The Word in the Title No One Can Translate (Psalm 6)
Open Psalm 6 and before the first line of the poem there’s an instruction — a note to the music director. Part of it is a single Hebrew word that has defeated translators for two thousand years: sheminith (שְׁמִינִית).
Return, or Relent? (Psalm 6)
Most English Bibles translate Ps 6:4[5] as “Return, O LORD.” A few say something quite different: “Relent.” It’s one word, yet it potentially conveys two entirely different pictures of what has gone wrong.
One Word, Three Directions (Psalm 4)
Psalm 4:6 (7 in Hebrew) ends with a line every translation renders differently, and the disagreement comes down to a single Hebrew word: neseh (נְסֵה).
The God Who Makes Things Right
In Psalm 4, the Hebrew word tsedeq is often translated as a legal term, “righteousness.” But the scholars at Scriptura argue for something kinder.
The Tight Place and the Open Field (Psalm 4)
Psalm 4 opens with David remembering a rescue, and he describes it in two words that are, quite literally, opposite shapes.
A Command That Might Be a Memory (Psalm 3)
Open almost any modern English Bible to Psalm 3:7 and you’ll find David shouting orders at God, delivered in the imperative. But the Hebrew verbs aren’t imperatives.
Two Words the Psalm Didn’t Need (Psalm 3)
The heading of Psalm 3 tells us when it was written: “When he was fleeing from Absalom.” And then it adds two words that, strictly speaking, do no work at all: “his son.”
Victory, Not Salvation (Psalm 3)
At the center of Psalm 3 sits a single word, repeated three times: yeshuah, usually translated as “salvation.” Yet a careful study reveals a problem with this translation.
An Aramaic Word in a Hebrew Poem (Psalm 2)
Psalm 2 ends with a command that has puzzled readers for centuries: “Kiss the son, or else he will become angry…” The word for “son” has generated more scholarly debate than almost any other in the Psalter. Scriptura dedicated a full exegetical analysis to the question.
“I Have Cast My King on Zion” (Psalm 2)
In Psalm 2:6, YHWH announces: “But I have poured out my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” But what does this phraseology actually mean?
