Verses of Song

p'sukei d'zimra

פסוקי דזמרא

Israeli: ' marks a reduced vowel that Israeli speech drops (b'rachah); when the vowel is pronounced it is written e (lefanecha). - separates syllables that would otherwise run together.

How to read the transliterations

Psalm 149

Hebrew

הַלְלוּיָהּ.
שִׁירוּ לַיהֹוָה שִׁיר חָדָשׁ, תְּהִלָּתוֹ בִּקְהַל חֲסִידִים.
יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֹשָׂיו, בְּנֵי צִיּוֹן יָגִילוּ בְמַלְכָּם.
יְהַלְלוּ שְׁמוֹ בְמָחוֹל, בְּתֹף וְכִנּוֹר יְזַמְּרוּ לוֹ.
כִּי רוֹצֶה יְהֹוָה בְּעַמּוֹ, יְפָאֵר עֲנָוִים בִּישׁוּעָה.
יַעְלְזוּ חֲסִידִים בְּכָבוֹד, יְרַנְּנוּ עַל מִשְׁכְּבוֹתָם.
רוֹמְמוֹת אֵל בִּגְרוֹנָם, וְחֶרֶב פִּיפִיּוֹת בְּיָדָם.
לַעֲשׂוֹת נְקָמָה בַגּוֹיִם, תּוֹכֵחוֹת בַּלְאֻמִּים.
לֶאְסֹר מַלְכֵיהֶם בְּזִקִּים וְנִכְבְּדֵיהֶם בְּכַבְלֵי בַרְזֶל.
לַעֲשׂוֹת בָּהֶם מִשְׁפָּט כָּתוּב, הָדָר הוּא לְכָל־חֲסִידָיו.
הַלְלוּיָהּ.

Israeli

haleluyah.
shiru ladonai shir chadash, tehilato bikhal chasidim.
yismach Yisra-el be-osav, b'nei Tziyon yagilu v'malkam.
yehalelu sh'mo v'machol, b'tof vechinor yezameru lo.
ki rotzeh Adonai be-amo, yefa-er anavim bishu-ah.
yalezu chasidim b'chavod, yeranenu al mishkevotam.
romemot El bigronam, vecherev pifiyot b'yadam.
la-asot nekamah vagoyim, tochechot balumim.
lesor malcheihem b'zikim venichbedeihem b'chavlei varzel.
la-asot bahem mishpat katuv, hadar hu lechol-chasidav.
haleluyah.

English

HALLELUYAH! Praise God. Sing to Adonai a new song, praise God amidst the congregation of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice with its maker, the children of Zion celebrate their sovereign. Let them praise God’s name in dance and sing to God with timbrel and lyre. For Adonai loves this people, and will crown the humbled with deliverance. Honored, the faithful shall rejoice, exulting as they recline upon their couches. With high praise of God on their lips and a double-edged sword in their hands, they shall exact retribution of the nations, chastising the peoples of the world, locking their rulers in cuffs, their princes in iron chains, to carry out the decrees of justice. Then shall all the faithful be glorified! Praise God, halleluyah!

Commentary

PSALM 149. This psalm helps build toward the exultant crescendo of the final psalm. The first half of the poem is replete with synonyms for song and rejoicing. Then the poet enunciates a vision of an endtime when justice is executed and corruption is repaid with the appropriate punishment. Israel, the symbol of the oppressed, will wage this war for justice.

IN DANCE בְמָחוֹל. The accompaniment of instrumental music and dance represents the height of joyful expression. Famously, King David danced—leaping and whirling—before the ark as it was brought to Jerusalem.

AS THEY RECLINE עַל מִשְׁכְּבוֹתָם. Festive meals were celebrated with the participants lounging on couches.

A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD IN THEIR HANDS וְחֶרֶב פִּיפִיּוֹת בְּיָדָם. The image of vengeance invoked in this psalm might be explained by its next-to-last line, where the poet evokes the promise of justice. Oppression is a product of injustice that must be fought.

LOCKING THEIR RULERS לֶאְסֹר מַלְכֵיהֶם. The midrash points out that it is the rulers of these nations who are to be punished, but not the peoples—because it is the rulers who have led these people astray (Midrash on Psalms).

Other Peoples To be a holy nation meant, in the first place, to be separated from the pollution of the nations. In biblical terms this pollution consisted of idolatry and its concomitant moral corruption—the two being indissolubly bound in biblical thought. [But equally,] the kinship of all people as the descendants of one father and the creatures of one Creator impressed itself upon the Hebrew imagination. How can I ignore the rightful claim of my servant, cries Job, “Did not he who made me in the belly make him? Did not One fashion us both in the womb?” (Job 31:15). This passage so worked upon the Palestinian sage, Rabbi Yohanan, that “Whatever food he partook of he shared with his servant” (Talmud of the Land of Israel, Ketubot 5:5). The myth of one mankind under one God in primeval times—from Adam to the Tower-builders—pressed for a complementary vision of a reunited mankind under God at the end of time. The author of that vision was the prophet Isaiah [and that vision was taken up by the later prophets]. The promise of a glorious denouement to human history, in which Israel’s faith and steadfastness to its covenant would be vindicated and all men would join hands with it in subservience to their common Creator, were a beacon of hope in the vale of gloom and tears through which Israel walked for centuries. —MOSHE GREENBERG …

Double-Edged Sword What is the double-edged sword the people Israel were given? This is the Torah—both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. And what battles do they fight? These are the arguments over the meaning of Torah: how should we act? how should we exercise judgment? —NUMBERS RABBAH …