“He that keepeth Israel”
Robert F. Graboyes is a writer I often read, and I recommend this more personal piece he wrote about his beloved recently-deceased wife. RIP. She sounds like a rare and wonderful person, and it sounds as though they had a blessed marriage.
But I’m also writing this to focus on Psalm 121, which he quotes thusly:
The Jewish Publication Society’s 1985 translation of Psalm 121 reads as follows:
“I turn my eyes to the mountains; from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot give way; your guardian will not slumber;
See, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps! …”
I remember that psalm, but it’s the King James Version that I recall. That version goes like this:
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, Which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
I’ve written previously about my preference for the King James Version rather than later versions; you can find the post here. And with Psalm 121 I feel the same way, especially the line “Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.” What’s wrong with “behold” and why would anyone change it to “see”? I don’t know the Hebrew, and perhaps “see” is more correct, but I can’t imagine why because see and behold mean more or less the same thing, although the latter has much more gravitas and importance. Don’t we want gravitas and importance for the guardian/keeper of Israel?
And what about guardian versus keeper? The former is a somewhat legalistic word and it even conjures up the idea of an adult taking care of a child. It seems all wrong to me. Now, you might not like the archaic “eth” suffix on the word “keep,” and although I like it very much I can see an argument to leave it off. But I see nothing wrong with “keep” or “keepeth” versus “guardian.”
And there’s that extra word “shall” in the King James Version. I very much like it; it adds weight as well. After all, “the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” sounds more like the guardian might have insomnia and we don’t know why. The “shall” in the KJV connects the guarding and keeping with the vigilance involved in not sleeping.
And the “slumber nor sleep” is redundant, of course, because they are synonyms; but saying something two times in different ways is one of the conventions of Biblical poetry. Fortunately, both versions keep that convention (or do they guard that convention?).
KJV is lovely and has all the cultural associations of being THE English Bible for Protestants over most of the last 400 years, but so many English words have changed their meanings that for clarity I will go to a newer one. In addition, translations have improved just from there being more available to work from since King James’ time. At home I use the Oxford Study Bible, which uses 1989’s REB.
KJV is still really important for English literature since any quotes or allusions up until the 20th century almost certainly come from it. An example from Mark Twain’s Roughing It:
That just wouldn’t sound as well in modern English.
Translators have an unbridled freedom of word choices in their translations. They are well-positioned to erode our cultural standards. See what the result of translating the 21st Psalm is by comparing the King James version with the NIV. NIV is the New International Version. No majesty in the NIV. Kinda like the UN General Assembly: Lots of voices, no dignity.
Incidentally the KJV was written in the speech of its own time, and not in the English of Chaucer or Beowulf. I wonder if the scholars of that time would be flattered or puzzled by our attachment to the language of KJV.
It’s interesting what gets frozen in its associations. I’m not the first to point it out, but the stereotypical haunted house we see in movies and cartoons, usually a kind of Victorian “Queen Anne”, would have been about 60 – 80 years old in the 1950s. The equivalent today would be a ranch-style or a split-level from the 1960s, or some gross concrete Brutalist thing.
Neo, thank you for this post, which leads to reading the Scriptures. I agree with Niketas’ first post, about the poetry of the KJV, and the reasons for the subsequent revisions. Personally, I enjoy both versions of the Psalm quoted equally.
I have also heard that “One of the primary ways biblical authors emphasized something was by repeating it.”
https://www.bible-bridge.com/genesis-1-lesson-3-repetition-in-genesis-1/
KJV is beautiful – but the original Hebrew text is direct, compact and terse. Although Biblical Hebrew has some now-archaic forms, it is still much more colloquial and less flowery than KJV…. we know that the KJV, like Shakespeare, did not represent the way most people spoke.
Regarding accuracy – the following readings are closer to the original text:
…the LORD, -maker- of heaven and earth.
… He will not let your foot -stumble- (the modern translation “give way” is technically accurate – the verb is also used for a wall collapsing – but not idiomatic.)
