Returning To The House Of The Lord (Psalm 23:6)

Asher Chee | 5 September 2019

Psalm 23:6 ESV Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The Masoretic Text is used most widely as the Hebrew text of the Jewish Scriptures (“Old Testament”). According to the Masoretic Text, in Psalm 23:6, the Hebrew word for “and I shall dwell” is written as:

וְשַׁ֫בְתִּי

This word is wəšaḇtiy. It is actually a form of the verb šūwḇ (שׁוּב), meaning “to return”. Hence, it should really be rendered, “and I shall return”. The traditional rendering, “and I shall dwell”, assumes that the word is instead a form of the verb yāšaḇ (יָשַׁב), meaning “to dwell”. However, this would mean that the Masoretic Text is mistaken in some way. There are three possibilities:

1. Mistaken vocalization

It is possible that the Masoretic Text correctly preserves the original spelling of the word, but is mistaken regarding its vocalization. According to the Masoretic Text, the word is spelt as:

ושבתי

As mentioned earlier, this word is vocalized as wəšaḇtiy. However, this word could have been originally vocalized as wəšiḇtiy. This would make it a form of the verb yāšaḇ, “to dwell”.

The resulting translation would be: “and my dwelling is in the house of the LORD”.

2. Mistaken spelling

It is also possible that the Masoretic Text is entirely mistaken, and the original spelling of the word was:

וישבתי

This word would be most naturally vocalized as wəyāšaḇtiy. This would also make it a form of the verb yāšaḇ, “to dwell”. Given that both words look so similar, it is not difficult to see how later copyists might have mistakenly copied וישבתי as ושבתי, and this mistaken spelling then became preserved in the Masoretic Text.

The resulting translation would be what is found in traditional translations: “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD”.

3. No mistake

Perhaps the Masoretic Text correctly preserves both the original spelling and vocalization of the word, and we should really be amending our translations instead: “and I will return to the house of the LORD”.