June 12, 2009

Judge me

In Psalm 26:1, David asks God to judge שפטני him.

In Psalm 143:2, David asks God not to enter into judgment במשפט with him.

The tension between these two requests has been the source of interesting exegesis, (e.g., see Rashi and Midrash Tehillim; see also Augustine on Psalms).   Those who argue for translations which use different root words in Latin (judicare, vindicare) have missed the tension entirely.

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