Does anyone else utilize Liturgia Horarum?
I wanted to check if anyone knows of any helpful resources or pointers specific to it. I know where is a lot to familiarize people with Divinum Officium as well as bi-lingual additions of that. The one lat-eng publication of LH is now out of print and a few hundred dollars used if I recall correctly. The Universalis website can display parallel Latin-English but I haven’t been able to get that to work well on my phone.
I’ve been using Liturgia Horarum for lauds and vespers for a few months now and feel pretty comfortable with it. I understand most of the reoccurring parts of the four week cycle pretty well. These I am familiar with from reading in English previously. When I do struggle to understand something it is usually with the prayers that change daily, such as the intentions and concluding prayers outside of Ordinary Time.
But I don’t know of anything else specifically for learning it. In addition to learning Latin with LLPSI: FA I have learned the vocabulary from “Latin Grammar” by Scanlon and Scanlon and have been reading from the vulgate and Epitome Historiae Sacrae . After this I started importing the Lauds and Vespers into Lingq and reading it on there. I’m planning on beginning to do this again unless something else out there could be more helpful. My main problem with this approach is just not seeing unfamiliar words but once a month or creating even more anki flashcards from what I’ve already read.
Avete et Pax vobiscum!
In today’s ninth-hour (3 pm) Divine Office, Ps. 118 is used, and verse 138 goes: “Mandásti iustítiam testimónia tua…” A word-by-word translation seems to be a sentence fragment, and its meaning is unclear: “You command justice your testimony…”
Could y’all supply a better translation?
Gratia vobis!
I’m not a biblical scholar, but here are my two cents. The Gallican Psalter is a literal translation of the Greek Septuagint (ἐνετείλω δικαιοσύνην τὰ μαρτύριά σου), which is a translation of a Hebrew text sometimes different from the Masoretic Text. The Douay–Rheims Bible and its revision by Bp. Challoner provide faithful translations of the Gallican Psalter. They basically translate as you did:
Thou hast commanded justice thy testimonies:
There’s not much more to say about the Latin itself. You may find useful to check the Divinum Officium website, which provides the Bea-Psalter in parallel. Whatever one may think of it (and I’m no fan) the Latin, based on the Masoretic Text, is much clearer. Specifically, it gives: Cum iustítia imposuísti præscrípta tua, which leaves no room for doubt.
Gratias tibi B, “With justice you impose (put in place?) your prescriptions (laws?)” is much clearer.
imposuistī is perfect, not present.
Ok 
With justice you have put in place your laws 
There are two latin-english print editions of Liturgia Horarum: Lauds and Vesper, both are now our of print. New books of the older office are a lot more common and easier to find.
“Lauds and Vespers: Latin-English per annum” The ordinary 4 week cycle of these two offices with Ordinary Time Sundays included. I bought this for $30 a few months ago and it’s great, wish I had bought it a long time ago. This version seems to be cheaper and easier to find. It is half as thick as Christian Prayer/a breviary and will fit in some of the same covers. It’s a hard cover book, unlike the others mentioned.
amazon.com/Lauds-Vespers-Latin-English-Peter-Stravinskas/dp/1889334324
ISBN-10 : 1889334324
Later in 2006 another publisher expanded the book to include everything for the entire year. “Lauds and vespers: Latin- English enlarged edition.” This version seems to be much harder to find and much more expensive, what a shame.
ISBN-10 : 0970402295
Again these two are of 1970s+ Liturgia Horarum. My guess is there wasn’t enough demand to justify paying copyrights on further printings of the books. I’m curious if modern print on demand services could work around this issue.