Both translations mishandle the idiomatic use of future tense in Biblical Hebrew – this is common in KJV and is often not corrected during retranslation… basically the future tense is often used in Biblical Hebrew to describe a continuous status or action. So: your guardian -does- not slumber.
And the word translated as “slumber” implies “dozing off” or “nodding off” – the initial falling asleep… so the guardian is so attentive He neither dozes nor sleeps soundly.
And the word is more accurately translated as “guardian”, clearly implying protection and aid in this context… let’s leave “keeper” for zoos and jails, mmmkay?
The interjection translated as “Behold” literally means “Here” as in “Voila” or “There ya go”.
I did a hermeneutics paper on Psalm 121. And I deliberately chose the KJV version of the Psalm, both for sentimental reasons and for the way the language flowed. And yes, some words have a deeper meaning than others. There’s something about the KJV version which makes it read as a promise from God rather than a devotional created by men.
it is an imperative as with many in the Old and New Testaments,
https://biblehub.com/ephesians/5-18.htm
it is not about intoxication as such, but awareness, that the Old Gods have dulled our senses,
in the torrent of what can be charitably be considered information in some respects we forget what is important,
David was wise in many ways at the end of his life, when he reflected on the many ways he had failed God, but then had become a ‘good and faithful servant,
in this world of lies and deceit where the Adversary lays his traps in Academia in Media and Government which is the tributary, often there is a venn diagram that links all three,
I too strongly prefer the King James Version and I like the ‘eth’ suffix as well. Yes, the newer versions may bring a bit more clarity but they lose the authenticity of people closer to the thinking patterns of the biblical generations. I think it highly likely that the 2025 ‘mindset’ is far more distant from the 1611 AD mindset (KJV translation in 1611 AD) than the mindset in 1611 AD was from the those who formed the Nicene Creed during the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.
“There’s something about the KJV version which makes it read as a promise from God rather than a devotional created by men.”
Barbara, there’s gold right there…thanks for pointing it out!
Scripture is just that: promise. The heart of God’s word & God’s intent for his whole creation is a promise of restoration & reunion…care & completion. Take a part of Psalm 33 for instance
(translation is my sketchy Hebrew…but close enough)
18 Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
those who trust in his unfailing love.
19 He rescues them from death
and sustains them in times of famine.
20 We put our hope in the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in you alone.
And my old caveat…pick the version you like best, not linguistically, or stylistically, but because you’ll read it daily, trust it wholeheartedly, & live it faithfully.
Total KJV lover here! I once belonged to a Fundamentalist Baptist church that was KJV ONLY! I’m not like that anymore (it was decades ago), but I memorized so much of the Bible in KJV and it’s still so beautiful.
The Bible Gateway website allows you to compare various English Translations for a particular verse or even a whole chapter.
This link below I have keyed up for Psalm 121 in the Legacy Standard Bible, which renders that all Caps “LORD” in many English translations as ” Yahweh”. There is a reason that as you read thru common English translations of the Old Testament , you will see various renditions of ” Lord” or ” lord” or ” LORD” in different verses.
Psalm 121 Legacy Standard Bible :
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20121&version=LSB
Actually, the English of the KJV was already outdated when it was published. Most of the KJV–perhaps 80%–follows the earlier translations of Tyndale and Coverdale, which were done during the reign of Henry VIII. And even in 1611, “thee” and “thou” were being replaced by the modern “you.” One of the markers of the Quakers was their clinging to “thee” and “thou” in their speaking; but the English language had moved on.
Another thing to remember: the New Testament was not written in classical Greek; it was written in Koine Greek, which had become an international, everyday speech over the years since Alexander the Great conquered the old Persian empire. So it wasn’t written in “religious” language, it was written in the everyday speech of the people in the eastern Mediterranean region.
I went and looked at several hardcopy translations and under the title ” Psalm 121″ they have a sub heading of ” A Song of Ascents” or ” A song of ascents”.
The KJV hardcopy has a slightly different phrase.
It would be interesting to hear how the people in King David’s time sung that verses later periods – such as the post Babylonian period when they got to ” YHWH”.
