The Psalm 92, known as ''Mizmor Shir L'yom HaShabbat'', is ostensibly dedicated to the
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
day. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
and Latin
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 91.
Although it can be recited any day, in
Jewish tradition
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites"" ...
it is generally reserved for Shabbat and is also recited during the morning services on
festival days.
Text
The psalm is originally written in the
Hebrew language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
.
The Hebrew text
is divided into 16 verses,
as Psalm 92:1 comprises the designation
:''A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.'' (
NKJV
The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...
)
This is not numbered as a separate verse in the English versions. Verses 1–15 in English versions correspond to verses 2–16 in the Hebrew text.
King James Version
: A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.
# It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
# To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
# Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
# For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
# O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
# A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
# When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
# But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
# For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
# But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
# Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
# The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
# Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
# They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
# To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
are of the
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
tradition, which includes the
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...
(10th century), and
Codex Leningradensis
The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...
(1008).
The extant
palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...
Aq includes a translation into
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
by
Aquila of Sinope
Aquila (Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ''ʿăqīlas'', fl. 130 AD) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; la, Aquila Ponticus) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a proselyte, and disciple of Rabbi Akiva.
Relationship to Onkelos
Opinions d ...
in c. 130 CE, containing verses 1–10.
Verse 1
:''It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
::''And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;''
Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of ...
, who sub-titles this psalm "sabbath thoughts", observes that honouring the Sabbath is "is good ... not merely good in the eyes of God, but also good for man, beneficial to the heart, pleasant and blessed".
Uses
Judaism
Psalm 92 is recited three times during all of Shabbat:
*Part of
Kabbalat Shabbat
Jewish prayer ( he, תְּפִלָּה, ; plural ; yi, תּפֿלה, tfile , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with i ...
. This recitation officially ushers in the Shabbat.
*During
Pesukei Dezimra. (It is also recited in Pesukei Dezimra on a
Yom Tov
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
that occurs on a weekday, although some communities omit the first verse.)
*The song of the day in the
Shir Shel Yom
''Shir Shel Yom'' (שִׁיר שֶׁל יוֹם), meaning "'song' Psalm.html"_;"title=".e._Psalm">.e._Psalmof_[the.html" ;"title="Psalm">.e._Psalm.html" ;"title="Psalm.html" ;"title=".e. Psalm">.e. Psalm">Psalm.html" ;"title=".e. Psalm">.e. Psalmo ...
of Shabbat.
*Some communities recite it immediately after the Torah reading at Mincha of the Sabbath.
Verse 1 is part of Mishnah Tamid 7:4.
Verse 1 is part of Likel Asher Shabbat recited in the blessings preceding the Shema on Shabbat, and some add the beginning of Verse 2 as well.
According to the
Midrash
''Midrash'' (;["midrash"]
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
, Psalm 92 was said by
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
. Adam was created on Friday, and he said this psalm on the onset of the Shabbat. It is not a psalm that speaks ''about'' the Shabbat, but one that was said ''on'' the Shabbat: this was Adam's first day of existence and he marveled at the work of the Creator.
Musical settings
*Psalm 92 "''Bonum est confiteri Domino"'' H.195, for soloists, chorus, 2 treble viols or violins and continuo, was set to music by
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...
(1687 - 88)
*Psalm 92 was set to music by
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
for
Salomon Sulzer
Salomon Sulzer ( he, סלומון זולצר, March 30, 1804, Hohenems, Vorarlberg – January 17, 1890, Vienna) was an Austrian '' hazzan'' (cantor) and composer.
Biography
His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of ''Levi'', removed to ...
().
*The Requiem Ebraico (Hebrew Requiem) (1945) by Austrian-American composer
Eric Zeisl Erich Zeisl (May 18, 1905 – February 18, 1959) (often spelled Eric) was an Austrian-born American composer.
Life and music
Born to a middle class Jewish family in Vienna, then capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Zeisl was the son of Kamilla ...
, a setting of Psalm 92 dedicated to the memory of the composer's father "and the other countless victims of the Jewish tragedy in Europe", is considered the first major work of
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
commemoration.
*American composer
Mark Alburger
Mark Alburger (born April 2, 1957 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is a San Francisco Bay area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of Goat ...
also composed a musical setting for Psalm 92.
See also
Wikisource - Psalm 92
* Related
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
parts:
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 is the first psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English King James Version: "Blessed is the man", and forming "an appropriate prologue" to the whole collection.Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1906)Cambridge Bible for Schools and Collegeson ...
,
Jeremiah 17
References
External links
* in Hebrew and English - Mechon-mamre
Recordings for musical settings to the second verse of Psalm 92(in Hebrew) at the Zemirot Database
Musical settings to the last four verses of Psalm 92("The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree...") at Zemirot Database
{{Jewish prayers
092
Shabbat prayers
Shacharit for Shabbat and Yom Tov