The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary

by Robert Alter

my conscience. The Hebrew says “kidneys” (King James Version, “reins”), thought to be the seat of conscience as the heart was thought to be the seat of understanding. The two terms are often joined, either in a collocation (“heart and kidneys”) or, as here, in parallel versets.

128 A song of ascents. 1 Happy all who fear the LORD, who walk in His ways. When you eat of the toil of your hands, 2 happy are you, and it is good for you. 3 Your wife is like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your house, your children like young olive trees around your table. 4 Look, for it is thus that the man is blessed who fears the LORD. 5 May the LORD bless you from Zion, and may you see Jerusalem’s good all the days of your life. 6 And may you see children of your children. Peace upon Israel!

130 A song of ascents. 1 From the depths I called You, LORD. Master, hear my voice. 2 May Your ears listen close to the voice of my plea. Were You, O Yah, to watch for wrongs, 3 Master, who could endure? For forgiveness is Yours, 4 so that You may be feared. 5 I hoped for the LORD, my being hoped, and for His word I waited. 6 My being for the Master— more than the dawn-watchers watch for the dawn. 7 Wait, O Israel, for the LORD, for with the LORD is steadfast kindness, and great redemption is with Him. 8 And He will redeem Israel from all its wrongs.

137 By Babylon’s streams, 1 there we sat, oh we wept, when we recalled Zion. On the poplars there 2 we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors had asked of us words of song, and our plunderers—rejoicing: “Sing us from Zion’s songs.” 4 How can we sing a song of the LORD on foreign soil? 5 Should I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither. 6 May my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not recall you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy. Recall, O LORD, the Edomites, 7 on the day of Jerusalem, saying: “Raze it, raze it, to its foundation!” Daughter of Babylon the despoiler, 8 happy who pays you back in kind, for what you did to us. Happy who seizes and smashes 9 your infants against the rock.