myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Psalm 24:7

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates"

The Hebrew commands the gates: "Lift up, O gates, your heads." The Greek reads "Lift up your gates, O princes" (Giguet "Princes, levez vos portes"; Vulgate "Attollite portas, principes, vestras"). The same consonants were understood differently.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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. Masoretic Text (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)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

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. 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).

    Attollite portas, principes, vestras, et elevamini, portæ æternales, et introibit rex gloriæ.

    Latin numbering: Psalm 23:7. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  3. 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.

    שְׂא֤וּ שְׁעָרִ֨ים ׀ רָֽאשֵׁיכֶ֗ם וְֽ֭הִנָּשְׂאוּ פִּתְחֵ֣י עוֹלָ֑ם וְ֝יָב֗וֹא מֶ֣לֶךְ הַכָּבֽוֹד׃

    Lift up, O gates, your heads (rashekhem), and be lifted up, everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 24:7.

  4. 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).

    Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

  5. 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.

    Princes, levez vos portes; ouvrez-vous, portes éternelles, et le Roi de gloire entrera.

    Greek numbering: Psalm 23:7. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

Rashekhem, "your heads," can also mean "your chiefs." The Greek took it as rulers (archontes) being commanded to raise their gates. The Hebrew personification, gates lifting their heads for a tall King, is generally preferred. In Christian tradition, through the Greek and Latin, the verse became an Ascension text, with the princes of heaven opening the gates to Christ; Handel's Messiah sets the KJV wording.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Greek and Latin read "princes" for "your heads."

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 24: Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates →"The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof." Who may ascend God's hill? One with clean hands and a pure heart. Then the gates themselves are commanded: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." "Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle… The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory."