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Psalm 145:13

The missing nun line

Psalm 145 is an alphabetic acrostic: in the Hebrew each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet. But the Masoretic Text, the Hebrew of Jewish Bibles, has no verse beginning with nun: verse 13 begins with mem, verse 14 with samekh. Three other kinds of witness have a nun line. The Greek and the Latin made from it continue verse 13 with "The Lord is faithful in his words, and holy in all his works." The Syriac is reported to have the line. And the great Psalms Scroll from Qumran Cave 11 (11QPs-a, 1st century AD) is reported to read, in Hebrew, ne'eman elohim bi-devarav ve-chasid be-khol ma'asav: "God is faithful in his words, and gracious in all his works."

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Qumran Psalms Scroll (11QPs-a, 11Q5)1st century ADDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
  4. The same psalm, verse 17 (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
Syriac
  1. Syriac Peshitta Psalmsc. 2nd–3rd century AD (translation); manuscripts from the 6th centuryDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

      The psalm as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

    2. 1st century AD

      Qumran Psalms Scroll (11QPs-a, 11Q5)

      ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

      How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

      Reported (published transcriptions; not yet checked by the site in DJD IV or on the photographs): after the mem line, a nun line נאמן אלוהים בדבריו וחסיד בכול מעשיו, "God is faithful in his words, and gracious in all his works." Each verse of the psalm is followed by the refrain "Blessed be the LORD and blessed be his name for ever and ever."

      Source: P. W. Flint, "Contents of the Psalms Scrolls and Related Manuscripts," Oxford Handbook of the Psalms ↗

    3. c. 2nd–3rd century AD (translation); manuscripts from the 6th century

      Syriac Peshitta Psalms

      ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

      How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

      Reported to include a nun line. The library's Peshitta contains only the New Testament, so this has not been checked by the site (C: Leiden Peshitta edition).

    4. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

      Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Regnum tuum regnum omnium sæculorum; et dominatio tua in omni generatione et generationem. Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis, et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis.

      Latin numbering: Psalm 144:13. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew. Vulgate 144:13 includes the line.

    5. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      מַֽלְכוּתְךָ֗ מַלְכ֥וּת כָּל־עֹֽלָמִ֑ים וּ֝מֶֽמְשֶׁלְתְּךָ֗ בְּכָל־דּ֥וֹר וָדֽוֹר׃

      Your kingdom (malkhutkha, beginning with mem) is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. [No nun line follows; v. 14 begins with samekh.]

      Hebrew numbering: Psalm 145:13. Verse 13 begins with mem; verse 14 with samekh.

    6. AD 1008

      The same psalm, verse 17 (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      צַדִּ֣יק יְ֭הוָה בְּכָל־דְּרָכָ֑יו וְ֝חָסִ֗יד בְּכָל־מַעֲשָֽׂיו׃

      The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and gracious (chasid) in all his works

      The tsadi line. Its second half is word for word the second half of the reported Qumran nun line.

    7. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

    8. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Votre royaume est le royaume de tous les siècles, et votre domination va de génération en génération; le Seigneur est fidèle en ses paroles; et saint en toutes ses œuvres.

      Greek numbering: Psalm 144:13. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check); not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition (C check). The nun-line equivalent is joined to 144:13.

    What changed, and why

    How the evidence divides. Witnesses with a nun line: the Greek (library's Greek, Giguet, 144:13); the Latin Psalter revised from the Greek (Vulgate 144:13); the Syriac Peshitta (reported; the library's Peshitta covers only the New Testament); a Hebrew manuscript from Qumran, 11QPs-a (reported, see below); and, according to the apparatus of BHS, one medieval Hebrew manuscript. Witnesses without it: the Masoretic Text in the Aleppo and Leningrad codices and the Hebrew tradition that descends from them, and the Aramaic Targum. The Masoretic reading is shown here from the library (D check).

    What the Qumran line is reported to say. Published transcriptions read נאמן אלוהים בדבריו וחסיד בכול מעשיו. Two details matter. It uses elohim, "God," where the Greek has kyrios, which normally stands for the name YHWH. And it says "in his words," where the Greek has "in all his words." So the scroll is not simply a Hebrew copy of the Greek line. In this scroll Psalm 145 also has a refrain after every verse, "Blessed be the LORD and blessed be his name for ever and ever," and a closing note; the scroll's text has a liturgical shape that the Masoretic psalm does not.

    Why the line might have been lost. The second half of the reported nun line, "and gracious (chasid) in all his works," is word for word the second half of verse 17, the tsadi line, as the Leningrad Codex reading above shows. A scribe's eye could skip between similar lines; that is one explanation for an accidental loss. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 4b) knows the psalm without a nun line and explains the gap theologically: nun would begin "Fallen (nafelah) is the virgin of Israel" (Amos 5:2), so the psalmist left it out, and verse 14 at once answers "The LORD upholds all that fall (ha-noflim)."

    Why the line might have been added. Other Hebrew acrostics are also incomplete or irregular (Psalms 9–10, 25, 34, 37), and nobody filled their gaps. A reader or prayer-leader who noticed the missing letter could compose a line from the psalm's own phrases: the first half echoes verse 13's subject and Psalm 33:4 ("all his works are done in truth"); the second half repeats verse 17. On that view the Qumran and Greek lines are early fillings of the gap, perhaps made independently, which would explain why their wording differs (God / Lord; his words / all his words).

    Where scholars stand. Many modern critical translations (for example NRSV, NIV, ESV, NABRE) restore the line, usually citing Qumran, the Greek and the Syriac. Others (KJV, NJPS, and the Jewish liturgical text of Ashrei) follow the Masoretic Text. The evidence shows the line is ancient (it existed in Hebrew by the 1st century AD and in Greek earlier); it does not settle whether it belonged to the psalm's first written form. The site's assessment: the nun line is a very early reading with real Hebrew support, and restoring it is reasonable; that it is original is plausible but not proved.

    What the site has and has not checked. D checks (done): the Masoretic text, Greek (Giguet) and Latin (Vulgate) in the library; the identical second half of verse 17. C checks (open): the scroll's reading in J. A. Sanders' edition (DJD IV, 1965) and on the Israel Antiquities Authority's photographs; the Greek against Rahlfs' critical edition; the Peshitta in the Leiden edition; the medieval manuscript cited in BHS. The reading shown for the scroll comes from published transcriptions (M. Abegg, P. Flint and E. Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, 1999, p. 571, which notes "God" for "LORD"; and a transcription made from the scroll's photograph by B. Z. Katz, 2022), not from the site's own reading of the manuscript.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's Hebrew (WLC) has no nun line in Psalm 145.
    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek and Latin include a nun-line equivalent.
    • Independently documentedThe reported nun line's second half matches verse 17 word for word. Checked against the WLC for v. 17; the Qumran wording is reported.
    • Strongly supported11QPs-a has a Hebrew nun line reading 'elohim' (God) rather than the divine name. Published transcriptions agree; not yet checked by the site in DJD IV or the photographs (C).
    • Strongly supportedThe Peshitta has the nun line. Reported; not in the site's library (C).
    • Plausible, not confirmedThe nun line was part of the psalm's original text. Very early and supported in Hebrew; an early filling of the gap is also possible.
    • Matter of faithThe psalmist omitted nun deliberately because of Amos 5:2. A Talmudic explanation (Berakhot 4b), not a historical finding.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Psalm 145: I Will Extol You, My God and King →"David's Psalm of praise. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever." "One generation shall praise thy works to another." "The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all." "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." "The LORD upholdeth all that fall… The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing."