1. Yehova ro'u lo ehsar;

2. bin'ot deshe yarbitseini al-mey menuhot yenaalaini;

3. Nafshu Yeshoveyv yanheini bema'gelei-tsadek lema'an shmo;

4. gam ki-eileh begey tsalmavet lo-ira ra

 ki-ata imadu shivteha umish'anteha hema yenahamuni;

5. Ta'arokh lefanai shulhan neged tsoreray

 Dishanta vashemen roshu kocu revaya;

6. Ah tov vahesed yirdefuni kol-yemey hayay

 Veshavti beveit-yehova leorekh yamam.

(The transcription follows both the Hebrew script and punctuation—the absence of capital letters, the absence of periods—and the breakdown into half-verses adopted by modern publications.)

A translation that focuses entirely on conveying meaning:

Song of David

1. God is my shepherd, I will not suffer want.

2. [He] will lay me down in a grassy place, lead me to still waters.

3. He will refresh my soul, lead me in the ways of justice in His name.

4. Even if I walk through the valley of darkness, I will not fear evil, for you are with me, your staff and your reed will be my comfort.

5. You have set a table for me in full view of my enemies, you have generously anointed my head with oil, my cup is full to the brim.

6. Only goodness and mercy will be my companions all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of God for a long time.

The difficulties of understanding (and translating) begin with the fact that the verb tense system in the language of the Bible is either not fully clarified or does not lend itself to final clarification at all. One way or another, it is very often impossible to decide whether we are talking about the present, about the future, or about a special continuum covering both the present and the future. In our case, two authoritative translations of modern times, Latin and French, give preference to the present, one, English, to the future. Our own choice is determined not so much by the famous name and scientific fame of the English translator Mitchell Duhud (his work, in three volumes, was published in 1966-1971), as by the direct perception of the heirs and living speakers of Hebrew, educated Israelis, thoroughly read in biblical and post-biblical sources.

Title: its exact meaning is unknown. In the absence of punctuation marks in manuscripts, nothing prevents you from putting a full stop after the first word: "Song". The second word can mean both "belonging to David", i.e. composed by him, and "connected with David" in one way or another: telling about him, dedicated to him, written in his manner, set to his melody, etc. As already mentioned, a very ancient tradition interprets the ledovid in the first of two senses.

There are so many discrepancies in the interpretation of the text itself that we will have to limit ourselves to examples.