Ps. 6

Synthesis

Verse-by-verse

Text, gloss, & translation

Verse	Hebrew MT	Interlinear gloss	Meaning-based translation
v. 1	לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ בִּ֭נְגִינוֹת עַֽל־הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד׃	For-the-director, with-stringed-instruments, on-the-eighth, belonging-to-David	For the director of music. With stringed instruments. On the eighth. A song. By David.
v. 2	יְֽהוָ֗ה אַל־בְּאַפְּךָ֥ תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי	YHWH, not-in-your-anger correct-me.	YHWH, don't let it be in your anger that you punish me.
	וְֽאַל־בַּחֲמָתְךָ֥ תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃	and-not-in-your-wrath discipline-me.	Don't let it be in your wrath that you discipline me.
v. 3	חָנֵּ֥נִי יְהוָה֮ כִּ֤י אֻמְלַ֫ל אָ֥נִי	Show-mercy-to-me, YHWH, for languishing (am) I	Have mercy on me, YHWH! I am languishing.
	רְפָאֵ֥נִי יְהוָ֑ה כִּ֖י נִבְהֲל֣וּ עֲצָמָֽי׃	Heal-me, YHWH, for have-become-dismayed my-bones.	Heal me, YHWH! My body is shaken with fear and distress.
v. 4	וְ֭נַפְשִׁי נִבְהֲלָ֣ה מְאֹ֑ד	And-my-soul has-become-dismayed very-greatly	I am deeply dismayed, down to my very core.
	וְאַתְּ יְ֝הוָ֗ה עַד־מָתָֽי׃	And-you, YHWH, how-long?	As for you, YHWH... How long?
v. 5	שׁוּבָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה חַלְּצָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֑י	Turn, YHWH! Rescue my-soul!	Turn from your anger, YHWH! Rescue me!
	ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי לְמַ֣עַן חַסְדֶּֽךָ׃	Save-me for-the-sake-of your-loyalty.	Help me out of your commitment to fulfilling your covenant obligations.
v. 6	כִּ֤י אֵ֣ין בַּמָּ֣וֶת זִכְרֶ֑ךָ	For there-is-no, in-the-death, commemoration-of-you	Because your name is not mentioned in the world of the dead.
	בִּ֝שְׁא֗וֹל מִ֣י יֽוֹדֶה־לָּֽךְ׃	In-world-of-the-dead, who praises-you?	In Sheol, no one can praise you!
v. 7	יָגַ֤עְתִּי׀ בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י	I-have-grown-weary with-my-sighing	I've labored with groaning to the point of exhaustion.
	אַשְׂחֶ֣ה בְכָל־לַ֭יְלָה מִטָּתִ֑י	I-cause-to-float in-every-night my-bed	Night after night, in a deluge of my tears,
	בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י עַרְשִׂ֥י אַמְסֶֽה׃	With-my-tears my-bed I-cause-to-dissolve.	my bed floats and dissolves.
v. 8	עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה מִכַּ֣עַס עֵינִ֑י	Has-wasted-away from-grief my-eye	My health has deteriorated on account of grief.
	עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה בְּכָל־צוֹרְרָֽי׃	Has-become-weak with-all-my-adversaries.	It is failing because of my enemies.
v. 9	ס֣וּרוּ מִ֭מֶּנִּי כָּל־פֹּ֣עֲלֵי אָ֑וֶן	Move-away from-me, all-workers-of evil!	Get away from me, you depraved people!
	כִּֽי־שָׁמַ֥ע יְ֝הוָ֗ה ק֣וֹל בִּכְיִֽי׃	For has-heard YHWH the-sound-of my-weeping.	Because YHWH has heard my weeping!
v. 10	שָׁמַ֣ע יְ֭הוָה תְּחִנָּתִ֑י	Has-heard YHWH my-begging-for-mercy	YHWH has heard my supplication!
	יְ֝הוָ֗ה תְּֽפִלָּתִ֥י יִקָּֽח׃	YHWH my-prayer will-accept.	YHWH will take up my request!
v. 11	יֵבֹ֤שׁוּ׀ וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ מְ֭אֹד כָּל־אֹיְבָ֑י	Let-be-shamed and let-become-dismayed very-greatly all-my-enemies	May all my enemies be shamed and deeply dismayed!
	יָ֝שֻׁ֗בוּ יֵבֹ֥שׁוּ רָֽגַע׃	Let-them-turn, let-them-be-shamed (in) a-moment.	May they go back to where they came! May they be instantly shamed!

Analysis

Grammar

Grammatical diagram

Grammatical notes

v. 2.

• The negative particle אל usually modifies the whole clause, but here it functions as a "constituent negative, negating only the prepositional phrase." "In these passages (Ps. 6:2; 38:2), we may consider that the negative אל does not negate the following verb but the prepositional group."

Participant analysis

Participant activity

Participant story

Participant relations

Participant mini-story

Semantics

Lexical Semantics

SDBH overview of Ps. 6

Key words

• vv. 3b, 4a, 11a

• v. 6a

• v. 11ab

Key contextual domains

Well-being
This domain refers to "a condition in which there is peace and security in all aspects of life and one's mind is at rest, as in the Hebrew concept of שָׁלוֹם" (SDBH).

v. 2

v. 3 - אֻמְלַ֫ל, נִבְהֲל֣וּ

v. 4 - נִבְהֲל֣וּ

v. 5 - חַלְּצָ֣ה, ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי

v. 6

v. 7 - בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י

v. 8 - עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה, עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה, צוֹרְרָֽי

v. 9 - בִּכְיִֽי

v. 10

v. 11 - וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ

In Psalm 6, David's well-being is the very opposite of shalom. Every aspect of his life (physical, psychological, social) is in a state of chaos. He prays for YHWH to set things right - to bring shalom to his situation, and he prays for his enemies to experience the same tortured lack of well-being that he experienced.

