# The Lord is my Shephard.



## prettylady20

Hello!! my name is Tierra and I know you must hear this often but I will be in the process of converting of messianic judaism. I wanted to get a tattoo on my neck and I would like it to say "The Lord is my Shepard." 

Can anyone tell me what this is in ancient hebrew?

Thank you so much and once I figure it out here I will post a picture, if not i will give you the link later!!


----------



## tFighterPilot

אלהים הוא רועי


----------



## prettylady20

so would this also be right or???

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד:    יְהוָה רֹעִי

I know that this says "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want correct?


----------



## Dee Poe

:×žÖ´×–Ö°×ž×•Ö¹×¨ ×œÖ°×“Ö¸×•Ö´×“

I can't get my browser to paste all of your text.  The part above is the part you don't need; it simply says, "A psalm of David".  The two words following are what you want.  Sorry I couldn't get just those two words to paste correctly.  They say, literally, "YHWH (is) Shepherd-my".  The reply on the previous post was correct, and probably better vernacular modern Hebrew, "God, He (is) Shepherd-my".  But the Hebrew text reads "YHWH", which is normally phoneticised, "Adonai", since the Divine Name was regarded as too sacred to pronounce even in the reading of Scripture.


----------



## Dee Poe

Well, that was a great effort!  It looked okay before I sent it.  Basically, count the tall letters beginning from the right.  At the end of the ninth letter, you come to a sort of colon.  Those are what you don't want.
The two words to the left of the "colon" is what you want.  Probably, though, you wouldn't want the "vowel pointings" that are included in the Hebrew text you pasted as a pronunciation help.  Can anyone with a Hebrew font give her the two words without the vowel points???


----------



## prettylady20

Dee Poe said:


> Well, that was a great effort!  It looked okay before I sent it.  Basically, count the tall letters beginning from the right.  At the end of the ninth letter, you come to a sort of colon.  Those are what you don't want.
> The two words to the left of the "colon" is what you want.  Probably, though, you wouldn't want the "vowel pointings" that are included in the Hebrew text you pasted as a pronunciation help.  Can anyone with a Hebrew font give her the two words without the vowel points???



Thank you, LOL a lil confusion but this is what I want??

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד


----------



## JaiHare

prettylady20 said:


> Thank you, LOL a lil confusion but this is what I want??
> 
> מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד



 No! LOL

This means "a psalm of David." 

You want the part that looks like 

ה' רעי 

Notice that in another situation, the same consonants may mean "HaShem is my friend/fellow."

The commandment "You shall love you neighbor as yourself" says ואהבת את רעך כמוך _v'ahavta et re'echa kamocha._

Jai


----------



## ob2il

מזמור לדוד means "a psalm of David"
יהוה רועי means "the Lord is my Shepherd"


----------



## ob2il

the "רע" in  "רעך" is pronounced differently.  shepherd is pronounced :ro'i whilst neighbor/friend is pronounced rei'a


----------



## Dee Poe

Oops.  I think I gave you some bad advice by interfering with the translation suggested by tFighterPilot, which is a more vernacular way to say it.  Those out there who are Orthodox might want to correct me on this, but I think that if you put the Divine Name, YHWH, in a tattoo on your neck, you will have the effect of seriously offending the more Orthodox of the Jews.  Stick with "Elohim, He (is) Shepherd-my", as tFighterPilot suggested.  Good luck.


----------



## prettylady20

thank you fellas!!! all of you!! I will stick with what t fighter pilot suggested and not offending other as well, and so I will find a good place and get it done and be happy to show you all. Thank you sincerely and wish me luck!


----------



## JaiHare

ob2il said:


> the "רע" in  "רעך" is pronounced differently.  shepherd is pronounced :ro'i whilst neighbor/friend is pronounced rei'a


I didn't suggest that they were the same word.  I said that the consonants could be read as either word. That's exactly my point. They have the same consonants.

רֹעִי _ro‘i_ is "my shepherd."

רֵעִי _re‘i_ is "my friend/fellow/neighbor."

The consonants saying השם רעי could mean either if taken out of context.

Jai


----------



## Dee Poe

A final note.  Please don't be confused by my post or any of the posts done after tFighterPilot.  Please trust me when I say that the submission by tFighterPilot is good Hebrew and will not be misread.  [He has written one vowel, pointed in the biblical text, as a consonant; so there can be no confusion if you follow his spelling; no one will misread the spelling as "my friend", because tFighterPilot has spelled out the vowel, and it will be in the tattoo.]  Again, what it means is "God [the more generic reference for God, and not the personal name of God, YHWH, which we are instructed to not take in vain usage], He (is) Shepherd-of-me".  Real good stuff.  Good luck.


----------



## JaiHare

Dee Poe said:


> A final note.  Please don't be confused by my post or any of the posts done after tFighterPilot.  Please trust me when I say that the submission by tFighterPilot is good Hebrew and will not be misread.  [He has written one vowel, pointed in the biblical text, as a consonant; so there can be no confusion if you follow his spelling; no one will misread the spelling as "my friend", because tFighterPilot has spelled out the vowel, and it will be in the tattoo.]  Again, what it means is "God [the more generic reference for God, and not the personal name of God, YHWH, which we are instructed to not take in vain usage], He (is) Shepherd-of-me".  Real good stuff.  Good luck.


But if we write רעי fully as רועי, why not write אלהים fully, too? The result would be like this:

אלוהים הוא רועי

Regards,
Jai


----------



## tFighterPilot

You've got a good point there.


----------