If you look at the original KJV – not the one people use now that they think is the “1611 KJV ” – there was still a lot of ” I” being used where ” J” is now being used. And ” f” where we now use ” s” in words. On the 400 th anniversary of the KJV, Zondervan published a version of the KJV in the original typeset minus the deuterocanonical books. The original KJV also had a lot of visual aids that were republished.
https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-1611-James-Version/dp/0310440297
Shall neither slumber nor sleep feels active, neither slumbers nor sleeps is more descriptive, it slumbers and sleeps. That commanding “Shall” makes all the difference.
IMO the KJV is by far the best presentation of Psalms.
I encountered this decades ago during a time of conflict and have naver forgotten it: Psalms 146:9
“The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.”
We are incredibly fortunate to have this as part of our culture.
Another that has stuck with me is Psalms 23:5:
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Repeating something like that is a trait of poetry, not poetry in the Bible in particular.
I like mountains better than hills.
I love the traditional language of the KJV. I’m still worshipping with the American Prayer Book of 1928, which uses that language and includes the Coverdale Psalter. A modern translation which is good is the ESV (English Standard Version). I can look there to see what the “conies” of Psalm 104:18 are (rock badgers, according to the ESV), but the beauty of the older language touches my soul.
Another item is what people understood at the time in the context of the time. For example, when Cornelius and his family are converted, it wasn’t just a guy. Cornelius was a centurion. A senior noncom, up through the ranks, hard-ass trainer and commander of eighty professional killers. Converting this dude was not nothing. But it meant something then that everybody would know. Today, it takes some history.
And train up a child….using the tree analogy. In those days, trees did as the were told. “pollard” and “coppice” were two ways of forcing trees to generate commercially useful products, usually “withy”. And thorn trees in hedges. “pollard” is one of those family names which comes from an ancient craft. Not necessarily Romper Room in likening raising a kid to training up a tree, The ancients would have known this.
The Septuagint seems to capture most of what we’re looking for in these comments.
here
There is our “Behold,” for example. And the “keeper” is the same word that appears a bit later in Ps. 126 (127), as the keeper or guardian of the city spoken of there. Also in the Book of Acts a couple of times, when the Apostles Peter on the one hand and Paul and Silas on the other were jailed.
I almost forgot to mention that the same word features in Cain’s infamous riposte.
Related (peripherally)…
“MACHINE-LEARNING/AI FOR THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS”—
https://instapundit.com/732955/
Since N. Phillip Hawkins Jr. on July 19, 2025 at 6:51 pm has already jumped from OT to NT, with his interesting comments on a wider prevalence of “non religious” Koine Greek in the Levant at that time, perhaps he, BenDavid, or someone else can amplify on the following:
While reading Rodney Stark’s book Discovering God [published 2007] (pages 298-305 or so), I found that he mentions the usual scholarly assignment of the Gospels in (Koine?) Greek as originally written around 70AD for Mark, ~80AD for Matthew and Luke, and ~90AD for John. He then cites scholarship from about 1976 to 1989 suggesting the Gospels could have originally been written in Hebrew in the nearer decades to 30AD and those versions were subsequently translated into Greek. These scholars cite examples from the Greek version of the OT (Septuagint) about things like word order and other factors as to how the OT translators treated Greek to more closely transliterate to the Hebrew (as a sacred text), and not a more usual Greek phrasing. Then they “back translated” the NT Greek into Hebrew and found similar word/linguistic characteristics. So even though the original Hebrew was now lost, this detective work suggested creating the Greek Gospels was handled with similar methods and attention to preserving sacred language.
Other aspects, such as the content of John not recognizing the fall of the 2nd Temple in 70AD, seem to suggest it was written (in Hebrew) by or before 62AD. Other factors or historical oddities were also found for the other Gospels, etc., further supporting an earlier writing period.
1) I found it odd that this scholarship from as long ago as 1976 and later has not received wider general exposure and discussion – to my knowledge, at least.
2) this evidence suggests it weakens (but may not totally remove) the argument from those who claim “that Jesus did not exist” because of the gap between 30AD and 70AD, as well as the “oddity” of the NT being originally written in Greek when the literate Jews would have used Hebrew and/or Aramaic(??).
