Translations
But I have quieted and calmed myself; like a weaned child resting upon its mother; so I, as a weaned child lie at peace within me.
Truly, I have levelled and stilled my nephesh; like a weaned child upon its mother; like a weaned child, my nephesh rests upon me.
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Footnotes
The verse opens with *im-lo*, a Hebrew oath formula conveying strong affirmation — not a conditional ('if not') but an emphatic 'Truly/Indeed I have'; FOG renders this 'Truly,' FOG Message 'But' (signalling the inward turn). Two verbs carry the inner work: *shivviti* (from *shavah*, 'to level, make even, compose') and *domamti* (from *damam*, 'to be still, hushed, silent') — together describing not passive resignation but the active, disciplined art of levelling anxious terrain within oneself. *Nephesh* carries the full weight of Hebrew personhood: throat, breath, appetite, life-force — rendered 'nephesh' in FOG to preserve its irreducible range, and 'myself and I' in FOG Message to draw out its spiritual depth. The *gamal* ('weaned child') is the psalm's master image: a child no longer straining and crying at the breast, yet still pressed close to its mother — desire transformed, not extinguished, contentment without detachment. Most remarkably, the final phrase reads literally 'like a weaned child *upon me* is my nephesh' (*alai*) — mirroring *alei immo* ('upon its mother'): the psalmist's soul is the child, and the psalmist himself has become the mother, holding his own interior life in tender stillness.