Psalms

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Psalm 16

1 A prayer of David. Protect me, O God, for I have taken shelter in you. 2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord, my only source of well-being.” 3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land, and the leading officials I admired so much— 4 their troubles multiply; they desire other gods. I will not pour out drink offerings of blood to their gods, nor will I make vows in the name of their gods.⁠ 5 The Lord is the portion of my possession and my cup⁹;⁠ you make my future secure. 6 It is as if I have been given fertile fields or received a beautiful tract of land. 7 I will praise the Lord who guides me; yes, during the night my kidneys instruct me¹⁵.⁠ 8 I set the Lord before me continually¹⁶;⁠ because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 So my heart rejoices and I am happy; my life is safe. 10 You will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful follower to see the Pit. 11 You lead me in the path of life. I experience absolute joy in your presence; you always give me sheer delight.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 16:7 and Genesis Rabbah 61:1

Hebrew Bible · Rabbinic

Summary

Psalm 16 says the kidneys give instruction, based on an ancient Near Eastern belief that the kidneys are a source of intellect. Genesis Rabbah expands this by saying Abraham’s kidneys taught him the Torah, explaining how he knew it before Moses.

Passages

Psalm 16:7

Hebrew Bible

5 The Lord is the portion of my possession and my cup⁹; you make my future secure. 6 It is as if I have been given fertile fields or received a beautiful tract of land. 7 I will praise the Lord who guides me; yes, during the night my kidneys instruct me¹⁵. 8 I set the Lord before me continually¹⁶; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Genesis Rabbah 61:1

Rabbinic · Aggadah

(Genesis 20:15). “But whose desire is the Torah of the Lord” (Psalms 1:2) – “For I love him, so that he will command [his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord]…” (Genesis 18:19). “And he meditates on His Torah” (Psalms 1:2) – Rabbi Shimon said: He [Abraham] had no father to teach him, and he did not have a teacher. From where, then, did he learn Torah? The answer is that the Holy One blessed be He set his two kidneys [kilyotav] as two teachers of a sort, and they would flow forth and teach him Torah and wisdom. That is what is written: “I bless the Lord who counsels me, even on nights when my thoughts [khilyotai] are anguished” (Psalms 16:7). “He will be like a tree planted” (Psalms 1:3) – the Holy One blessed be He planted him in the Land of Israel. “Which brings forth its fruit in season” (Psalms 1:3) – this refers to Ishmael. “And whose leaf does not wither” (Psalms 1:3) – this refers to Isaac. “And

500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

References

"... The singular Torah is not used here, but torot, the plural. Yet how did Abraham know of them? This indicates that God conditioned father Abraham’s two kidneys to act like two sages, and they were instructing him and counselling him, and teaching Wisdom (Torah) all night, as it is said, ‘I will bless the Lord who has counselled me, even by night my kidneys have instructed me (Psalm 16:7). According to this early source, therefore, Abraham’s superiority over the ‘ten generations’ was due to his continuous acquisition of hokhmah, the wisdom of the Torot. As to the Laws, the anonymous teacher is evidently alluding here to the interpretation of torotai found in amoraic sources (see Berit Tora 28a): ‘[The expression torotai implies two Laws], the one the Written Law, the other the Oral Law.’ See further the proper in Tanhuma, ed. Buber, I, pp. 71–2, where the theme of Abraham’s observance of ‘all the Laws’ (kol ha-Torah kula) is developed in conjunction with Proverbs 2:7, ‘He layeth up sound wisdom (tushiyyah) for the upright (yesharim)’ ... This imagery, together with its proof-text, Psalm 16:7, is recorded in older sources in the name of R. Aqiva’s pupil, R. Shimon b. Yohai (see Genesis Rabbah 61:1) ..."

Irving Jacobs, The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 83–84.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Psalm 16:7 and Genesis Rabbah 61:1

Summary

Passages

Psalm 16:7

Genesis Rabbah 61:1

References

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