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I'm teaching my Sunday School class a little Hebrew by going over Ps. 119. They've never studied it before, but are interested. So glad to have found qbible.com It is a great help!
- Lianiel (7/18/2013 5:00:13 PM) [qBible.com]
The word אשרי , the first word of psalm 119 is almost universally translated as "Blessed". However that is a bit of a problem, because we don't usually employ the word "Blessed" in our ordinary non-religious conversations, or even in our non-religious literature. We really don't know the meaning of the Hebrew word אשרי , or of the English word used to translate it, "Blessed". We just have a picture in our minds of someone smiling, with a beatific glow. So the modern translators, looking for a nice convenient single word chose the well-used modern word "happy" Problem. Big problem. If we go to the root of happy, it meant originally, favored by the pagan idol named by the first three letters of that word. Ew. Almost the opposite of the picture of the glowing smiling saint - we have a picture of the head bobbing hedonist who is very happy to have won the lottery. So what of the etymological root of the word אשרי ? The Hebrew root is asher, אשר , which means flat, plain, straight, and upright. אשר also is used as a pointer, an arrow, going directly from one point to another. It is translated as which or that or who. I use the word upright or straight. Praiseworthy is another fairly good translation. But neither of those words gives quite the personal sense of blessed or happy. But surely there is joy, contentment and gladness associated with the status of being upright and straight.
- AnneLark (2/28/2012 9:37:28 PM) [qBible.com]

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