Psalm 23 word by word
A short poem with shepherd imagery, first-person suffixes, and the parallelism typical of biblical verse.
The opening
מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד is a superscription. יְהוָה רֹעִי is a nominal clause: "the LORD is my shepherd." לֹא אֶחְסָר is imperfect: "I shall not lack." The suffix on רֹעִי is the whole metaphor.
psalm, melody
Ps 23:1of David
Ps 23:1my shepherd
Ps 23:1I will lack
Ps 23:1Pasture and water
Construct pairs: pastures of grass, waters of rest. The verbs are imperfect with 1cs suffixes: he makes me lie down, he leads me. English past tense in many translations is a choice, not a Hebrew perfect.
grass, young herbage
Ps 23:2resting places
Ps 23:2he leads me
Ps 23:2Read it as poetry
Lines come in pairs. Do not flatten every verb to a single English tense before you have heard the parallel. The poetic accent system also differs from Torah prose.
Read next
Hebrew poetry and parallelism
Biblical verse leans on matching lines, not on end-rhyme. Psalms, prophets, and wisdom books all use it.
The Shema word by word
Deuteronomy 6:4–5 is short, liturgical, and packed with suffixes, construct, and the name of God.
Names of God
Several divine names and titles run through the Tanakh. Jewish reading treats the four-letter name with care.