Sunday, December 26, 2021

Psalm 119:121

Before watching the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Psalm 119:121 last month, I read the translation in the Latin Vulgate.


Feci iudicium et iustitiam non tradas me calumniantibus me

In the ESV, this is rendered as:  "I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors."

"Iudicium" and "iustitiam" alliterate, and they have the same number of syllables, so even in the language, there's a sense of the orderliness and balance of "what is just and right."

A couple weeks after noting this, I happened to look at this Psalm in the front of The Lutheran Hymnal and discovered that this alliteration and syllabic balance is present in that translation too:  "I have done judgement and justice:  leave me not to mine oppressors."