Psalm 42

"Sicut cervus" redirects here. For the motet by Palestrina, see Sicut cervus (Palestrina). For the episode of Fear the Walking Dead, see Sicut Cervus (Fear the Walking Dead).
This article is about Psalm 42 in Hebrew (Masoretic) numbering. For Psalm 42 in Greek Septuagint or Latin Vulgate numbering, see Psalm 43.
For the work by Mendelssohn, see Psalm 42 (Mendelssohn).

Psalm 42
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks"
Hymn psalm
Psalm 42 in Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (fol. 97v), with an illustration of a drinking hart
Other name
  • Psalm 41
  • "Quemadmodum desiderat cervus"
  • "Sicut cervus"
  • "Like as the hart"
  • "As pants the hart"
LanguageHebrew (original)

Psalm 42 is the 42nd psalm of the Book of Psalms, often known in English by its incipit, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks" (in the King James Version). The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 42 opens the second of the five books (divisions) of Psalms,[1] also known as the "Elohistic Psalter" because the word YHWH is rarely used and God is generally referred to as "Elohim".[2]

In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint version of the bible, and generally in its Latin translations, this psalm is Psalm 41, although the Nova Vulgata translation follows the Hebrew numbering.[3] The psalm is a hymn psalm. It is one of twelve psalms attributed to the sons of Korah.

In Latin, its incipit in the Psalterium Gallicanum (the version in the Roman Breviary until the optional introduction of the Versio Piana in 1945) is Quemadmodum desiderat cervus;[4] but Sicut cervus in the Psalterium Romanum. It begins "As pants the hart" in the English metrical version by Tate and Brady (1696) and in Coverdale's translation in the Book of Common Prayer, "Like as the hart".

The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies and has often been set to music, notably in Palestrina's Sicut cervus, Handel's As pants the hart and Mendelssohn's Psalm 42.

  1. ^ "Book 2: Chapters 42–72". Chabad.org. 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
  2. ^ Rodd, C. S., 18. Psalms in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary Archived November 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, p. 360
  3. ^ Nova Vulgata: Psalm 42 (41), accessed 28 September 2020
  4. ^ Parallel Latin/English Psalter / Psalmus 41 (42) Archived May 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine medievalist.net