Chapter 113

2021

1st Stanza, Praise to the Lord.

2nd, God's power and majesty and help to His people.

2021 - The first two words of this psalm, transliterated from Hebrew, are Halal Ya.  Halal is a primitive root word most commonly translated praise, glory, or boast.  Ya is the shortened form of Yehova.  I am interested in whether this word Halal is the same one the Muslims use of acceptable food.  Their food must be Halal.  Sonny told me that means the animal was blessed before it was processed into food.  It is "praise food" maybe or something like that.  But this whole first verse in Hebrew just flows.  Here is the whole verse, in ESV, and then transliterated:

1 Praise the LORD!                                                                    halal Ya

Praise, O servants of the LORD,                                          halal ebed Yehova

praise the name of the LORD! [Psa 113:1 ESV]             halal et sem Yehova

Look how easily this could be memorized in Hebrew!  The ESV translation tries to keep the form of the verse by starting each verse with "praise", and ending each verse with "Lord".  A great translation...just not as succinct and memorable as the Hebrew.