Participles in Ps. 33:7

Back to Psalm 33.

Exegetical issues for Psalm 33:

• Participles in Ps. 33:7
• Psalm 33:7 - Heap, Wineskin, or Jar?
• Ps 33:20-21 - Praise for Salvation?

Introduction

The traditional Hebrew text of Ps 33:7 reads as follows:

כֹּנֵ֣ס כַּ֭נֵּד מֵ֣י הַיָּ֑ם נֹתֵ֖ן בְּאֹצָר֣וֹת תְּהוֹמֽוֹת׃

The verse contains two participles, and it is difficult to know how to interpret them. The choice impacts the grammar and interpretation of the whole verse. If the participles are verbal, then each occupies the predicate slot in its respective clause. The result is that each clause is complete, with an implied subject, YHWH, and a predicate that describes his activity.

An altogether different possibility is that these participles function as nouns (i.e., substantivally), so that each describes YHWH in terms of a particular characteristic. In this case, the verse would consist of verbless exclamations.

Modern translations choose to translate the participles as verbs, but are divided on the tense:

• Option 1 (present tense verbs): He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses (ESV; cf. NET, NIV, NJB, JPS, CSB).
• Option 2 (past tense verbs): He gathered into a heap the waters of the sea, he laid up the deeps in his store-chambers (NEB/REB; cf. NLT, CEV, GNT).

The other option, suggested by some commentators, is to treat them as nouns:

• Option 3 (nouns): The one who gathers the waters of the sea like a wall, who sets up the deeps in vaults (NICOT commentary; cf. Continental Commentary).

Should the participles be read as present tense verbs like "he gathers" and "he puts"? Or should they be read as past tense verbs like "he gathered" and "he put"? Or, finally, should they be read as nouns, like "the one who gathers" and "the one who puts"? The following argument maps explain the feasibility of each option in greater detail.

Argument Maps

1. Present-Tense Verbs

Many modern translations treat these participles as present-tense verbs. For example, the ESV says: "He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses."

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[Present-tense verbs]: The participles in v. 7 are functioning as present-tense verbs (predicative participles).#dispreferred
 + <Ancient support>: A verbal reading is supported by the LXX.#dispreferred
  + [LXX]: "as he gathers (συνάγων) the waters of the sea like a wineskin, as he puts (τιθεὶς) the sea into storehouses" (NETS).#dispreferred 
   <_ <Contemporaneous action>: In Greek, "the participle does not of itself express time" but is "merely descriptive and contemporaneous" with the "principal verb" (Robertson 1923, 979 :G:; cf. Blass et. al. 1961, 174 :G:).  Here the likely main verb is the most proximate, an aorist verb (ἐστερεώθησαν, v. 6), so the Greek participles of v. 7 should be understood as past tense also. 
 - <Participle needs an explicit subject>: For predicate participles, "to specify its subject in the absence of a noun, a subject pronoun must be supplied that agrees with the participle in gender and number" (Ross 2001, 128 :G:). There is no noun or pronoun occupying the subject slot for either participle in v. 7.
  - <Pronoun-less verbal participles>: The 3s independent personal pronoun הוּא is frequently omitted when the ms participle is functioning predicatively (GKC §116s :G:; JM §154c :G:).#dispreferred
    + [Pronoun-less verbal participles]: Gn 32:7; Dt 33:3; 1 Sam 20:1; Is 33:5; 40:19; Pss 22:29; 34:21; 55:20; Jb 12:17; 19; 25:2; 26:7.#dispreferred
 - <Context and content>: Context and content suggest that the participle does not express present tense.
  + <Framed in past tense>: The past tense (qatal) verbs that describe YHWH's mighty acts in creation in vv. 6 and 9 frame the section, suggesting past-time action for the events of v. 7.
   + [Ps 33:6, 9]: Verse 6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made (נַעֲשׂוּ), and by the breath of his mouth all their host" (ESV). Verse 9: "For he spoke (אָמַר), and it came to be (וַיֶּהִי); he commanded (צִוָּה), and it stood firm (וַיַּעֲמֹד)" (ESV).
  + <Content is past events>: The references in v. 7 are either to acts that took place long ago at creation (Gen 1) or long ago during the crossing of the Red Sea (v. 7; cf. Exod 15).
   <_ <Speaker imagines himself in the past>: Perhaps the Psalmist was imagining himself on the scene of creation as the waters were divided.#dispreferred
    + <Part of a regular festival>: Psalms like this one were probably part of a regular community festival; the presence of the "New Song" (v. 3) may indicate it happened at New Year's (Mowinckel 1967, 94-95 :M:), while other think it was part of "the great Autumn Festival at which both the tradition of creation and of the salvation-history were recounted and relived" (Anderson 1972, 260 :C:).#dispreferred 
    - <Speaker sees himself in the present>: Later in the Psalm, the Psalmist speaks in the present tense demanding help in the present (vv. 20-22). This indicates that the Psalm was "an independent composition reflecting some crisis in the nation before becoming part of the temple collection" (Ross 2011, 724 :C:). 
 - <A semantic mismatch>: If the participles function as present-tense verbs, then they would encode continuous (or habitual) semantics (cf. BHRG §20.3.3 :G:; JM §121.h :G:; Driver 1892 §135 :M:). The events described in v. 7, however, are one-time past events.
  <_ <Continued maintenance>: The gathering of the waters and the storing of the seas in v. 6 "expresses the continued action of maintenance as well as the original creation" (Kirkpatrick 1902, 167 :M:).#dispreferred
  + <One-time events>: The gathering of the waters as a "heap" are always unique, not continuous or habitual, one-time events elsewhere in the HB. The same is true of God shutting up the "deep."
   + [One-time events]: Gathering waters: Exod 15:8; Jos 3:13, 16; Ps 78:13; shutting up the "deep": Gen 8:12; cf. Isa 51:1; 63;13; Ezek 31:5; Amos 7:4; though perhaps Job 38:8-10, 30.  
 + <Similar participles are present tense elsewhere>: In Isa 45:7, a series of ms Qal participles with no subject pronouns describe God doing a series of actions habitually (cf. ESV, NIV, LEB, NRSV, NLT, CSB).#dispreferred
  + [Isa 45:7]: "I form (יֹוצֵר) light and create (וּבֹורֵא) darkness; I make (עֹשֶׂה) well-being and create (וּבֹורֵא) calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things." (ESV)#dispreferred
  <_ <Not the same>:This verse describes repeated actions of God, not one-time actions such as those described in Ps. 33:7.
 + <Brings Vividness and Immediacy>: A durative verbal form with non-past default (such as ''yiqtol'') embedded in a past-tense discourse nudges "history towards performance" (Robar 2022, 13 :A:). The same logic applies to participles found in past tense discourse.#dispreferred

2. Past-Tense Verbs

Many other modern translations treat these participles as simple past tense verbs. For example, the CEV says, "He scooped up the ocean and stored the water."

