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NASB | Psalm 119:1 How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the LORD. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 119:1 How blessed and favored by God are those whose way is blameless [those with personal integrity, the upright, the guileless], Who walk in the law [and who are guided by the precepts and revealed will] of the LORD. |
Bible Question: Shalom, brothers and sisters. I have a question about Psalm 119. Each section has a letter from the hebrew alphabet, is there a reason for this, or is that how the Psalm was divided up? Praise the Lord, michael. |
Bible Answer: Dear Michael :: This majestic Psalm 119, a marvelous paean to God's word, celebrates the supreme excellence of Scripture in a uniquely beautiful and poetic way found nowhere else in all the Bible. It is written in acrostic form, being divided into 22 sections, each section representing the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are eight verses in each section, each verse beginning with the same Hebrew letter, Aleph in the first section, Beth in the second, Gimel in the third, and so on through Tav, the final section. Thus, in all eight verses in the first section, the first word in each verse begins with the Hebrew letter Aleph, and so on. You will notice that the Psalm contains 176 verses, which is the product of 8 (verses) x 22 (sections). It's hard to imagine the consummate linguistic skill required to construct this masterpiece in the Hebrew. I am poor in that I don't know Hebrew, but I have read many times that scholars of ancient Hebrew are lavish in their unbridled admiration for the unexcelled poetry in the Hebrew Scriptures. --Hank |