Kehunat Avraham (The Priesthood of Abraham): On Psalm 23

Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen

Before 1719

The Meaning of Psalm 23

If the Lord shepherds me in the wilderness,
   I will find that my cup runs over for me
With vines, fig trees, and pomegranates;
   There my soul will be satisfied and live.
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want (Psalms 23:1)
A Psalm by David to the King,
   The Lord over the whole world,
Who shepherds and has provided all my grazing until now.
   His good eye has not spared
From the family of Peretz
   The rod, staff, or stick.
I will sing praises to His name;
   I will not want anything, for I placed my support in Him;
I will lack no goodness, for upon Him I have thrown my trust.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters (Psalms 23:2).
In peaceful pastures, in a meadow
   Of grass and sprouting herbs,
And in good, fat grasslands, there He will lie me down.
   Buds will flower there;
There all types of shrubs will grow;
   There He will grant me my portion; there He will direct me;
He will lead me by the still waters.
   I will come to meditate at a source of living waters
There I will graze, there I will lie down, there I will rest.
He restores [yeshovev] my soul; He guides me in straight paths for His name’s sake (Psalms 23:3)
If my soul backslides [shovevet],
   It is my Rock who will restore it;
Forever He will guide me among the straight paths.
   If my spirit abandons goodness,
He will turn it away from an evil path;
   He will remove my feet from thorns, nettles, and thistles.
The Lord who repairs
   Will guard me from entering the paths of wickedness
And for the sake of His holy name will show me salvation.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Psalms 23:4).
Yea, though I walk on the wrong
   Path, toward the valley of the shadow of death
I will laugh, I will live secure,
   I will arise, standing on a knee;
I will not fear death,
   For You are with me; why should I be afraid?
I will store up my comfort
   There too, for You have placed Your rod in my right hand,
And you have laid in my left hand Your staff of strength.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup runs over (Psalms 23:5)
Please set a row of my allotted
   Bread, filled with fine foods;
And before me place a table laid with the bounty of the forest.
   All men who have persecuted me from the womb
Shall have to sit and watch from afar.
   His teeth shall be blunted, he shall roll around as in a storm,
A razor shall pierce his heart.
   For You have anointed my head with the good oil,
And You have set my overflowing cup beside me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalms 23:6)
Surely goodness, righteousness, and mercy
   Will follow me always
All the days, at all times of my life, endlessly.
   Perversion, disgrace, and shame
Shall no longer wash over me.
   I will return and sit in the house of God, in glory and forever.
There I will place a crown on the forehead;
   I will dwell there until the end of time, as I yearn for it,
And I have set it as my tabernacle forever.

 

Translated by

Avi 
Steinhart

.

Page of Hebrew text with portrait of man with curly hair in center of page, surrounded by round frame with Hebrew words inside it.
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Kehunat Avraham (The Priesthood of Abraham), published in Venice in 1719, is an interpretation and retelling of sections from the book of Psalms in verse. This portrait of its author, Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen, is believed to be a self-portrait, and he likely also produced some of the engravings in the book. He is depicted wearing a laurel wreath on his head, framed in an oval that identifies him as “Abraham ha-Kohen, the doctor, the philosopher.”

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Credits

Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen, Kehunat Avraham (The Priesthood of Abraham) (Venice, 1719), 23–24.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen

1670–1729

Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen was born in Crete. He studied medicine at the University of Padua and subsequently settled on the island of Zante, then under Venetian rule, where he practiced as a physician. Abraham was also a poet, artist, and scholar. His Kehunat Avraham (The Priesthood of Abraham) is an interpretation and retelling of sections from the book of Psalms in verse. The book includes various engravings, among them the poet’s self-portrait and possibly others by the author himself. The adaptation of Psalms is followed by a similar reworking of Perek shirah (Chapter of Song, an early medieval text in which all elements of creation praise God), entitled Bene Keturah (Children of Keturah).

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