I don’t have the background to assess how valid this view is or might be, but maybe someone here wants to “weigh in”?
Back when I was a hippie poet I encountered the poet-critic-translator Kenneth Rexroth who said simply that the KJV was a must-read for anyone serious about English literature.
I was far from a Christian in those days, but I went out and bought a KJV which I still have.
If a biblical passage is archaic to the point of confusion, I’ll go over to a modern translation for clarity. But read the Bible in modernese? Sacrilege!
KJV 4 Evah!
R2L, I think it unlikely that the Gospels could have originally been written in Hebrew. At the time, Hebrew was a liturgical language, not a commonly spoken language. Aramaic would be far more likely. Also, Greek was the universal commercial language in the area of the Levant, Egypt, and what is now Türkiye; it is likely that Jesus and his disciples spoke koine Greek, and may have written it. They also may have been familiar with the Greek Septuagint.
What a nice post to read on a slow Sunday morning as we wait for our convention activities to start tonight (we have missed it the last two years because of being in Wyoming on our summer missions). We always come early for the “pre-convention” activity on Saturday, because once the formal courses start there is no time to tour the area selected for the year (it moves annually around the country).
My up-votes for many of the commenters here:
Niketas Choniates on July 19, 2025 at 1:39 pm said: “KJV is still really important for English literature since any quotes or allusions up until the 20th century almost certainly come from it.”
There is a synergy between the KJV and the works of Shakespeare, as being roughly contemporary in tone and language (no, I am not a scholar, just a reader). They may have kept each other alive through the centuries, in the sense of making the Biblical phrasing familiar to secular play-lovers, and the plays accessible to the religious.
In re Mark Twain’s story.
Yes, a similar reference today would probably elicit only blank stares. The reverse is that I have to “google” any contemporary analog in the blogs and news to find out what in the world is being implied.
BenDavid on July 19, 2025 at 4:05 pm said: —
I was hoping you would be online today for an elucidation of the Hebrew. I don’t know enough for remarking on most of your comment, but the use of both slumber and sleep jumped out at me, because I’ve seen a melding of formerly-differentiated words in other contexts, and I know that in old Texas times (IOW my grandparents up through my generation) people used both, and that slumbering was more like snoozing or dozing than like sleeping.
I was going to check the OED for nuances but you saved me the trouble!
Barbara Cunningham on July 19, 2025 at 4:42 pm said: —
promises versus devotionals is a very astute observation.
gwynmir on July 19, 2025 at 6:20 pm said: —
The KJV is the “official” version used by the LDS church, although talks and sermons often reference newer translations for clarity. However, I am always reminded of the old joke about the elderly man being pressed by his young kinfolk to get a new Bible: “If the King James was good enough for Saint Paul, it’s good enough for me!”
N. Phillip Hawkins Jr. on July 19, 2025 at 6:51 pm said: —
On the translation process, an excellent book is “God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible” by Adam Nicolson
https://viewpointbooks.com/book/9780060838737
A sample at scribd shows that Nicolson’s book opens with a variant of the joke I mentioned. Maybe it’s not just apocryphal humor!
https://www.scribd.com/document/814473939/Gods-Secretaries
My personal favorite for clarity is by the Greek scholar Richard Lattimore, whose intent was to be impartial to any sectarian influences and perspectives, although apparently he didn’t remain agnostic. He was working primarily from Greek texts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Lattimore
Jon baker on July 19, 2025 at 7:06 pm said: —
Most of my Bible commentaries observe that many of the Psalms were literally songs.
A contemporary musical setting which I have sung and loved (for certain values of “contemporary”) is by Mendelssohn.
https://musescore.com/hmscomp/elijah-elias-op-70-felix-mendelssohn-mendelssohn-he-watching-over-israel-from-the-oratorio-elijah-horn-satb-with-piano
Tabernacle Choir (NOT the group I sang with!)
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=music+he+that+watches+over+israel&t=chromentp&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAqhBvwL5QBg
Richard Aubrey on July 19, 2025 at 10:27 pm said: “The ancients would have known this.”
