The Meaning of Ps. 13:3a

13:3

Introduction

Ps. 13:3a introduces the third of four ‘until when’ questions of the Psalm, asking ‘how long' ashith etsoth benafshi. Translations differ on how to take etsoth in this context, since it is not usually paired with ‘grief’ as in the following clause here. The use of nefesh for the embodiment of the centre of mental activity is also questioned, since typically Hebrew uses lev for such a reference.

Other instances of the construction shith with the preposition bet include the following:

וַאֲנִ֤י׀ קִֽרֲבַ֥ת אֱלֹהִ֗ים לִ֫י־ט֥וֹב שַׁתִּ֤י׀ בַּאדֹנָ֣י יְהֹוִ֣ה מַחְסִ֑י לְ֝סַפֵּ֗ר כָּל־מַלְאֲכוֹתֶֽיךָ׃ Ps. 73:28

בִּשְׂפָתוֹ יִנָּכֵ֣ר שׂוֹנֵ֑א וּ֝בְקִרְבּ֗וֹ יָשִׁ֥ית מִרְמָֽה׃ Pr. 26:24

מִי־שָׁ֭ת בַּטֻּח֣וֹת חָכְמָ֑ה א֤וֹ מִֽי־נָתַ֖ן לַשֶּׂ֣כְוִי בִינָֽה Job 38:36

In the place of עֶצָה from Ps. 13:3a, here we have מַחְסֶה, מִרְמָה and חָכְמָה, while in the place of נפשׁ we have אדני, קֶרֶב , and טֻחוֹת (inward parts).

Similarly, yet outside the realm of body parts are the following:

שַׁ֭תַּנִי בְּב֣וֹר תַּחְתִּיּ֑וֹת בְּ֝מַחֲשַׁכִּ֗ים בִּמְצֹלֽוֹת׃ Ps. 88:7

וְאָנֹכִ֣י אָמַ֗רְתִּי אֵ֚יךְ אֲשִׁיתֵ֣ךְ בַּבָּנִ֔ים וְאֶתֶּן־לָךְ֙ אֶ֣רֶץ חֶמְדָּ֔ה נַחֲלַ֥ת צְבִ֖י צִבְא֣וֹת גּוֹיִ֑ם וָאֹמַ֗ר אָבִי֙ תִּקְרְאוּ־לִ֔י וּמֵאַחֲרַ֖י לֹ֥א תָשׁוּבוּ׃ Je. 3:19

A quick survey of some English translations reveals the diversity of interpretations:

• Bulleted list item

take counsel in my soul (ESV, KJV)

• Bulleted list item

store up anxious concerns within me (HCSB)

• Bulleted list item

wrestle with my thoughts (NIV)

• Bulleted list item

struggle with anguish in my soul (NLT)

• Bulleted list item

bear pain in my soul (RSV)

Conclusion

Maintaining the face-value reading as the Hebrew text’s literal sense is recommended, perhaps favouring the gloss ‘plans’ over ‘counsels’ to make transparent the semantic frame of the psalmist’s repeated mental consideration of what to do about his perilous situation. Delitzsch’s judgment that the ‘day’ adverbial in the parallel clause implies ‘night’ in our current phrase places in sharper focus the typical process of mental agony throughout sleepless nights.

The Peshitta is a minority rendering of etsoth as ‘contentiousness’, yet the textual emendations necessary for the MT are unlikely, and the other ancient translations seem to have no problem with a literal rending of the phrase in question. Although lev may be a more likely candidate for mental exercises and thoughts, the construction of shith and bet concern a number of other inner-body terms. Finally, although it could be argued that ‘counsel’ does not fit the parallelism of ‘grief’ in the next line, the agonising over thought after thought can indeed prove a painful process.

The literal understanding of the phrase sheds light on the continual and ongoing process of David’s state of suffering, complementing the four-fold repetition of ‘how long?’

Research

Translations

Ancient

• Bulleted list item

LXX: ἕως τίνος θήσομαι βουλὰς ἐν ψυχῇ μου

• Bulleted list item

Chrysostem and possibly Symmachus: τάξω γνώμη

• Bulleted list item

Vg: quamdiu/usquequo ponam consilia in anima mea

• Bulleted list item

Tg: עַד־אָ֨נָה אָשִׁ֪ית עֵצ֡וֹת בְּנַפְשִׁ֗י

• Bulleted list item

Syriac: ܥܕܡܐ ܠܐܡܬܝ ܬܣܝܡ ܬܟܪܝܬܐ ܒܢܦܫܝ

Secondary Literature

Most commentators understand the phrase to refer to the act of creating plan after plan to resolve the situation:

“We have here very strikingly portrayed the mental condition of a man who harasses himself in helpless embarrassment, seeking for counsel, falling sometimes upon this, sometimes upon that plan, and then giving them all up again in utter despondency, because he sees them to be all unavailing. This disquiet, which arises in us whenever the Lord turns away His face from us in trouble, the sufferer considers as his greatest evil.” (Hengstenberg 1863-64)

“This strikingly describes the helpless embarrassment of the sufferer. Plan after plan suggests itself, is resolved upon, and then abandoned in despondency as utterly unavailing.” (Perowne 1870-1: 172)

“To put or set up devices, plans, schemes in his soul, viz. as to how he may be able to escape from this agonising condition, is equivalent to: to make the soul the place, the laboratory of such projects (cf. Prov. xxvi. 24); one such עֶצָה pursues the other in his soul, because he recognises the vanity of the one after the other as soon as they occur to his mind… By night he devises plan after plan, each one as vain as the other; by day, or all the day, when he sees his distress with open eyes, sorrow (יָגוֹן) is in his heart, the precipitate, as it were, of the night, and a direct reflexion of his helpless and hopeless condition.” (Delitzsch 1883: 252-253)

“devising one plan after another in vain.” (Kirkpatrick 1897: 64)

“The psalmist is disturbed within himself. He searches his thoughts as to what has happened.” (VanGemeren 2006)

“Durante la inacción de Dios, el hombre pasa el tiempo haciendo y desechando planes. Uno desbanca a otros y todos resultan inútiles. Nosotros decimos; «no hay que darle vueltas», nps indica aquí la interioridad, en paralelo con Ibb: el orante se vuelve testigo explícito de su vida interior, de la que es actor y observador; el «corazón» retornará al final. (Alonso-Schökel 1992: 257)

Some opt for textual emendation:

“אָשִׁית] c. בְּנַפְשִׁי, α, λ. and difficult. MT. is an erroneous interp. connected with use of עֵצוֹת, wh. is not suited to context, or the ordinary use of נפשׁ:, often the seat of emotions and passions, seldom of mental states; v. BDB. Although this text is so ancient and universal as to be in most Vrss., yet it is better after & with Dy., Gr., Che., Bu., Du., to rd. עַצָּכוֹת: hurts, griefs (v. 16.4, 147.3)> or sg« עַצֶבֶת as more suited to נפשׁ and context. Then rd. vb. as juss. — יָגִין] n.(m.) grief, sorrow” (Briggs 1906: 102)

While Craigie follows Driver’s explanation of עֶצָה as ‘pain’:

“it leaves the unusual combination of counsels (intellectual activity) with soul (here implying the seat of the emotions)… The simplest and most satisfactory solution is to retain and translate “pain” (literally, “pains”), a possible sense of the term for which Driver has made a plausible argument (WO 1 [1947–52] 410, cited by Anderson, Psalms 1, 129; cf. NEB)” (Craigie 1983).

References

13:3