Psalm II Comparisson

After reading Psalm II from The Bay of Psalms book, it is clear that there are many changes to the original Hebrew Psalm text. The word which stands out the most is Heathen, from the Bay of Psalms. Heathen is a term defined by the dictionary as a person who does not believe in your god, or a non-christian. The puritans were said to disapprove of the Hebrew translation of some of the psalms and hired some thirty poets to rewrite them for their own pleasure. Here, the translation of the word "peoples" to "heathen" seams directed towards the Jewish religion in a demeaning tone; however the puritans have not been recorded as disliking the Jewish religion. In fact, puritans are direct descendants of Judaism.

None the less, the Bay of Psalms book changes the meaning of the original Psalm compleatly. In the original text, the word Lord is all capitals and in the Puritan Psalm Lord is in all lower case lettering. The word Lord in capitals is a refrence to the Jewish religion and the Puritans did not keep the same meaning in the Psalm. Another difference is that the original text has much stronger venacular. Instead of saying "Master derides them", as it says in the original, the Puritans say "the lord will mock them". The original text implies a worse implication for conspireing against the lord and his annoited.

In early colonial America it is understandable that the Puritans would change the meaning of some Psalms to fit their own interpretation of the Jewish Psalm text. Just as we talked about when the early residents of America changed the meaning of effigy munds to fit their own world view, the same seams to have happened here. The Jewish text was not too far off from what they wanted to sing about; however the Puritans wanted their own religion to be preached the way they thought it should be.