Psalm 116 – Is the Death of the Righteous Precious in the Eyes of YHWH?

The main lexica, BDB, HALOT, Clines, and Gesenius 18 are unanimous in this regard.

NETS translation.

Translation follows David M. Stec, The Targum of Psalms (London: T & T Clark, 2004), 208; he italicizes words that diverge from the Hebrew. This translation, and the one in the Peshitta below, are not fully determinative since these translators may simply be rendering the Hebrew using a cognate word.

In Syriac characters: ܝܩܝܪ ܗܘ݂ ܒܥܝ̈ܢܘܗܝ ܕܡܪܝܐ ܡ݁ܘܬܐ ܕܙܕܝܩ̈ܘܗܝ.

The translation follows Richard A. Taylor (trans.), The Syriac Peshiṭta Bible with English Translation: Psalms (Piscaraway, NJ: Gorgias, 2020), 487.

Translation from https://vulgate.org/ot/psalms_116.htm.

In some cases, it was even applied to Jesus, despite the fact that the biblical verse speaks of the death of God’s loyal ones in the plural. Quentin F. Wesselschmidt, Psalms 51-150, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, OT 8 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2007), 293–296.

Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs, trans. Israel Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975), 1.444-447. They build this view on a reading of Proverbs:

^{משלי ג:יא} מוּסַ֣ר יְ֭־הוָה בְּנִ֣י אַל־תִּמְאָ֑ס וְאַל־תָּ֝קֹ֗ץ בְּתוֹכַחְתּֽוֹ׃ ^ג:יב כִּ֤י אֶ֥ת אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֶאֱהַ֣ב יְ־הוָ֣ה יוֹכִ֑יחַ וּ֝כְאָ֗ב אֶת־בֵּ֥ן יִרְצֶֽה׃

^{Prov 3:11} Do not reject the discipline of YHWH, my son; do not abhor His rebuke. ^3:12 For whom YHWH loves, He rebukes, as a father the son whom he favors.

The LXX divides Ps 116 into two parts, vv. 1-9 and 10-19, but I agree with the majority of scholars who see vv. 1-19 as a unit.

See Henk Potgieter, “‘I Love Yahweh and I Believe in Him – Therefore I Shall Proclaim His Name’: How Psalm 116 Integrated and Reinterpreted Its Constituent Parts,” OTE 32 (2019), 398-411.

Hermann Gunkel and Joachim Begrich, Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel, trans. James D. Nogalski (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1998), 199; Claus Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms (trans. Keith R. Crim and Richard N. Soulen; Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), 102, categorizes it as a “declarative psalm of praise of the individual;” and Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part 2, and Lamentation, FOTL 15 (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2001), 296, sees it as a “personal thanksgiving.”

The emendation suggested in Aron Pinker, “Psalm 116,15 – Death of the Saints?” ZAW 121 (2009), 529-539, is equally problematic.

BL 528t for other examples of such “völlig bedeutungslos.”

See the following pairs that B-L note: אימתה אימה; ישׁועתה ישׁועה; עזרתה עזרה ;צרתה צרה .

See P. C. H. Wernberg-Møller, “The Old Accusative Case Ending in Biblical Hebrew: Observations on הַמָּוְתָה in Ps. 116;15,” JSS 33 (1988), 155-164, who notes that the form is an archaism, and T. Booij, Psalm 116:10-11,” Bib 76 (1995), 388-395 [394 n. 26], who observes that the ending of hamavta “seems to be no more than a quasi-archaic addition for the sake for the verse-rhythm.” For another example of archaizing in the Hallel psalms, see my “A Woman’s Voice in the Psalter: A New Understanding of Psalm 113,” TheTorah (2019).

Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Vol. 3 The Writings Ketuvim (NY: Norton, 2019), 274. This is also the preferred translation of the NRSV: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.”

Mitchell Dahood, Psalms III, AB (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 3.144.

Ibid., 149.

It may be found in 49:16, but even there is uncertain.

All of these commentaries follow the editions found at https://alhatorah.org/ .

This understanding is also assumed, but not justified, in paragraph 6 in Midrash Psalms (Midrash Shochar Tov) on this psalm. Paragraphs 5, 7 and 8, in contrast, assume the usual interpretation of “precious.” This midrash has a very long compositional history, so the date of this section cannot be determined.

Rabbi David Altschuler of Prague (1687-1769) also glosses yaqar with “difficult” (קשה) in both his Metzudat David and Metzudat Zion commentaries.

On this attribution, see Aharon Mondschein, “On Rashbam’s Rediscovered ‘Lost Commentary’ on Psalms,” Tarbiz 79 (2010), 91-141 (Hebrew). I would like to thank Marty Lockshin for calling this article to my attention.

Moreover, understanding an adjective on the basis of the related verb is problematic, since different parts of speech each interact with different words. Therefore, it is not uncommon for e.g., a verb and a noun to express different nuances.

So e.g. A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms: Books IV and V, CBC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912), 687; J. A. Emerton, “How Does the Lord Regard the Death of His Saints in Psalm cxvi.15?” JTS 34 (1983), 146-156 [150]; see ibn Ezra on 72:14: והטעם יקרים הם בעיניו לא ירצה שיהרגו, “it means: they are precious in His eyes, so he does not want them to be killed.”