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[Past-tense verbs]: The participles in v. 7 are functioning as past-tense verbs (predicative participles)#dispreferred
 + <Ancient support>: A past tense verbal reading is supported by the ancient versions.#dispreferred
  + [LXX]: "as he gathers (συνάγων) the waters of the sea like a wineskin, as he puts (τιθεὶς) the sea into storehouses" (NETS).#dispreferred 
   <_ <Not past tense>: The LXX does not use past tense verbs.
    <_ <Time determined by proximate verb>: In Greek, "the participle does not of itself express time" but is "merely descriptive and contemporaneous" with the "principal verb" (Robertson 1923, 979 :G:). Here the likely main verb is the most proximate, an aorist verb (ἐστερεώθησαν, v. 6), so the Greek participles of v. 7 should be understood as past tense also. #dispreferred 
    <_ <Verbal participles>: LXX translates both participles as anarthrous; "in the great majority of instances" such participles are not substantive (Blass et. al. 1961, 139 :G:). Thus, they are likely verbal.#dispreferred
  + [Symmachus]: "he collected (συνήγαγ(εν)) the waters of the sea as in a wineskin, he laid up (ἀπέθετο) the deeps in storehouses"
#dispreferred
  + [Syriac]: He "gathered (ܟܢܫ) the waters of the seas as in wineskins; he placed (ܘܣܡ) the deeps in a storehouse" (Taylor 2021, 117 :M:).#dispreferred
 - <Participle needs an explicit subject>: For predicate participles, "to specify its subject in the absence of a noun, a subject pronoun must be supplied that agrees with the participle in gender and number" (Ross 2001, 128 :G:). There is no noun or pronoun occupying the subject slot for either participle in v. 7.
  - <Pronoun-less verbal participles>: The 3s independent personal pronoun הוּא is frequently omitted when the ms participle is functioning predicatively (GKC §116s :G:; JM §154c :G:).#dispreferred
    + [Pronoun-less verbal participles]: Gn 32:7; Dt 33:3; 1 Sam 20:1; Is 33:5; 40:19; Pss 22:29; 34:21; 55:20; Jb 12:17; 19; 25:2; 26:7.#dispreferred
 + <Qatal verb (v. 6)>: The participles in v. 7 may be understood as a continuation of the qatal verb in v. 6 and therefore express past time (Witte 2002, 525-526 :A:).#dispreferred
 - <A semantic mismatch>: If the participles function as past-tense verbs, then they would encode continuous (or habitual) semantics. The events described in v. 7, however, are one-time past events.
  + <Past participles express process>: When embedded in a past context, the predicative participle would take the past tense, but still with the nuance that the action was "in process" (Bartelt 2009, 174 :A:; cf. JM §121f :G:). This is true in Hebrew poetry as well (see Notarius 2010, 253, 259 :A:).
 + <Possibly Aramaic style>: "The participles are of the late Aramaic style, used for the finite verb" (Briggs 1906, 288 :C:). In this case, they may be translated as simple past-tense verbs.#dispreferred
  - <No Aramaic evidence>: There is no other evidence of Aramaic influence in the Psalm, such as, e.g., uniquely Aramaic vocabulary.

3. Nouns (Preferred)

The participles function as substantive participles. This rendering is reflected in the NICOT commentary, "The one who gathers the waters of the sea like a wall, who sets up the deeps in vaults."

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[Nouns]: The participles in v. 7 are substantival (i.e., functioning as nouns)
 - <Not a complete clause>: If the participles are substantive, then v. 7 would not have a predicate and would not be a complete clause.#dispreferred
  <_ <Exclamations>: Ps 33:7 could consist of exclamations, which do not require a verb (cf. IBHS §40.2.3 :G:; Blau 1976, 82-83 :G:).
 + <Verse 15>: Ps 33:15 is similar to Ps 33:7, and the particles in v. 15 are clearly substantive since they have the definite article.
  + [v. 15]: הַיֹּצֵ֣ר יַ֣חַד לִבָּ֑ם הַ֝מֵּבִ֗ין אֶל־כָּל־מַעֲשֵׂיהֶֽם׃
  <_ <Not similar constructions>: The participles in v. 15 are marked with an article, and the participles in v. 7 are not; this distinction could be deliberate to distinguish the participles in vv. 5 and 7 as predicative (verbal).#dispreferred
 + <Makes best sense in context>: Contextually, the participles make best sense as substantives.
  + <Focus on YHWH's character>: The focus of the psalm is on YHWH's character (deClaisse-Walford et al. 2014, 311 n. 7 :C:), and interpreting the participles as substantives works well with this focus, since substantival participles foreground the identity of the person being described rather than the continuous or habitual nature of the participle (Wernberg-Møller 1959, 157-9 :A:).
   + [Participles foreground identity]: E.g., the phrase עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ, "maker/creator of heaven and earth" (LEB, NIV, CSB, NET) or "who made heaven and earth" (NASB, ESV, NRSV, KJV, NLT, CEV) (Pss 121:2 and 146:6).
 + <Brings Vividness and Immediacy>: A durative verbal form with non-past default (such as ''yiqtol'') embedded in a past-tense discourse nudges "history towards performance" (Robar 2022, 13 :A:). The same logic applies to participles found in past tense discourse.

