנָה־לָּהּ נַפְשִׁי עִם שׂוֹנֵא שָׁלוֹם׃
Too long have I been bullied and brutalized;
Too long have I suffered viciousness.
אֲנִי־שָׁלוֹם וְכִי אֲדַבֵּר
הֵמָּה לַמִּלְחָמָה׃
Even when I talk Peace—
they gear for attack.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s translation of Psalms 120 was first published in Psalms in a Translation for Praying (Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Philadelphia: 2014), p. 214.

Reb Zalman was, in 2009, an early advocate of the Open Siddur Project and generously shared his liturgical and prayer work with the project following his vision of a common “Database Davvenen.” I have set his translation opposite the Masoretic Hebrew text of the psalm according to the phrasing he provided. –Aharon Varady

 


 

 

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