G&T ice n slice

I went to a CoE foundation boarding skool in deepest darkest Sussex
and was always puzzled by Psalm 121
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

Soo...
I'm looking up into the hills and hoping I'll see help coming?
or
I'm looking up into the hills because that's the general direction help will come from?
or
actually 2 distinct sentences
1) "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills"
and
2) "from whence cometh my help?"

now Ps121.ii reads "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth."

So it seems like P121.i is really two distinct sentences and the answer to the question comes in Ps121.ii

But it's one of those little conundrums that has kept me amused & marginally puzzled for the best part of 40 years.

I mean, if one is asking a question, why is one looking unto the hills before formulating the question in question?

Afficionados will recognise the King James version.

Certain people will of course eventually receive everything they truly deserve with one of those "modern" translations, or (the ultimate sin) having females in holy orders - boy are they all in for a surprise

example
I look to the hills! Where will I find help?
It will come from the Lord, who created the heavens and the earth

Where's the interest in that ??? shrug shoulders "yeah? so what?" forgotten

But even though I am not religious I can still quote pretty well verbatim great tracts of the K.J.V. bible & the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, as the language is of itself memorable, just as somehow I seem to have absorbed quantities of Shakespeare, without actually having read anything of his since schooldays.


oh well, I've forgotten where I was going with this

west lakes

Walk outside, look to the East - those are the hills!

G-CPTN

I've got hills to the north (rejoice!), and hills to the south . . .

West and east runs the river.

Tankertrashnav

Bit of a bugger if you live in the fen country!

Mind you they have some truly fabulous churches to look up to instead.

west lakes

( I know roughly where G & T lives so the directions are correct in his, and my, case)

con-pilot

I'm in Oklahoma, we ain't got no stinkin' hills.






Actually we do, even have mountains, but some lines are just too good to pass up.

RJM

I know how you feel, c-p. I waited for years to be in the US and have somebody ask me directions. I was able to say 'Sorry pal, I'm a stranger round these parts myself'.

It amused me, anyway.

Hydromet

We have a Hills Hoist in the back yard. You can look up to it, but I can't see any help coming from it. Maybe a shot of kookaburra poop if you're unlucky, but...

Arm out the window

It really refers to the undulations on the front of members of the more curvaceous sex, and the salvation that can come from them ... if God didn't want us to look at them, he wouldn't have put them there now, would he?

Worrals in the wilds

Is that salvation or salivation?

sisemen

I live on the top of a hill.

I always knew that there was something about me. Please send all proceeds from collection plates to the following address.......

broadreach

I live in a valley and am deprived of early morning and late afternoon sunlight. Please take up a collection for the relocation of my property and my soul to a higher point. PM for bank details, 15% commission guaranteed.

Solid Rust Twotter

Only thing in these here hills are leopards and baboons. Only help you're going to get is them helping themselves to your chooks and mielies.

Krystal n chips

"
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help "

One dark(ish) night, a friend of mine and myself did precisely that in Austria as we saw a building that we thought would be the answer to our prayers...thus we struggled up the snow covered slope and found it was indeed for a building for prayer....but not the salvation we sought .........as we thought it was a pub !

UniFoxOs

Finally found its meaning recently. It's actually
[QUOTE]I will lift up mine eyes unto the hill, from whence cometh my help?/QUOTE]

We have bought a small bungalow near the top of the hill on which we live and are extending it for retirement. Every part-time casual labourer I have hired to help me with this has promptly found himself a job and farked off. Hence I can be heard quoting the above frequently.

UFO

Takan Inchovit

I used to looketh unto the hills while waiting for the freedom bird to appear through the gap and take me outa the sh!t hole where I was working.

tony draper

Here's a earlier version.
I houe mine eghen in hilles, to se
Whethen sal come helpe to me.

603DX

(So sayeth SRT.) When I went up onto baboon hill in the Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, I saw no leopards, but plenty of baboons. What most of the males were doing to themselves was frankly rather surprising, they seemed to be in a permanent state of what I can only call Slasherism ... Never seen anything like that on David Attenborough's programmes, I must say.

G&T ice n slice

Hi Westie

yep, every day I go out, look east and do the "West Cumbrian weather forecast"

(1) if I can't see the hills, it's raining
(2) if I can see the hill's, it's going to rain

As they say round here, on a good day you can see Pica, on a really excellent day Pica is hidden by the rain/clouds and the view improves 100%......

Pica (pronounced pie-kah) is a tiny ex-mining village, on top of the hill and really very very isolated (releative to the area) . You don't pass through Pica any time between dusk begining to fall or dawn not fully risen. Rumours that "the Wicker Man" was actually based on the residents of Pica is a foul rumour with no substance. But the police only go there when accompanied by a priest holding bell, book & candle.

Lord High Admiral D:
I houe mine eghen in hilles, to se
Whethen sal come helpe to me.

That's brilliant, makes the KJV version look positively modern!
But interestingly it suggests that the original meaning has been shifted a bit - that translates more or less as "I hold my eyes on the hills to see whether help shall come to me"

west lakes

..........