Indeed, and thank you for the historic information on raising trees. Although I did not know the specifics you gave, I do know that arborists put many hours into training their specimens; bonsai is perhaps one of the more arduous regimens, but even apple trees have to be pruned.
(Other examples are analogies to shepherds and folds, probably incomprehensible to modern readers outside of sheep-raising cultures.)
Philip Sells on July 19, 2025 at 11:34 pm said: “I almost forgot to mention that the same word features in Cain’s infamous riposte.”
Twain is not the only one who expects his readers to extrapolate for full value!
Barry Meislin on July 19, 2025 at 11:40 pm said: —
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science hosted a traveling exhibit of a portion of the scrolls, which have always fascinated me.
Molly Brown on July 20, 2025 at 1:41 am said: “KJV 4 Evah!”
Amen!
Scrolling (heh) through the Insty story, one of the commenters went to the same exhibit I did and posted a good picture of the parchments.
John Doe 50010
There was a traveling museum exhibit of some actual pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls that came to my city several years ago. My wife and I went to see it.
The exhibit contained little pieces of parchment. The writing was tiny. I am amazed scholars can interpret what I saw.
This photo is from a newspaper article about a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Denver.
Another remark in the Scrolls comments eventually led to this interesting post.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/exhausted-man-defeats-ai-model-in-world-coding-championship/
I was pleasantly surprised to see this kind of reference in a recent news story: “The contest echoes the American folk tale of John Henry, the steel-driving man who raced against a steam-powered drilling machine in the 1870s. Like Henry’s legendary battle against industrial automation, D?biak’s victory represents a human expert pushing themselves to their physical limits to prove that human skill still matters in an age of advancing AI.”
Kind of like having Biblical references by Mark Twain.
I personally like ‘mountains’ better than ‘hills.’ Maybe it’s because I live in Montana. One of my favorite psalms.
A beautiful rendition of this in music is found in Mendelssohn’s Elijah titled “He watching over Israel” (for example here directed by Robert Shaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zaRHrNlj4 ). It is however, notoriously hard to sing because of the line “Slumbers not nor sleeps”. If you allow the s at the end of slumbers to elide onto not you end up with an unfortunate word. This will always break up young teenage males and often wrecks even adult choruses. And because the passage is supposed to be legato, it is VERY hard NOT to make that horrible mistake. Mr. Shaw’s chorus avoids it, but I do wonder how many times they practiced that passage before getting it clean for the recording.
Regarding the original language of the NT. In the book ” The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell, there is a quote from Irenaeus who was a Bishop circa 180 AD. Irenaeus was a student of the famous martyr Polycarp who was himself a student of the Apostle John. ( So we are reading from someone who was only one spiritual generation from the likely last Apostle to die . ) Irenaeus gave a history of the four Gospel’s writing – Matthew, Mark , Luke and John. While the quote McDowell includes does not say what language three of the gospels were written in – McDowell maintains Greek in other places – Irenaeus maintained that Matthew was originally written in the language of the Hebrews ( whether that was Hebrew or Aramaic I do not know.) From pages 53,54 of chapter 3 – “Is the New Testament Historically Reliable”, pages 53-54 of McDowells book “The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict.” by Thomas Nelson Publishers . Copyright 1999
I suppose if you order this book or the reprint of the original typeset of the KJV I referenced earlier thru Neos portal and not thru this link she could make some money.
https://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Demands-Questions-Challenging-Christians/dp/0785243631/ref=asc_df_0785243631?mcid=cf85924910303dd88f0c3eda414bb8a2&hvocijid=12310648111653654391-0785243631-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12310648111653654391&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027208&hvtargid=pla-2281435177618&psc=1
Across the pond they seem to have learned the opposite lesson https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/20/israel-idf-ground-forceds-central-gaza-palestine-hostages/
Their carelessness is legendary
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/afghan-data-breach-names-list-brother-killed-zkkkdnxz9
Turn the Israeli’s loose again!
Just for the pleasure of the sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ejLAfd_Nf0&list=RD6ejLAfd_Nf0&start_radio=1