Weiser for example translates: “It is too hard in the eyes of the Lord when his godly ones die and are not more”; see Artur Weiser, Psalms, OTL (London: SCM, 1962), 718. Declaissé-Walford renders, “It is too hard in the eyes of the Lord when his godly ones die and are not more.” See Nancy Declaissé et al., The Book of Psalms, NICOT (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004), 859.

Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150, trans. Hilton C. Oswald (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 388-389.

See e.g. Ps 72:12-14; 88:11-13. And concerning YHWH preserving the life of his ḥasidim, Ps 16:10 and 37:28.

John A. Emerton, “How Does the Lord Regard the Death of His Saints in Psalm cxvi.15?” JTS 34 (1983), 146-156.

This is, however, true of the verbal root yqr, but not the adjective yaqar, in Rabbinic Hebrew.

He neglects to cite Zvi Peretz Chajes, Psalms (reprinted Jerusalem: Makor, 1970), 125a (Hebrew). Gary A. Rendsburg, Linguistic Evidence for the Northern Origin of Selected Psalms, SBLMS 43 (Atlanta; Scholars, 1990), 85-86, also claims that the word means “grievous” as in Aramaic, but believes that Ps 116 is a Northern rather than a late psalm. This position has been critiqued (see esp. Na’ama Pat-El, “Israelian Hebrew: A Re-Evaluation,” VT 62 [2017], 227-263) and it is much more likely that the Aramaisms in Ps 116 are a product of its late date of composition.

This is briefly discussed here https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/unusable-words; this article calls contranyms by its other well-known name, “auto-antonyms.”

The observations of the chapter “The Distribution of Homonyms” in James Barr, Comparative Philology and the text of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 125-155, about how multiplying homonyms, are even more relevant for contranyms; such multiplication of meanings interfere with a language’s ability to facilitate communication.

Moses Buttenwieser, The Psalms (reprinted NY: Ktav, 1969 [1938]), 641. Unlike the solution I propose, however, he emends the text by rearranging several letters, and reads היקר, with an initial interrogative הֲ.; his emendation is unnecessary.

Ges 150a; JM 161a; WOC 316 40.1 n. 1. These cite examples from poetry as well, but I have here adduced the simpler examples from prose.

WOC p. 322 18.2.g.

See Katherine Doob Sakenfeld, Faithfulness in Action: Loyalty in Biblical Perspective, OBT (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985); Elinoar Bareket, “Chesed: A Reciprocal Covenant,” TheTorah (2017).

Louis Jacobs, “The Concept of Ḥasid in the Biblical and Rabbinic Literatures,” Journal of Jewish Studies 8 (1957), 143–154 [p. 144].

See OED s.v. “saint, adj. and n.” B.

NJPS translates this as an adjective and noun, not a group name: “Your priests are clothed in triumph; Your loyal ones sing for joy.”

The term appears twice more in the Psalm, and again, can be understood there in this way:

^{תהלים ‎קמט:ה} יַעְלְז֣וּ חֲסִידִ֣ים בְּכָב֑וֹד יְ֝רַנְּנ֗וּ עַל־מִשְׁכְּבוֹתָֽם׃

^{Ps 149:5} Let the faithful (or Loyalists) exult in glory; let them shout for joy upon their couches,

^קמט:ט ...הָדָ֣ר הוּ֭א לְכָל־חֲסִידָ֗יו הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃

^149:9 … This is the glory of all His faithful (or Loyalists). Hallelujah.

John Kampen, The Hasideans and the Origin of Pharisaim: A Study in 1 and 2 Maccabees, SBLSCSS (Atlanta: Scholars, 1988), 2-17; cf. Ringgren, “חָסִיד ḥāsı̂ḏ^*” TDOT 5.79; and Julian Morgenstern, “The Ḥasîdîm—Who Were They?” HUCA 38 (1967), 59-73.

For a survey of the conventional view, with literature, see John Kampen, “Hasideans,” in Collins and Harlow, eds., The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, 704-705. Philip Davies, “Ḥasidim in the Maccabean Period,” JJS 28 (1977), 127-140 strongly argues that this view is incorrect, and concludes (p. 140):

The view that the Ḥasidim were a sect has existed for a long time; perhaps the point has been reached when it should be abandoned rather than elaborated into a detailed hypothesis. The history of second-century BC Judaism can be written without it.

Elisheva Baumgarten has recently shown that such a group or movement with that name never existed, though there certainly were individual pious Jewish men and women living in medieval Germany. Elisheva Baumgarten, “Who Was a Ḥasid or Ḥasidah in Medieval Ashkenaz? Reassessing the Social Implications of a Term,” forthcoming in Jewish History 34 (2021); I would like to thank the author for sharing a preprint of this article with me.

For a discussion of the possibility of such a group being referenced in Psalm 30, see my, “Reciting Psalm 30 on Chanukah: A Biblical Custom,” TheTorah (2014).