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主は我が力 shu wa waga chikara Psalms 118:14 The Lord is My Strength

主は我が力 (shu wa waga chikara), the Lord is my strength, is the first clause of Psalm 118:14. The Japanese Orthodox church printed 主ハ我ガ力 in 1884 and 1885, before the Protestant Old Testament of 1887 named God ヱホバ here. This study follows the clause to the Anglican hymnal of 1922, which prints the five characters exactly.

Japanese Scroll of Psalms 118:14 The Lord is My Strength (shu wa waga chikara) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Psalms 118:14 The Lord is My Strength主は我が力shu wa waga chikara

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

主は我が力, the Lord is my strength, is the first clause of Psalm 118:14 in the 1955 口語訳's words, 主はわが力, with a kanji supplied where that Bible prints kana. The Protestant Meiji Old Testament of 1887 gave the divine name, ヱホバはわが力. The Japanese Orthodox church read the verse with 主 before that Bible was printed: its book of hours of July 1884 sets 主ハ我ガ力ト我ガ歌ナリ as a chant of the Divine Liturgy, and its Psalter of July 1885 prints the same words at the verse, with 我 in kanji as the scroll writes it. The Anglican Psalter of 1899 read 主ハわが力, and the Anglican hymnal of 1922 prints 主は我が力, the five characters exactly, thirty-three years before the 口語訳.

Overview

The sense. The psalmist's God as his strength, the first clause of a verse that goes on to song and to salvation: 主はわが力、わが歌であって、わが救となられた, in the 口語訳's words.

The words. 主 in the Christian sense, the Father God or Christ, is dated by the dictionary to the Old Testament of 1888 itself, 「主ヱホバよ」 in Genesis [1]. 力 is cited from the 古事記 of 712 [2].

The text in English. Psalm 118:14: the King James reads the LORD is my strength and song; the American Standard, Jehovah is my strength and song; the New International, my strength and my defense; the English Standard, my strength and my song; the New Revised Standard, my strength and my might [3].

The verse's other places. The same Hebrew words, my strength and song is Yah, stand in the song at the sea, Exodus 15:2, and again at Isaiah 12:2, and the King James reads Exodus and the Psalm alike, The LORD is my strength and song [4][5][6]. The 口語訳 turns the three differently: 主はわたしの力また歌 in Exodus, 主なる神はわが力 in Isaiah, and 主はわが力 only in the Psalm [7].

The historical record

1852 and 1919. The Chinese Bibles beside the Japanese. Two Chinese translations stand beside the Japanese wording, read here for what they share with it, not as its source. The Delegates' Version of 1852 reads 耶和華是我的力量、是我的詩歌 for the Psalm [8], and the Union Version of 1919 reads it the same way [9]: both give the divine name, 耶和華, where 主は我が力 has 主.

1884 and 1885. The Orthodox books. The Orthodox 時課経, printed in July 1884, sets the verse in its 八調経抄 as a 提綱 of the 聖躰禮儀, the Divine Liturgy: 主(シユ)ハ我(ワ)ガ力(チカラ)ト我(ワ)ガ歌(ウタ)ナリ彼(カレ)ハ我(ワ)ガ救(スク)ヒトナレリ [10]. The church's Psalter, 聖詠経, printed in July 1885, gives the same words at the verse, which it numbers in the hundred and seventeenth psalm, as the Greek Psalter does: 十四 主(シユ)ハ我(ワ)ガ力(チカラ)ト我(ワ)ガ歌(ウタ)ナリ彼(カレ)ハ我(ワ)ガ救(スクヒ)トナレリ [11]. Both write 主 where the Protestant Old Testament, printed two years later, wrote ヱホバ, and both write 我 in kanji, as the scroll does; only the particles are katakana. The dictionary's first example of 主 in the Christian sense is four years later [1]. The 大日本正教会's 奉事経 of 1894 and the 聖事経 of 1895 keep the chant [12], and the church's Psalter of 1901 reads 主ハ我ガ力、我ガ歌ナリ [13]. The National Diet Library's full-text searches, on the katakana and the hiragana spellings, show no print of the clause with 主 before 1884 [14].

1887 and 1907. The Meiji Old Testament. The Meiji committee's Old Testament of 1887 reads Psalm 118:14 ヱホバはわが力(ちから)わが歌(うた)にしてわが救(すくひ)となりたまへり, in the 1907 旧新約全書 printing [15] and again in the 1937 引照附 printing [16]. Where 主は我が力 has 主, the Meiji Bible transliterates the divine name, ヱホバ.

1899. The Anglican Psalter. 日本聖公会's own Psalter, translated by 中川藤四郎 and others, reads Psalm 118 for its twenty-fourth morning: 十四 主(しゆ)ハわが力(ちから)わが歌(うた)なり又(また)わが救(すくひ)となり給(たま)へり [17]. Like the Orthodox books before it, the Anglican Psalter reads 主 where the Meiji Old Testament transliterated the name, and it writes わが in hiragana, as the 口語訳 would fifty-six years later.

1922. The Anglican hymnal. 古今聖歌集, the Anglican church's revised hymnal, sets Psalm 118 as the epigraph to hymn 462 in the same five characters: 主は我が力わが歌にして我が救となり給へり 詩百十八〇十四 [18]. 主は我が力 stood in print thirty-three years before the colloquial Bible of 1955.

