The Chariot and the Horses: Reappraising Psalm 20:8 Glimpses into the Hebrew Text - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 16, 3 (2024) 163–172

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2024-0038

Abstract. The study will focus on the different modes of translating and interpreting the Hebrew verse 20:8 from The Book of Psalms, highlighting the richness of textual and contextual significances, in order to convey its appropriate, attentively delineated content in Biblical Hebrew while preserving (and defending in translation) its quality of hiding and deploying countless layers of interpretation.

How then could its translation be at the same time precise and capable of recalling a similar horizon, meant to actuate and evoke unlimited significances? The translation needs to be technical and accurate on the one hand and suggestive, without allowing the emergence of a different inner landscape within the translated text on the other hand. The new linguistic garments should be able to adapt in order to convey, as much as possible, the same message in distinct situations.

Correspondences will be traced between Psalm 20:8 and 2 Kings 2 (Elijah’s Ascension to Heaven). For hermeneutical purposes, Moses Maimonides’s approach, in The Guide of the Perplexed, regarding the Account of the Divine Chariot (Merkavah) will be brought into discussion.

Keywords: Psalms, Hebrew, translation, Divine Chariot, horses