When the Psalmist Said ‘I Am Prayer’

Stream.org ^ | February 19, 2024 | Michael Brown

[Twotone]

You won’t find this in our English translations, but it’s literally what the Hebrew says in a psalm ascribed to David: “In place of my love they hatefully accuse me, but I am prayer” (Psalm 109:4, my translation). What a profound statement, and what a lesson for us.

Other English versions, seeking to express the Hebrew idiom in workable English, translate with:

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer (KJV).

In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer (ESV).

In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer (NIV).

In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am in prayer (NASB).

They repay my love with accusations, but I continue to pray (NET).

Similarly, the paraphrased Living Bible rendered, “I love them, but even while I am praying for them, they are trying to destroy me.” And ancient versions, like the Septuagint (in Greek) or the Targum (in Aramaic), offered similar translations, respectively, “Instead of loving me, they falsely accused me: but I continued to pray,” and, “Because I have loved, they opposed me; but I will pray.”

[EinNYC]

I do not read/listen to/or in any way acknowledge Michael Brown. He is a messyonic who attempts to deceive. He is dirt beneath my feet.

[Fester Chugabrew]

There are several areas where English translations supply words, and make me scratch my head, because the semantic result is significant.

Can’t think of any off the top of my head, but this is a good case in point.

[Deo et patriae]

So how is he deceiving?
He is simply showing several Bible translations of the KJV verse.

[null and void]

Because in EinNYC's belief ONLY the KJV is accurate?

[Scrambler Bob]

but it’s literally what the Hebrew says

Even better.

[Ezekiel]

Thanks. This is a wonderful detail. Too bad about the hostilities kicked up in here.

On account of David's harp (kinnor) being the inspiration as it were for his Psalms, this topic reminded me of a similar parallel in the song "Jerusalem of Gold":

Many of the lyrics refer to traditional Jewish poetry and themes, particularly dealing with exile and longing for Jerusalem. "Jerusalem of Gold" is a reference to a special piece of jewelry mentioned in a famous Talmudic legend about Rabbi Akiva; "To all your songs, I am a lyre" is a reference "Zion ha-lo Tish'ali", one of the "Songs to Zion" by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi: "I cry out like the jackals when I think of their grief; but, dreaming of the end of their captivity, I am like a harp for your songs.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_of_Gold#Themes

The Hebrew song lyrics do not say "like a harp", but rather "I am a harp",

ירושלים של זהב
ושל נחושת ושל אור
הלא לכל שירייך אני כינור

Jerusalem of Gold
And of copper and of light
I am a violin (ani kinnor אני כינור) for all your songs

הלא לכל שירייך אני כינור

"Is it not for all of your songs, I am a kinnor?"

Kinnor (Hebrew: כִּנּוֹר‎ kīnnōr) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",[1]: 440  and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kokhba coins.[1]: 440  It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people,[2] and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery.

The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnor

 

David's harp was the kinnor, which today is the word for a violin.

Its exact identification is unclear...

Oh, I'm certain that it will all be sorted out in short order.

A Stradivarius means 5 stars, the best of the best!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Hebrews 11:6]

My thanks to you for posting this. I especially appreciated this paragraph from the article:

Applying this to Jesus, the Jewish Christian commentator Adolph Saphir (1831-1891) wrote, “The Messiah says in this prophetic Psalm, ‘I am prayer.’ During his pilgrimage on earth, his whole life was communion with God; and now in his glory he is constantly making intercession for us. But this does not exhaust the idea, ‘I am prayer.’ He not merely prayed and is now praying, he not merely teaches and influences us to pray, but he is prayer, the fountain and source of all prayer, as well as the foundation and basis of all answers to our petitions. He is the Word in this sense also. From all eternity his Father heard him, heard him as interceding for that world which, created through him, he represented, and in which, through him, divine glory was to be revealed. In the same sense, therefore, in which he is light and gives light, in which he is life and resurrection, and therefore quickens, Jesus is prayer.”

So often, the Gospels describe the outline of Jesus' prayer life, spending whole nights at it. And how else did He survive those forty days of temptation? What an example and challenge!