1955. The colloquial 口語訳. The Japan Bible Society's colloquial translation, the whole Bible in 1955, reads 主はわが力、わが歌であって、／わが救となられた at its own verse-search endpoint [7]. The Japan Bible Society's own list of the wordings it revised in 1975, 1984 and 2002 does not touch this verse [19]. 主は我が力 is this Bible's first clause with 我 for わ.

1970, 2003 and 2017. The 新改訳. The 新改訳's Old Testament, which holds the Psalms, appeared in June 1970, five years after its New Testament [20]; its 2003 text reads 主は、私の力であり、ほめ歌である [21] and its 2017 text 主は私の力　またほめ歌 [22]: 私の力 for 我が力.

1987. The 新共同訳. 新共同訳, published September 1987, reads Psalm 118:14 主はわたしの砦、わたしの歌。主はわたしの救いとなってくださった [23] — 砦, a fortress, for 力, strength.

2018. The 聖書協会共同訳. 聖書協会共同訳, published December 2018, reads 主こそ私の力、私の歌 [24] — 私の力 for 我が力.

Across the Bibles. Every Japanese Bible read here from 1955 on names God in this verse 主; none after the 口語訳 keeps わが, and one, the 新共同訳, trades the strength for a fortress.

A reading

主は我が力 is the 口語訳's first clause with 我 written for わ, and it is the five characters the Anglican hymnal printed in 1922. The Protestant Bible kept the transliterated name, ヱホバ, in this verse from 1887 until 1955. The churches that said 主 here first were the Orthodox, in print from 1884, and the Anglican, from 1899, and the Orthodox books already wrote the scroll's 我 and 力: the words the scroll brushes were a chant of the Orthodox liturgy seventy-one years before the Protestant Bible took up 主.

Sources not seen

The Catholic フランシスコ会訳 and バルバロ訳, two twentieth-century Catholic translations still in copyright, with no public verse-search endpoint. Their text of this verse would show whether the Catholic church's modern Bible differs from the older Bibles read here.

聖詠講話, 木村英吉's translation, published by the Orthodox 正教会編輯局 in its 聖金口イオアン全集 and catalogued 1905 and 1912, at the page that quotes this verse. The full-text index gives it as 主は我が力、我が歌なり, with は and が in hiragana, which would put the scroll's five characters in print ten years before the hymnal; the page was not found at the scan the index names.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「主」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/主
  2. 「力」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/力
  3. Psalm 118:14, English versions in parallel, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/psalms/118-14.htm
  4. Psalm 118:14, Hebrew text, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/text/psalms/118-14.htm
  5. Exodus 15:2, Hebrew text and the King James, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/15-2.htm
  6. Isaiah 12:2, Hebrew text and the King James, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/text/isaiah/12-2.htm
  7. 口語訳, 日本聖書協会, at the publisher's verse search (Exodus 15:2, Isaiah 12:2, Psalm 118:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  8. 詩篇, 聖經 (委辦譯本或稱代表譯本), 1852, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(委辦譯本或稱代表譯本)/詩篇
  9. 詩篇, 聖經 (和合本), 1919, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(和合本)/詩篇
  10. 時課経, July 1884, scan 161, 八調経抄, p. 315 (the 提綱 of the 聖躰禮儀). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824485/1/161
  11. 聖詠経, July 1885, scan 129, the 117th psalm, p. 249 (verse 14). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824694/1/129
  12. 奉事経, 大日本正教会 編, 1894, and 聖事経, 1895, National Diet Library pid 988164 and pid 824745, the full-text index's excerpts only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/988164 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824745
  13. 聖詠経, ハリストス正教会本会 訳, July 1901, scan 132 (the 117th psalm, verse 14). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824695/1/132
  14. National Diet Library full-text search on 主ハ我ガ力 and 主はわが力: the next-generation search, 30 September 2026, 4 books for the katakana spelling (1885, 1894, 1895, 1901) and 3 for the hiragana (1899 the oldest); the Digital Collections search, 30 September 2026, its oldest dated items 1884 (我ガ力ト我ガ歌) and 1885. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=主ハ我ガ力 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=主は我が力&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
  15. 旧新約全書, 1907, scan 434 (Psalm 118:14). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992555/1/434
  16. 舊新約聖書 引照附, 1937, scan 545 (Psalm 118:14, p. 1076). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1030419/1/545
  17. 詩篇, 中川藤四郎 等訳, 日本聖公会出版社, 1899, scan 178 (Psalm 118:14, the twenty-fourth morning). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825502/1/178
  18. 古今聖歌集 譜附, 古今聖歌集改訂委員, 1922, scan 283 (hymn 462, Psalm 118:14). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/941747/1/283
  19. 聖書語句訂正一覧（口語訳聖書）, 日本聖書協会, the 1975 · 1984 · 2002 revisions. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/si_word_correction/jc_word_correction.html
  20. 「新改訳聖書」, Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新改訳聖書
  21. 新改訳 第三版, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2003 text, at the publisher's verse search (Psalm 118:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  22. 新改訳2017, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2017 text, at the publisher's verse search (Psalm 118:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  23. 新共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 1987, at the publisher's verse search (Psalm 118:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  24. 聖書協会共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 2018, at the publisher's verse search (Psalm 118:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 主は我が力 (shu wa waga chikara)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/shu-wa-waga-chikara.