ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Psalms 42.1-2

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. For the Chief Musician. Maschil of the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God?

  1. My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4. These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday. (Psalms 42:1-4, ASV)
WEB

1. For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

  1. My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” 4. These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. (Psalms 42:1-4, WEB)
KJV

1. To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Maschil: or, A Psalm giving instruction of the sons, etc panteth: Heb. brayeth 2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

  1. My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. (Psalms 42:1-4, KJV)
YLT

1. To the Overseer., An Instruction. By sons of Korah. As a hart doth pant for streams of water, So my soul panteth toward Thee, O God. 2. My soul thirsted for God, for the living God, When do I enter and see the face of God?

  1. My tear hath been to me bread day and night, In their saying unto me all the day, 'Where [is] thy God?' 4. These I remember, and pour out my soul in me, For I pass over into the booth, I go softly with them unto the house of God, With the voice of singing and confession, The multitude keeping feast! (Psalms 42:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: the sons of Korah, per the superscription
  • Audience: Israel gathered in worship; the Psalter is the congregation's book
  • Location: the sanctuary and its liturgy, rather than a narrative setting
  • Time period: the monarchy or later; individual psalms are difficult to date and the Psalter was compiled over centuries

Theological reading

As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

The image is of need rather than preference. A deer at a dry streambed is not enjoying a longing; it is in danger, and the verb describes the sound an animal makes in that condition.

The second verse names the specific deprivation: when shall I come and appear before God. The psalmist's trouble is distance from the sanctuary, and the psalm's refrain, why are you cast down O my soul, recurs three times across Psalms 42 and 43, which the manuscript tradition and the shared refrain suggest were once one poem.

The psalm is a lament that never resolves into report of answer. Its final word is hope, repeated as instruction to the psalmist's own soul, and the honest note is that he is arguing with himself throughout.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.