Biblical Hebrew · Tanakh Readers
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE FIRST
Pedagogical transliterationashrei ha-ish ... ki im be-torat Hashem ḥeftso
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
Psalm 1:1 builds a three-part escalation: walk, stand, sit. Verse 2 reverses direction with כִּי אִם, locating delight and meditation in Torah. Verse 3 develops the simile introduced by וְהָיָה כְּעֵץ. Preserve the parallel lines; they are the syntax of the poem, not decoration.
SEE HOW IT WORKS
BH-R05
Pedagogical reading guide
Biblical Hebrew
1:1 three negative cola: walk/stand/sit · 1:2 contrast: delight + meditation · 1:3 tree simile: location, fruit, leaf, outcome
EXAMPLES
Close translation — ‘Happy is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, has not stood in the path of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of scoffers; rather, his delight is in the Torah of Hashem, and in His Torah he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, which gives its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither; and everything he does shall prosper.’
SOURCE REFERENCE
APPROVED STUDY LAYERS
Read poetic parallelism, escalation, contrast, and simile without flattening the verse into prose.
OSHB independently identifies the perfect verbs in the negative series, the participle שָׁתוּל, relative clauses, and pronominal suffixes.
Map the three verbs and three social locations in verse 1. Identify the contrast marker and every element of the tree comparison.
Verbs: הָלַךְ, עָמָד, יָשָׁב. Locations: עֲצַת רְשָׁעִים, דֶּרֶךְ חַטָּאִים, מוֹשַׁב לֵצִים. Contrast: כִּי אִם. Tree elements: planted by water, fruit in season, unwithered leaf, prosperous action.
The selected text follows MAM. Poetic lineation is represented pedagogically by clause structure while verse boundaries remain exact.
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