Conclusion

The two participles in the verse כֹּנֵ֣ס כַּ֭נֵּד מֵ֣י הַיָּ֑ם נֹתֵ֖ן בְּאֹצָר֣וֹת תְּהוֹמֽוֹת are routinely translated as either present-tense or past-tense verbs, but the best reading is to take them as nouns (substantival).

Rendering Hebrew participles as verbs (predicatively) encodes continuous or habitual action. While the English simple present tense faithfully communicates this kind of action (aspect), the problem is that the Bible nowhere else speaks about God's piling up the waters or shutting up the deeps as a continuous or habitual act. On the other hand, the English simple past tense implies a singular, one-time action, which does not match the continuous or habitual aspect of the Hebrew predicative participle.

Instead, taking the participles as nouns (substantivally: the one who gathers and the one who puts) is grammatically viable and fits the context. Crucially, this rendering solves the problem of when the events of Ps. 33:7 took place, because substantival participles do not encode when or how often events occur, only that they happen (or did happen). The focus is instead upon the nature of the one who has done the action, which is a theme of Psalm 33. This rendering also preserves the vividness and immediacy that the Hebrew intended to convey in the switch to a participial form within a past-tense portion of discourse.

Research

Translations

Ancient

• LXX: συνάγων ὡς ἀσκὸν ὕδατα θαλάσσης, τιθεὶς ἐν θησαυροῖς ἀβύσσους.
  • "as he gathers the waters of the sea like a wineskin, as he puts the sea into storehouses"
• Symmachus: συνήγαγ(εν) ὡς ἐν ἀσκῷ ὕδατα θαλάσσης, ἀπέθετο ἐν θησαυροῖς ἀβύσσους.
  • "he collected the waters of the sea as in a wineskin, he laid up the deeps in storehouses"
• Peshitta: ܟܢܫ ܐܝܟ ܕܒܙܩ̈ܐ ܡ̈ܝܐ ܕܝܡܐ/ܕܝܡ̈ܡܐ/܂ ܘܣܡ ܒܐܘܨܪ̈ܐ ܬܗܘܡܐ܂
  • They gathered the waters of the seas as in wineskins; he placed the deeps in a storehouse.
• Jerome: congregans quasi in utre aquas maris ponens in thesauris abyssos
  • "Gathering together the waters of the sea, as in a vessel; laying up the depths in storehouses."
• Targum: דמכניס היך זיקא מוי דימא יהבינון באפותיקי תהומיא׃
  • "he who gathers the waters of the sea as (in) a bottleplaces the deeps in a storehouse."

Modern

Participles as present tense predicates (verbs)

• He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. (ESV)
• He piles up the water of the sea; he puts the oceans in storehouses. (NET)
• He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. (NIV)
• He collects the waters of the sea like a dam, he stores away the abyss in his treasure-house. (NJB)
• He heaps up the ocean waters like a mound, stores the deep in vaults. (JPS)
• He gathers the water of the sea into a heap; he puts the depths into storehouses. (CSB)
• Er hält die Wasser des Meeres zusammen wie in einem Schlauch und sammelt in Kammern die Fluten. (LUT)
• Er sammelt das Wasser des Meeres und dämmt es ein, legt die Fluten in Kammern. (GNB)
• Er fasst das Wasser des Meeres wie mit einem Damm, in Kammern legt er die Fluten. (ZÜR)
• Il amasse et endigue les eaux de la mer ; dans des réservoirs, il met les océans. (TOB)
• Il amoncelle en une masse les eaux de la mer, il met les abîmes dans des réserves. (NBS)
• Il amoncelle en une masse les eaux de la mer, Il met les abîmes dans des réservoirs. (NVSR)
• Les eaux des mers, ╵il les amasse et les endigue, il tient les eaux profondes ╵comme en un réservoir. (BDS)
• Derrière un grand mur, il rassemble l’eau des mers, les océans, il les garde en réserve. (PDV)
• Il rassemble l'eau des mers derrière une digue, il retient prisonnier le grand océan. (NFC)
• Il amoncelle les eaux de la mer, il garde les océans dans des réservoirs. (S21)
• Él junta como montón las aguas del mar; él pone en depósitos los abismos. (RVR95)
• Él recoge en cántaros las aguas del mar y junta en depósitos las profundidades del océano. (NVI)
• Él junta y almacena las aguas del mar profundo. (DDH)
• Él junta como montón las aguas del mar, Él pone en depósitos los abismos. (BTX4)

