Passages · Psalm 146:1-10
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"Princes" in Psalm 146:3 translates the Hebrew nedivim (nobles, people of rank), a word that also means willing or generous. The psalm's reason for not trusting them is not that they are wicked. It is that they die: "His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish." What the verse says they lack is teshuah (rescue), and the rest of the psalm names where help is found.
נְדִיבִים nedivim, Hebrew — translated "princes" — nobles, people of rank; from a root that means willing or generous (Psalm 146:3)
146:1 Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh, my soul. 146:2 While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist. 146:3 Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help. 146:4 His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish. 146:5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God, 146:6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever; 146:7 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners. 146:8 Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. 146:9 Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down. 146:10 Yahweh will reign forever; your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!
146:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 146:2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 146:6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 146:7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: 146:8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: 146:9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 146:10 The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.
Psalm 146 opens the last five psalms of the book, each of which begins and ends with the Hebrew hallelu-Yah (praise Yah). It has two halves set against each other: the mortal ruler of verses 3-4, and Yahweh in verses 5-10. The warning about princes is the short half. Most of the psalm is a list of what Yahweh does.
"Don't put your trust in princes" (146:3) — nedivim (nobles). The related verb means to offer freely, and the same word describes a "willing heart" in Exodus 35:5. Rank and generosity share a word, so a nadiv is someone from whom help might be expected. That is the trust the psalm sets aside, and it does so without accusing anyone.
"A son of man... he returns to the earth" (146:3-4) — ben-adam (a human being) and adamah (ground, earth). The two words sound alike in Hebrew, and Genesis ties them together: the human is formed from the ground and returns to it (Genesis 2:7, 3:19). The psalm sets them one line apart. The prince is an adam, and he goes back to his adamah.
"His thoughts perish" (146:4) — eshtonot (thoughts, plans), a word found only here in the Hebrew Bible. Whatever the ruler intended to do ends on the day his breath does. "Spirit" in the same verse is ruach (breath, wind, spirit).
"No help" and "for his help" (146:3, 5) — two different words. The prince has no teshuah (rescue, deliverance). The one who is called happy has the God of Jacob as his ezer (help). "Happy" is ashre, the word that opens the whole book of Psalms (1:1, where it is translated "blessed").
"Yahweh frees the prisoners" (146:7) — from here the name Yahweh opens five statements in a row (verses 7-9), each with a different action. The people on the receiving end include the oppressed, the hungry, prisoners, the blind, foreigners, the fatherless and the widow. The psalm that began with rulers who die ends with "Yahweh will reign forever."
"Put not your trust in princes" and "Don't put your trust in princes" — the King James wording is the one most often quoted, and newer versions change little in verse 3. The larger difference is in verse 4. The King James has "his breath goeth forth" where the World English Bible has "his spirit departs"; both translate ruach. And the King James's "he returneth to his earth" keeps the Hebrew's "his," which the World English Bible drops.
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