Property: Discussion
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
P
Based on the use of suffixes alone, the psalm appears to divide in two halves. 2ms suffixes appear only in the first half, while 1cs suffixes fill the second half. The first half focuses on Yahweh (2ms), beginning with his anger/wrath (v.2ab) and ends with his steadfast love (v.5b), recollection (v.6a), and praise (v.6b). In the second half, the psalmist focuses on his own sorrows. +
Boundaries are marked by shifts in speaker, addressee, subject, and scene. Direct speech concludes each of the first three strophes. +
Chan argues for a chiastic structure for vv. 1-5 (A A' B' B), where the letters (A/B) represent the subjects (righteous/wicked respectively) and the chiasm is formed by distribution of the prepositions בְּ (vv. 1-2, 5) and כְּ (vv. 3-4).'"`UNIQ--ref-0000098E-QINU`"'
: vv.1-2 (בְּ)
:: v.3 (כְּ)
:: v.4 (כְּ)
: v.5 (בְּ) +
Climax: v.8</br>
Peak: v.9 +
Comment on two paths +
Comment on two paths +
R
Consider incorporating UBS bibliographies:
(http://www.ubs-translations.org/bibliographies/).
The UBS "Bible Translation" bibliography (mostly 1960–2007) has over 5000 items:
http://www.ubs-translations.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=transbib&uid=default&view_records=1&ID=* +
P
Craigie feels that the first “climax” of the psalm occurs in v. 6: “God terrifies the earthly rulers, not with any direct threat, but simply with the announcement that he has established his king in Zion”'"`UNIQ--ref-0000000E-QINU`"'—no ordinary monarch, but one who has all the authority and power of the sole Deity, Yahweh, behind him. Craigie does not explicitly indicate where another “climax” occurs, but that must surely be in the very next verse (7), where the divine performative act is uttered: בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֜נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ. Thus, the psalm’s emotive (6) and thematic (7) high points coincide in the center of the text, whereas the implications of this momentous divine decree is situated on the borders of the text: all impudent insurrectionists (stanza A) will be mercifully given a chance to fall into line and accept the new King’s rule (and receive a blessing, v. 12c); failing that, they must face the dire consequences of God’s righteous decrees (stanza D).
Verse 7c may be the most linguistically marked line in the psalm (verbless clause + independent pronoun + evocative language [2 Sam. 7] + figurative language [metaphor] + performative speech). This short line (4 syllables), which stands at the center of the psalm (בְּנִי is the middle word) and at the head of Yahweh's 7-line decree, makes a claim (grounded in the Davidic covenant) that is foundational to the rest of the psalm. +
David is the speaker throughout the Psalm, though in v. 3b there is the embedded direct speech of his enemies. In vv. 5-7, the speaker alternates from 1st person in the a-lines to 3rd person in the b-lines (1 // 3 / 1 // 3 / 1 // 3). This middle section (vv. 5-7) is bracketed by David addressing Yahweh in the 2nd person (vv. 4, 8). +
David is the speaker throughout the Psalm (v.1, לדוד). Note that David speaks on behalf of a group (1cp suffix: אדנינו [vv.2a, 10a]). Is he speaking on behalf of a congregation of Israelites, or on behalf of all humanity? +
David is the speaker throughout the entire psalm. +
Didactic. +
Figures/Evocative language seem to predominate in the second half of the psalm, especially section 3 (vv.9-12). This macro-level feature may correspond to the tendency within parallel lines toward the heightening of the b-line. +
Finite verb forms cluster in the middle two sections of the psalm (vv.4-7). The first section (vv.2c-3) contains a cluster of non-finite verbs (participles and infinitives) with only one finite verb, and the final section (vv.8-9) has almost no verbs at all (only the participle עֹבֵר in v.9b).
