Morning Prayer–Psalm 51

5 thoughts on “Morning Prayer–Psalm 51”

1. Phil,

   As someone who knows this psalm by heart because of its omnipresence in the Orthodox hours (midnight office, Orthros, 3rd hour, Small Compline, Great Compline) and also in the Liturgy while the priest censes the altar and people during the Cheruvikon, I have to wonder, and you may not know the answer, who translated this? And from which source? If this is a translation of the Hebrew, then it just shows you how extensively the rabbis “corrected” the Hebrew psalms from which the Greek Septuagint was translated to the HEbrew which forms the “masoretic” canon. I don’t want to get into all of the differences because they’re more than just grammatical. For example, Have mercy on me according to your steadfast love. The Greek word is ελεος which always means mercy and is, of course, the noun form of the verb ελεησον which begins the psalm. Also, “purge me with hyssop” and “Wash me” are NOT imperatives; they are future verbs indicating an action which will come to pass. “sacrifices OF god” and not “sacrifices TO God?” Big difference there. Again, I could go on and on, but the translation doesn’t do justice to the psalm. So, if you know who translated it, I’d like to know.

2. I read from the English Standard Version. It is from the Hebrew. Do you believe the Septuagint should be preferred?

3. Phil,

   who translated the ESV then?

   And, yes, the Greek should be preferred. the changes made by the rabbis in 90 AD radically altered the texts of the psalms and other books while excising what you call apocrypha. The Greek is more true to the original Hebrew (the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm this).

4. Check here: http://www.crossway.org/esv/. I will research your contention about the greek/hebrew.

5. Phil,

   It’s fact, not contention.