Psalm 72:15 translation

[Jake]

Psalm 72:15 has a phrase rendered differently in a few different Bible versions:

• “daily shall he be praised” (KJV)
• “Let them bless him all day long” (NASB; CSB similar)
• "blessings invoked for him all the day" (RSV, ESV; NRSV similar)

My first instinct was to assume the worst from the RSV translators, especially as some older commentators use this verse to show forth the Divinity of the Messiah (which makes sense when you have the KJV in front of you). However, it appears that this exact phrasing (יְבָרֲכֶֽנְהֽוּ׃) is unique to this text in the Bible and it's a bit hard to render. Is there any merit to how the RSV and descendants render this? Can anyone better in Hebrew help me understand how this should be translated?

 

[iainduguid]

Well, it doesn't look too hard to me. The piel of barak normally means "to bless" (e.g. Gen 27:29), so literally it reads "may he [an undefined subject] bless him all day long" (see NASB; CSB, and also Septuagint). What does it mean to bless someone? Generally when used of humans it means to invoke God's blessing upon them (see Gen 27:29 again). In parallel with the preceding "May prayer be made for him continually", that makes perfectly good sense: the people pray for the king and ask God to bless him. A verb with an undefined 3rd person subject is often used in Hebrew where we would use a passive, especially where an agent is envisaged.

Having said that, there are places where humans "bless" God, where it has a sense much closer to praise (cf Ps 72:18 in the CSB). But generally the KJV consistently renders barak elsewhere as "bless", even with reference to God (see Ps &2:18 KJV). So I'm not sure why the KJV went with "praise" here. It's a puzzle. John Gill notes the alternative "and he shall bless him".

Note: the KJV renders the wcji verbs as imperfects, but they are likely jussives. The first in the string is almost certainly "May he live" rather than "and he shall live" (which you would expect to be veyichyeh).