[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Thou shalt keep them, O Lord : thou shalt preserve him from this generation for ever.

Now we review the commentary with the verse references in the margin added.

=====
COMMENTARY

Keep them: that is, not as the passage is generally taken, Keep or guard Thy people, but

Thou shalt keep, or make good, Thy words: and by so doing,
shalt preserve him--him, the needy, him, the poor--from this generation.

Thou shalt keep Thy word,
-- "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall nourish thee;"

Psalm 55:22 (#23 in text)
Cast thy burden upon the LORD,
and he shall sustain thee:
he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

Thy word,
"I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go"

Psalm 32:8 (#9 in text)
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:
I will guide thee with mine eye.

Thy word,
"Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom;"

Luke 12:32
Fear not, little flock;
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

and so, preserving him from this generation, shalt hereafter give him a portion with that happier generation, the general assembly of the First-born which are written in heaven. .

Hebrews 12:23
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect

=====

The sharp reader will notice that this is the commentary of Michael Ayguan (Ay. in margin). This commentary is referenced in:

http://www.wayoflife.org/otimothy/tl040003.htm
The Translational And Exegetical Rendering Of Psalm 12:7 Primarily Considered In The Churchly Tradition Of The 16Th And 17Th Centuries And Its Expression In The Reformation English Bibles: THEE GENIUS OF AMBIGUITY, By Peter Van Kleeck

This essay will show the diversity of the textual and exegetical tradition of Psalm 12:6-7 ... By so doing, the inadequacy of modern renditions of Psalm 12:7 will be exposed...

"Michael Ayguan (1340-1416) ... On Psalm 12:7 Ayguan comments, Keep them: that is, not as the passage is generally taken, Keep or guard Thy people, but Thou shalt keep, or make good, Thy words: and by doing so, shalt preserve him--him, the needy, him, the poor--from this generation..."

Reasonable enough. Not sure if Peter Van Kleeck says much more from the David Cloud extract. Now we know the Ayguan reference in more fulness. Michael Ayguan shows us that the inferior understanding "keep or guard thy people" was general in his time. However this would be no surprise at all in 1400, when the OT Latin text was often the center of Christian attention (in fact, it is rather surprising that Michael Ayguan saw what he did nonetheless.. did he read both the Hebrew and Latin ? were there variants in the Latin ? All this I am not sure .. my conjecture will be for now that he worked with the Hebrew text as primary, Latin as secondary. This may be discoverable within Neale and Littledale.)

All this changed when the Reformation in the 1500s moved to the direct translation from the Hebrew Bible, until then most non-Jewish commentators were actually working with "us and us", thus "people" or "poor and needy". Until the 1500s the bulk of "words" understanding was Jewish commentators, Ibn Ezra fullly and Rashi partially, and a Psalms midrash to research. The times were changing in the 1500s, where we go to Luther and Calvin and the Geneva Bible as primary sources, along with John Rogers and Becke, Coverdale and Matthew. Maybe we should summarize all those pre-KJB Reformation evidences in one post, including Ainsworth around 1610, although to a large extent that is exactly what is done in David Cloud quoting Peter Van Kleeck. So we are ok on that for now.

We also know that Michael Ayguan wrote a very strong commentary that views Psalm 12:7a, but not Psalm 12:7b as applying to the words of God ("split interpretation").

No huge revelations in these three posts, yet some fascinating history, blanks filled in, dots connected. Next we will watch the scholarly reaction of Doug Kutilek.

Get your dunce-caps ready.

And remember Doug Kutilek is the 'premier' anti-Psalm-12-preservation writer, the only one we know that actually wrote a full paper to try to deny the connection, the one that is quoted by others. We already saw he pulled a real slick deception on Rashi, next Doug Kutilek on .. the above.

Shalom,
Steven