{"id":88759,"date":"2021-02-14T22:27:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T20:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=88759"},"modified":"2021-02-14T22:27:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T20:27:48","slug":"the-lord-said-to-my-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-lord-said-to-my-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord Said To My Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"88759","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"677","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

The English translation of the opening verse of our psalm, \u201cOf David. A psalm. The LORD [YHVH, pronounced <\/span>adonay<\/span><\/em>] said to my lord [<\/span>adoni<\/span><\/em>], \u2018Sit at My right hand while I make your enemies your footstool,\u2019\u201d poses a conundrum: How can The Lord speak to my lord without speaking to Himself (as it were)?<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi\u2019s solution is to distinguish between the first Lord, which represents God and is, therefore, capitalized, and the second lord, which is a common noun in lower case. To whom does it refer? He explained: \u201cOur Rabbis interpreted it as referring to Abraham our father, and I shall explain it according to their words (Midrash Psalms 110:1): The word of the Lord to Abraham, whom the world called \u2018my master,\u2019 as it is written (Gen. 23:6): \u2018Hearken to us, my master.\u2019”<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibn Ezra opened with the admission: \u201cOne can correctly interpret this psalm as referring to Abraham, for the psalm goes on to say after the manner of Melchizedek (4),\u201d but after pointing out that the reference to Zion (2) would be anachronistic, he added: \u201cIt appears to me that, in reality, one of the poets composed this psalm with regard to David\u2026 The poet composed this poem when David\u2019s men adjured him, saying, thou shalt go no more out with us to battle (2 Sam. 21:17).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, we can resolve this conundrum simply by altering the translation, as Robert Alter actually did, rendering it: \u201cThe Lord\u2019s utterance to my master,\u201d which he\u2014correctly\u2014justified by pointing out that \u201cthe noun at the beginning of verse 5 reads \u2018<\/em><\/span>adonai<\/span><\/em>, showing the plural suffix invariably used when the noun \u2018<\/em><\/span>adon<\/span><\/em> is a designation for God,\u201d while the second usage, \u2018<\/em><\/span>adoni<\/span><\/em>, has a first-person singular suffix. Like Ibn Ezra, he concluded that \u201cthis is a royal psalm, and the speaker\u2026 would appear to be a court poet\u201d (264).<\/span><\/p>\n

Radak cited a Christian claim that this is an allusion to Jesus: \u201cThe opening verse clarifies the matter of the father and the son\u2026 saying, How can the Lord speak to the lord? Because they are two,\u201d citing the same grammatical distinction as Alter in his refutation. He also noted that the Christians interpreted <\/span>hadrei kodesh meirechem<\/span><\/em> (\u201cIn majestic holiness, from the womb,\u201d v. 3) as an allusion to Jesus\u2019s \u201cmiraculous\u201d birth.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Lord Said To My Lord","main_caption":"A conundrum: How can The Lord speak to my lord without speaking to Himself (as it were)?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88771,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759\/revisions\/88771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}