Talk:Bible (King James)/Psalms

Using the word "chapter" is an error. The universal convention is to call each numbered psalm just that, e.g., Psalm 23 and NEVER Psalms, Chapter 23.--Lycurgus 08:22, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you are entirely correct. I had no idea we were using the wrong convention. I'll change it in a few minutes.—Zhaladshar ^(Talk) 13:58, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Missing parts

I am unclear as to the source of this text, as entered, but it does not reflect all the text as seen in the KJV.

While working on the Matthew Henry An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 3 a point was being made about the 'title' to psalm 8, p. 218, regarding the similarities of the title with Psalm 84. There isn't any title for 84, there are no titles in /Psalms here, the reference for KJV at WS, although the currently linked source has this title text at Psalm 84.

In Psalm 8 there is "To the chief Musician upon Gittith. A Psalm of David."

In Psalm 84 there is "To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm for the sons of Korah."

For at least one authority, these titles are significant for understandings. Hence, missing, a defect here. Divergences have been noted elsewhere (e.g. O Lord) but the incompleteness should be noted also, then remedied. Shenme (talk) 01:41, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Hello, User:Shenme. At least for the book of Psalms, the text that was put up here in 2004 is an exact -- word for word, comma for comma, typo for typo -- copy of the KJV released by Project Gutenberg's Derek Andrews in January 1992.

I'm not sure why that edition doesn't include the Psalm superscriptions, but I've gone ahead and added them in. I put them in {{center|}} tags as suggested by a user below, even though that doesn't in every case seem to always reproduce exactly the visual effect found in the source text. Anyhow, I hope that helps, and I would welcome anyone who knows the formatting conventions better tweaking what's there. MPlasky (talk) 02:46, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Styling for Psalms

I'm working from the source pages, now that we have source pages, and implementing some of the 'wants' mentioned in the general talk page. I ranted there that there was no style guide, so am typing in my notes as I've processed all the psalms once and need to review them to make uniform and eliminate experimental tries.

The header before each psalm contains these parts:

• chapter anchor for psalm
• psalm number
• summary, short or long, possibly with links to verses
• attribution and/or instructions
• verse anchor for initial verse
• dropped initial and capitalization

Each verse has a leading verse anchor.

{{chapter|141}}

Sets a simple id="141" anchor so that incoming links may reference /psalms#141 to display that psalm. As such it should be located before all other parts of the psalm and header.

{{c|{{larger|{{sp|PSA|.4em}}L.{{gap|.5em}} CXLI.}}}}

The psalm number title.

Summary for psalm. While always italicized, the formatting varies depending on the length and/or complexity of the summary text.

{{c|''short summary''}}

A short text will simply be centered.

{{hi|1em|''summary summary summary summary''}}

A longer text consisting of a single statement/phrase will have the form of a hanging indent.

{{hi|1em|''[[#141:1|1]] first part: {{gap|.5em}} [[#141:3|3]] second part, {{gap|.5em}} [[#141:9|9]] final part.''}}

Many summaries have multiple parts with inline links to the verse starting a new summarized verse section. Some summaries have 6-8 links! The {{gap}} emulates the spacing seen in the source before each verse number, obviously to help scanning the list of parts.

It may be a good idea to use {{nbsp}} to force the linking verse number to 'stick' to the following text, e.g.

{{gap|.5em}} [[#141:3|3]]{{nbsp}}second

rather than accidentally being left isolated at the end of the preceding line.

Attribution and/or instructions: this is not seen in all psalms and may be entirely absent.

{{center|A Psalm of David.}}

The simplest case is a short attribution.

.... more to do here ....

Verse anchor for initial verse:

{{verse|chapter=141|verse=1|notext=}}

This sets a simple id="141:1" anchor so that incoming links may reference individual verses of a psalm, referenced e.g. /psalms#141:1 , or referenced from the psalm summaries e.g. [[#141:3|3]]

All verses are preceded by individual verse anchors. However, the style as used in KJV does not show the verse number for the initial verse, so we must add a parameter "|notext=" to force the {{verse}} template to not display the verse number on the initial line.

Dropped initial and capitalization:

KJV style has the initial letter of the initial verse as a dropped initial.

{{di|fl=|font-size=3.25em|margin-bottom=-0.5em|L}}ORD, I cry

font-size is altered from the default 3em. KJV is single-spaced and there the dropped cap spans three lines. We are double-spaced and the 3em size is just a little short of spanning two lines. It looks better slightly larger.

|fl= (?) this is leftover (?) from experimenting with not displaying the verse number _or_ from playing with horizontal spacing of the dropped cap.

   (Should be removed??!??)

|margin-bottom=-0.5em Most often the initial verse line will be long enough to wrap across two or more display lines. Sometimes the text is short and occupies only one line. The display of the second verse can then overlap the dropped cap. This was an attempt to relieve that. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work for mobile display.

   (Should be removed everywhere??!??)

Capitalization is a bit inconsistent across the psalms. Often the first word has its first letter as the dropped cap, followed by the rest of its letters in uppercase, e.g. "MANY"

In some places it appears they were saving ink and only the second letter of the word was uppercase, the remainder lowercased: "BLessed", "EXcept".

When the first word was a single letter most often KJV will capitalize the first letter of the second word and only that: "I Will praise"

Splitting headers across page boundaries:

{{marginNote}}s and more fun:

Examples:

 {{chapter|133}}
 {{c|{{larger|{{sp|PSA|.4em}}L.{{gap|.5em}} CXXXIII.}}}}
 {{center|The blessedness of unity among brethren.}}
 {{center|A Song of degrees of David.}}
 {{verse|chapter=133|verse=1|notext=}}
 {{di|fl=|font-size=3.25em|margin-bottom=-0.5em|B}}Ehold, how good

 {{hi|1em|''[[#135:1|1]] An exhortation to God's servants to praise him
 for his goodness, {{gap|.5em}} [[#135:5|5]] his power, {{gap|.5em}}
 [[#135:8|8]] and judgments against his people's enemies. {{gap|.5em}}
 [[#135:15|15]] The vanity of idols. {{gap|.5em}} [[#135:19|19]] An
 exhortation to bless God.''}}

more notes to be done....

22 Heb. Letters for Ps. 119

Oughn't there be headers every 8 verses as in most printed versions?

א ALEF

Happy are they...

..

Nissimnanach (talk) 06:41, 13 January 2021 (UTC)Nissimnanach

This Psalme is has a name in Judaism, it's called the Alfa-Bita. Eight verses for each of the twenty two letters. Nissimnanach (talk) 07:13, 13 January 2021 (UTC)Nissimnanach

I've added these in.MPlasky (talk) 02:12, 24 March 2023 (UTC)