Friday, October 27, 2006
Reflections on “counsel” and “tree” in Psalm 1
As we reflected on Psalm 1 in staff meeting this week (by singing SNC #85), I was struck by how weak the English word “advice” is in the first verse. (I’m persuaded that the NRSV is generally the
best available English translation of the Bible, but no translation is perfect.)
Advice is worth two cents—at least, that’s what an honest person will tell you when offering her advice: “This is just my two cents, but if you want my advice…” “Counsel” is a weightier word, although a little dated (as is the phrase “walk in the counsel,” which was used by the KJV translators, following the lead of Wycliffe’s “yede [goes] not in the councel of wickid men”). “Counsel” might capture a little more of the Hebrew word etsah (“counsel, advice, purpose”). Etsah seems like more of an deliberate strategy, a detailed plan, not casually-dispensed opinion or an answer from Ann Landers. Etsah is the word used for “plan” in the first verse of Isaiah 30:
Oh, rebellious children, says the Lord,
who carry out a plan, but not mine;
who make an alliance, but against my will,
adding sin to sin ...
And can it just be a coincidence that the word for “counsel” is etsah, and the word for “tree” two verses later is ets? Apparently they have different syllable structures, but they do set up an interesting contrast.
In any case, here’s Derek Kidner in his IVP commentary:
Counsel, way and seat (or assembly, or dwelling) draw attention to the realms of thinking, behaving and belonging, in which a person’s fundamental choice of allegiance is made and carried through ...
As usual, Eugene Peterson has one of the most memorable and resonant articulations of this verse in his paraphrase The Message
you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.
See these solid reflections on Hebrew words from Psalm 1—ets, etsah, and shathal (“planted”), in Jonathan Went’s helpful Hebrew Thoughts column
Also see this meditation on Psalm 1 by Ryan Schreiber.
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