BIBLE STUDY PSALM 23 WEEK # 6 (DIFFERENT VERSIONS)

(WEB) World English Bible

A Psalm by David

 

1 Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures.
 He leads me beside still waters. ³ He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. ⁴ Even 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.
⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
 My cup runs over. ⁶ Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in Yahweh's house forever.

 

What I found different in this version? 

 

I notice God's name Yahweh was mentioned here. This is a Hebrew name for God.  Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) called the tetragrammaton. After the Exile (6th century bc), and especially from the 3rd century bc on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun Elohim, meaning "god," tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel's God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai ("My Lord"), which was translated as Kyrios ("Lord") in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.  Note: Wycliffe Bible (WYC) uses mercy too.  Other versions use unfailing love instead of mercy. So, it's good to look into different versions when studying God's Word. The personal name of God probably was known long before the time of Moses. The name of Moses' mother was Jochebed (Yokheved), a word based on the name Yahweh. Thus, the tribe of Levi, to which Moses belonged, probably knew the name Yahweh, which originally may have been (in its short form Yo, Yah, or Yahu) a religious invocation of no precise meaning evoked by the mysterious and awesome splendour of the manifestation of the holy.