Ps 49:7-9, 15, RSV. לָקַח > יִקָּחֵ֣נִי. For he, rather than the Pit/Sheol, will take me in. BDB 4f is "receive, accept, esp. a bribe, gift, ransom, etc.", but then v. 15 would contradict v. 7 (which, if אָ֗ח is (as in the note) "brother," may not be reflexive in nature).
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
No man. But God
Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life [(אָ֗ח לֹא־פָדֹ֣ה יִפְדֶּ֣ה אִ֑ישׁ לֹא־יִתֵּ֖ן לֵאלֹהִ֣ים כָּפְרֹֽו)], for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice [(וְ֭יֵקַר פִּדְיֹ֥ון נַפְשָׁ֗ם וְחָדַ֥ל לְעֹולָֽם)], that he should continue to live on for ever, and never see the Pit. . . . But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me [(אַךְ־אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִפְדֶּ֣ה נַ֭פְשִׁי מִֽיַּד־שְׁאֹ֑ול כִּ֖י יִקָּחֵ֣נִי)].
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“...and as for the seventh verse of the forty-ninth Psalm in the Book of Common Prayer, 'But no man may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto God for him', that is to me poetry so moving that I can hardly keep my voice steady in reading it. And that this is the effect of language I can ascertain by experiment: the same thought in the bible version, 'None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him', I can read without emotion.” -- A.E. Housman, "The Name and Nature of Poetry" (the Leslie Stephen Lecture for 1933, at Cambridge, May 1933).
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