:Section 1 (vv.2c-3): non-finite verbs
::Section 2 (vv.4-5): finite verbs
::Section 3 (vv.6-7): finite verbs
:Section 4 (vv.8-9): no/non-finite verbs
*'''v.2c.''' תְּנָה – This form, if not emended (see below on [[#Variants|Textual Criticism]]), has been variously interpreted as an imperative (<נתן), an infinitive construct (<נתן), or a 3fs perfect (<נתן). (See Barthélemy for a history of medieval interpretation.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F2B-QINU`"')
:Elsewhere in the Bible, תְּנָה occurs as an imperative (instead of תֵּן) "very frequently."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F2C-QINU`"' This view is "usually accepted."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F2D-QINU`"' "However, the position of this imperative after אשׁר makes it a syntactically abnormal form."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F2E-QINU`"'
:The infinitive construct form of נתן is תֵּת,'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F2F-QINU`"' though the form נְתֹן occurs in Num. 20:21 and Gen. 38:9. The anomalous form in Ps. 8 (תְּנָה) finds an analogy in the form מֵרְדָה in Gen. 46:3 (רְדָה instead of רֶדֶת). So Waltke and O'Connor: “The form תְּנָה is not an anomalous imperative of נתן but an infinitive construct, as if formed from the root יתן (the verb 'to give' has this form in Phoenician); compare ירד, infinitive construct רֵדָה.”'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F30-QINU`"' According to this interpretation, v.2c may be understood as a verbless clause (S: תנה הודך; SC [location]: על השׁמים). “It may be interpreted: ''O Thou whose laying of Thy glory is upon the heavens''... Perhaps the author wrote תּנה הודך instead of נתתּ הודך, because he wishes to describe the setting out of the heavens with divine splendour as being constantly repeated and not as done once for all.”'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F31-QINU`"'
:The form תְּנָה may be a shortened form of נָתְנָה (cf. 2 Sam. 22:41 [תַּתָּה] vs. Ps. 18:41 [נָתַתָּה]). “Aphaeresis of a weak consonant with a full vowel” occurs in other places as well (cf. Jdgs. 19:11; Jer. 42:10; Ezek. 17:5; Hos. 11:3).'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F32-QINU`"' “In reality, however, all these forms are to be regarded merely as old textual errors.”'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F33-QINU`"' In either case, the occurrence of such forms elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible may support reading a 3fs perfect here, either by aphaeresis or by textual error. The subject of נתנה and the antecedent of אשׁר would be הארץ, the final word of the previous line (v.2b).
*'''vv.6-7.''' ''wayyiqtol'' - ''yiqtol'' - ''yiqtol'' - ''qatal''. Scholars have suggested that the short ''yiqtol'' forms are actually preterites, which "would originally have been distinguished from the normal so-called imperfect by both vocalization and stress."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F34-QINU`"' Here, they are distinguished by the H-suffixes, which signify perfective aspect.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F35-QINU`"' "There are a number of instances, especially in the poetic sections, where a ''yiqtol'' is used where one would have expected a ''qatal''/perfect. These instances are probably remnant of the non-jussive short ''yiqtol'', a form that is also to be found in ''wayyiqtol''."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F36-QINU`"' The LXX renders each form with aorists (past perfective) (ἠλάττωσας... ἐστεφάνωσας... κατέστησας... ὑπέταξας). However, as Craigie writes, "the context is ambiguous and does not require a sequence of past tenses in English; a translation rendering the sequence of verbs into English as ''past/future/future/past'' is quite possible."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F37-QINU`"' It is also possible that the four verbs be understood with "alternating reference to the past and the present in a way that brings out the present implications of the past act."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F38-QINU`"'
