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Verse in question is as follows:
Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris; etenim haereditas mea praeclara est mihi.
It would seem to me that meaning is something like this:
Funes: ropes, bonds, chains
ceciderunt mihi - ceased, fallen of me
in praeclaris - in fame (?) - as in: it was bright, glorious (?)
etenim - because
haereditas mea praeclara est mihi - I have my bright/great inheritance
Could you please offer a translation of this verse?
Since the biggest difficulty seems to be how to translate funes, I thought the following interpretations offer some interesting insights:
"Well might David say, 'Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris,' 'The cords' of my tent, my ropes, and the sorrow of my pilgrimage, 'fell to me in a good ground, and I have a goodly heritage.'" (Jeremy Taylor, The Whole Works of the Rt. Rev. Jeremy Taylor)
Here's Augustine's take on it:
"'The lines have fallen to me in glorious places' (ver. 6). The boundaries of my possession have fallen in Your glory as it were by lot, like as God is the possession of the Priests and Levites. Numbers 18:20 'For Mine inheritance is glorious to Me.' 'For Mine inheritance is glorious,' not to all, but to them that see; in whom because I am, 'it is to Me.'" (Augustine, Commentary on the Psalms)
Another translation for funes that I came across was "lot", so whether its translated as "lines", "cords" or "lot", the idea seems to be a descriptive way of referring to his inheritance or heritage.
Funis, literally a rope or chain, seems to be used in its metaphorical meaning of duty, service. Sequor Funes and duco funes are both conventional phrases for doing ones duty, as if the funis was a line of duty. Compare the 'lig-' in 'obligation,' and 'religion,' where 'ligo' is to tie, to bind a person to their duties.
'My duties fell to me amongst the 'praeclari:'
Take praeclarus as "super brilliant." The praeclari are 'super brilliant people,' or 'asuper brilliant state of affairs.' And praeclara mihi describes Hereditas, my Heritage, as 'super brilliant for me, to me,'
Etenim here is epexegetic, rather than a causal explanation. Rather than 'because,' it should be translated as 'And so...' / 'Which means,' or, as my dictionary (Smiths1880) says 'Wherefore...'
חֲבָלִים נָפְלוּ־לִי בַּנְּעִמִים אַף־נַחֲלָת שָׁפְרָה עָלָי׃
σχοινία ἐπέπεσάν μοι ἐν τοῖς κρατίστοις καὶ γὰρ ἡ κληρονομία μου κρατίστη μοί ἐστιν
Funes ceciderunt mihi in præclaris ; etenim hæreditas mea præclara est mihi.
(KJV)The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Psalm 16 (LXX and Vulgata: 15), verse 6.
ḥăḇālīm is literally “ropes”, but it also has a specialised meaning of “ropes used to delimit fields”, and then of “the delimited fields (portions)” themselves. The first half of the verse (“the ropes have fallen for me in excellent places”) is paraphrased more prosaically in the second (“my inheritance is excellent for me”).
The basic meaning of the Hebrew word (“ropes”) is rendered literally by σχοινία and by funes.
