1A song of ascents for David.
I rejoiced in those who said to me:
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
2Our feet were standing
in your gates, Jerusalem.
3Jerusalem built like a town
4where the tribes go up,
the tribes of Jah.
An ordinance it is for Israel
to acclaim the name of the LORD.
5For there the thrones of judgment stand,
the thrones of the house of David.
6Pray for Jerusalem’s weal.
May your lovers rest tranquil!
7May there be well-being within your ramparts,
tranquillity in your palaces.
8For the sake of my brothers and my companions,
let me speak, pray, of your weal.
9For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
let me seek your good.
PSALM 122 NOTES
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1. Let us go to the house of the LORD. These words are a clear indication that this is a psalm of Zion founded in the pilgrimage experience. But because many of the other “songs of ascents” do not refer to pilgrimage, whereas a good many other psalms do, this text provides no conclusive evidence that “ascents” means “pilgrimage.”
2. Our feet were standing / in your gates, Jerusalem. As in other psalms of Zion, the liminal experience of crossing into the walled city, or into the Temple precincts, is strongly marked.
3. joined fast together. The most probable reference is to the fortifications of Jerusalem or, specifically, to the protective wall that encloses it.
4. where the tribes go up, / the tribes of Jah. “Go up” is the technical verb for pilgrimage. Jerusalem as the locus of the central cult is envisaged here as the focus of national unity. All this makes it highly likely that this psalm was composed sometime after the centralization of the cult in Jerusalem by King Josiah around 621 B.C.E.
5. For there the thrones of judgment stand. The Hebrew says, “For there the thrones of judgment sit,” with the use of that verb perhaps encouraged by the fact that one sits on a throne. It is noteworthy that cultic centrality is here joined with the centralization of judicial authority—and, implicitly, of political authority as well—in the Davidic dynasty’s capital. This is very much in line with Josiah’s program.
6. May your lovers rest tranquil. The “your” is feminine singular in the Hebrew, clearly addressing Jerusalem, after the plural imperative of the first verset directed to the people. Such switches in pronominal reference are common in biblical Hebrew. The verb translated as “rest tranquil,” yishlayu, richly alliterates with yerushalayim, “Jerusalem,” and with shalom, “weal,” “well-being,” or “peace.” The poet’s repeated insistence in the concluding lines of the psalm on shalom is probably an etymological play on the name of the city.
7. ramparts / . . . palaces. As in many lines of biblical poetry, there is a narrative progression from the first verset to the second—first the ramparts, then the palaces within them, following the path of the pilgrim coming up to the city.