Inditing indeed!

The effort to understand the psalmist who uttered "My heart is inditing" has begun to excite a number of choir members. I thought you might like to see these splendid and rather erudite offerings...

From Barbara F "I was sure I knew the word 'indite' from when I studied the Canterbury Tales for A level. There's a character in the prologue who could not only compose tunes ' and eke indite' (and also write the words.)
Sure enough it's in the OED. To indite means 'to put into words' or 'to compose' (e.g. a speech, a poem etc.)"

And from Laura P "According to the OED online, the verb to indite comes from Middle English endyte which means to tell (a story) or compose (a story or a song) - Chaucer uses it for this purpose in the Canterbury Tales.

Bibles in English use endyte or indite up to the King James version from which Handel got his text. However, the Latin text uses eructare - to vomit (!) - and the Hebrew translates as 'bubble up' - hence modern translations say things like 'my heart overflows'.

I'm not sure why they are so different, presumably Biblical scholarship develops over time and the newer translations will be more accurate. But anyway Handel's version means 'my heart is telling a tale about a good subject'. The word would have been fairly archaic by 1702 but maybe that would have added to the solemnity of the occasion.


Barbara has kindly clarified some other mysteries, too:

"Thornbacks are edible fish from the ray family ( a bit like skate but more spiny).

Peascods are pea-pods - i.e. peas in their shells.

Nard is an aromatic balsam of the ancients - also known as spikenard. It comes in the story of Jesus being anointed for his burial in Bethany John's Gospel chapter 12 verse 3. (also Mark 14.3 & Matthew26.7)"

I hope you're all feeling much better informed now. :-) Many thanks to Barbara and Laura