Participles as past tense predicates (verbs)

• He scooped up the ocean and stored the water. (CEV)
• He gathered all the seas into one place; he shut up the ocean depths in storerooms. (GNT)
• He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. (NLT)
• He gathered into a heap the waters of the sea, he laid up the deeps in his store-chambers. (NEB/REB)
• Er sammelte das Wasser des Meeres an einem Ort und speicherte die Ozeane in riesigen Becken. (HFA)
• Er sammelte das Wasser des Meeres und setzte ihm eine Grenze. In die riesigen Meeresbecken füllte er die Fluten. (NGÜ)

Participles as substantives (nouns)

• The one who gathers the waters of the sea like a wall, who sets up the deeps in vaults. (NICOT)
• He who collects the waters of the sea in a 'bag,' he lays the primal seas up in storehouses. (Continental Commentary)

Secondary Literature

Anderson, A.A. 1972. The Book of Psalms Volume 1: Psalms 1-72. The New Century Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Andersen, Francis I., and A. Dean Forbes. 2007. “The Participle in Biblical Hebrew and the Overlap of Grammar and Lexicon.” In Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible, edited by Sarah Malena and David Miano, 185–212. Winona Lake, Ind: Eisenbrauns.

Blau, Joshua. 1976. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Blass, Friedrich, Albert Debrunner, and Robert W. Funk. 1961. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bartelt, Andrew H. 2009. “The Simplicity of the Hebrew Participle Part 1 of 1.” Concordia Journal 35 (2): 173–76.

Craigie, Peter C. 2004. Psalms 1–50. 2nd ed. Vol. 19. Word Biblical Commentary. Nashville: Nelson Publishers.

DeClaisse-Walford, Nancy L., Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner. 2014. The Book of Psalms. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Driver, S. R. (Samuel Rolles). 1892. A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew: And Some Other Syntactical Questions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Edwards, Charles Eugene. 1937. “Suggestive Hebrew Participles.” The Evangelical Quarterly 9 (1): 34–37

Joosten, Jan. 2020. “The Participle as a Component of the Verbal System in Biblical Hebrew.” Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages & Linguistics 13 (1): 65–74.

Kedar-Kopfstein, Benjamin. 1977. “Semantic Aspects of the Pattern ‘Qotel,’” Hebrew Annual Review, 155–76.

Kirkpatrick, A. F.. 1902. The Book of Psalms. London: Cambridge University Press

Mowinckel, Sigmund. 1967. The Psalms in Israel’s Worship. Translated by D.R. Ap-Thomas. New York: Abingdon Press.

Notarius, Tania. 2010. “The Active Predicative Participle in Archaic and Classical Biblical Poetry: A Typological and Historical Investigation.” Ancient Near Eastern Studies 47:241–69.

Robar, Elizabeth. 2021. Morphology and Markedness: On Verb Switching in Biblical Hebrew Poetry 30 Journal for Semitics:1-17.

Robertson, A. T. 1923. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research. 4th ed. New York: Hodder & Stoughton.

Ross, Allen P. 2001. Introducing Biblical Hebrew. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Ross, Allen P. 2011. A Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 1 (1-41). Kregel Exegetical Library. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications.

Taylor, Richard, George Kiraz, and Joseph Bali. 2020. The Psalms According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation. 1st ed. Gorgias Press.

Van Pelt, Miles V. 2011. Basics of Biblical Aramaic. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Wernberg-Møller, Preben C H. 1959. “Observations on the Hebrew Participle.” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 71 (1–4): 54–67.

Witte, Markus. 2002. “Das Neue Lied--Beobachtungen Zum Zeitverständnis von Psalm 33.” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 114: 522–41.

References

33:7