:However the tense and aspect of these verbs are understood, it appears that the variation of forms (''wayyiqtol'' - ''yiqtol'' - ''yiqtol'' - ''qatal'') creates a chiastic structure ('''a''' וַתְּחַסְּרֵ֣הוּ '''b''' תְּעַטְּרֵֽהוּ / '''b'''' תַּ֭מְשִׁילֵהוּ '''a'''' שַׁ֣תָּה) that binds together vv.6-7. "The verbs in vv. 6–7 come in ''abbʹaʹ'' sequence as wayyiqtol, yiqtol, yiqtol, qatal. The arrangement thus binds vv.6–7 together."'"`UNIQ--ref-00000F39-QINU`"'
Fokkelman claims that "Psalm 1 is a completely bicolic poem."'"`UNIQ--ref-000008FE-QINU`"' Alternatively, it seems that v.1 and v.3 might be analyzed as tetracola, since v.1c is, in many ways, parallel to v.1b, as is v.3c to v.3b. The first section (vv.1-3) would thus consist of the following: tetracolon, bicolon, tetracolon. The second section (vv.4-5) would consist of two bicola, and third section (v.6) of a single bicolon. +
Fokkelman counts 28 cola in Psalm 2, which gives the perfect 8.00 when dividing 224 (syllables). However, the delineation below [[#Line divisions|below]] divides the text into 30 cola. If this is accepted, then the number of cola over syllables in psalm 2 is not a perfect integer. If, however, the number of syllables in psalm 2 are added to those of psalm 1 (224 + 144 = 368) and the total is divided by the total number of lines (16 + 30 = 46), then the result is the perfect integer 8.00. +
For every four consecutive Qal verbs, there is one Hiphil verb. The pattern (<span style="color:#008000"> Q </span>, <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span>, <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span>, <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span>, <span style="color:#0000FF"> H </span>) is repeated three times before the Psalm ends with two ''hiphil'' verbs and a ''piel'' verb.
{| class="wikitable"
|+'''Verb Morphology'''
|-
! Verse !! Verb !! Stem !! Conjugation !! Person !! Gender !! Number !! Paragogic Suffix !! Pronominal Suffix !! Root
|-
| 1 (ss) || בּבֹרְחוֹ || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || inf. const. || || || || || 3ms || ברח
|-
| 2a || רַבּוּ || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || qatal || 3 || c || p || || || רבב
|-
| 2b || קָמִים || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || ptc || || m || p || || || קוּם
|-
| 3a || אֹמְרִים || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || ptc || || m || p || || || אמר
|-
| 4b || מֵרִים || <span style="color:#0000FF"> H </span> || ptc || || m || s || || || רוּם
|-
| 5a || אֶקְרָא || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || yiqtol || 1 || c || s || || ||קרא
|-
| 5b || וַיַּעֲנֵנִי || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || wayyiqtol || 3 || m || s || || 1cs || ענה
|-
| 6a || שָׁכַבְתִּי || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || qatal || 1 || c || s || || || שׁכב
|-
| 6b || וָאִישָׁנָה || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || wayyiqtol || 1 || c || s || ה || || ישׁן
|-
| 6c || הֱקִיצוֹתִי || <span style="color:#0000FF"> H </span> || qatal || 1 || c || s || || ||קיץ
|-
| 6d || יִסְמְכֵנִי || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || yiqtol || 3 || m || s || || 1cs || סמך
|-
| 7a || אִירָא || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || yiqtol || 1 || c || s || || || ירא
|-
| 7b || שָׁתוּ || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || qatal || 3 || c || p || || || שׁית
|-
| 8a || קוּמָה || <span style="color:#008000"> Q </span> || <big>'''impv'''</big> || || m || s || ה || || קוּם
|-
| 8b || הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי || <span style="color:#0000FF"> H </span> || <big>'''impv'''</big> || || m || s || || 1cs || ישׁע
|-
| 8c || הִכִּיתָ || <span style="color:#0000FF"> H </span> || qatal || 2 || m || s || || || נכה
|-
| 8d || שִבַּרְתָּ || <span style="color:#FF0000"> D </span> || qatal || 2 || m || s || || || שׁבר
|}
How does the third section fit in? +
How does the third section fit in? +
I like the background sense of the tree flourishing, and then the dryness and emptiness of the chaff being scattered. Is this one path that goes through both of them, or just the idea of a path that is relevant to both? +