Joy and Grief

v. 2

v. 3 - אֻמְלַ֫ל

v. 4

v. 5

v. 6

v. 7 - יָגַ֤עְתִּי, בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י, אַשְׂחֶ֣ה, בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י

v. 8 - עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה, מִכַּ֣עַס, עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה

v. 9 - בִּכְיִֽי

v. 10

v. 11

In Ps. 6, David is overwhelmed with sadness. His grief, strongest in vv. 7-8, finds vivid expression in his sighing and weeping. In the end, YHWH hears the sound of his weeping.

Body

v. 2 - בְּאַפְּךָ֥

v. 3 - עֲצָמָֽי

v. 4

v. 5

v. 6

v. 7 - יָגַ֤עְתִּי

v. 8 - עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה, מִכַּ֣עַס, עֵינִ֑י, עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה

v. 9 - בִּכְיִֽי

v. 10

v. 11

David's suffering is intensely physical. His bones (i.e., his strength) and his eye (i.e., his health/well-being) are wasting away, not least because of the grief in his heart. His suffering finds physical expression in an outpouring of tears and sighs. The cause of this suffering is, in an ultimate theological sense, YHWH's anger (lit., nose).

Paraphrase

v. 1. This is a song written by David, a piece of music, for the worship leader (conductor), to be played with musical stringed instruments, on the eighth (mode? string? octave?).
v. 2. YHWH, I have disobeyed you as a son disobeys his father. Please do not let your punishment for the wrong I have done be carried out in your fiery displeasure. As the one in authority over me, do not carry out my corrective discipline in your state of wrath.
v. 3. YHWH, adopt a favorable disposition towards me and have compassion, because I'm languishing in shame and sadness. My strength and well-being are failing on account of grief. Restore my health. I'm shaken with fear and distress down to my bones, the once-sturdy seat of my health and strength.
v. 4. My whole being, right down to the core, is in a state of intense shock and distress. My inner well-being is disrupted. And you, YHWH... how long?
v. 5. Turn (from your anger), YHWH! Bring me out of danger into safety and security, into a state of well-being. Rescue me, because you are committed to fulfilling your covenant obligations toward me!
v. 6. Because your name is not mentioned in the deep and far-removed place where dead people go. There is no mental activity there. In the dark, dismal, and silent underworld, where there is no communication and no praise, there is nobody to recognize and talk about your greatness.
v. 7. I'm exhausted from this work of grieving. I've worn myself out with deep sighs of pain and sorrow. My bed (a luxury) where I used to get restful sleep is, dark night after dark night, made to swim in a pool of tears. Every night, I dissolve my bed with sad and mournful weeping.
v. 8. My eye, a sign of health, is becoming weak as my health wanes, because I'm so upset, because sadness and and anger are in my heart. My eye has become too weak to see, thanks to those violent people who oppose me and make me miserable, who disturb my well-being.
v. 9. Get away from me, you whose life's work is producing evil, whose behavior is unacceptable and deserves to be punished by YHWH! For YHWH has listened to my mournful weeping.
v. 10. YHWH has heard my humble petition for his favor, for him to take up a compassionate posture towards my lowly state. YHWH will take up my request.
v. 11. May all of my enemies, those who have entered into conflict with me, be found to have defied social expectations and be publicly humiliated, regarded as failures in the community. Let them be scared to death, sent into intense panic and lack of well-being. Let them turn back and instantly become a public disgrace.

Psalm-level Semantics

Argument map: Sickness and Enemies in Psalm 6

Assumptions

Common ground

v. 1.

• It is normal for songs to have superscriptions. E.g., "the superscripts to Egyptian hymns mention genre classification and/or authorship."
• The consistent structure of biblical psalm superscriptions is (1) +/- address (2) +/- musical notation (3) +/- genre/author (4) +/- liturgical notation (5) +/- historical superscription
• David is a king
• David is a musician (1 Sam. 16:17ff.; 2 Sam. 1:17ff.; 22:1f; 23:1f.; Amos 6:5).
• "Music is an accomplishment that kings - Shulgi, king of Ur, or David, king of Israel - needed to master in order to become model rulers. Therefore, music was part of the education of rulers and the elite" (Caubet, in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament, 2018:468-9).
• In the psalms, as elsewhere in the ANE, "the king is privileged in prayer," and he is "prominent in leading prayers."

v. 2.

• YHWH is the creator of heaven and earth.
• YHWH is the covenant God of Israel and of David, Israel's king.
• The king is God's son. "The Canaanite and ANE culture shows that the notion of the king as a son of god was well established." (Cf. Ps. 2:7; 2 Sam. 7:14).
• Good fathers discipline their sons (Prov. 13:24; 23:13-14; cf. 2 Sam. 7:14).
• Discipline is a necessary response to disobedience.
• The purpose for discipline is correction and/or retribution (SDBH).
• Deities may be said to experience emotions such as anger. "The overwhelming majority of instances of anger in the OT speak of God's anger"
• YHWH is slow to anger (Ex. 34:6-7).

v. 3.

• YHWH is merciful (Ex. 34:6-7).
• YHWH is able to heal (Ex. 15:26).
• Sickness may come from YHWH and is perceived to be more directly connected to divine activity than are other distressing situations, such as enemies (2 Sam. 24:13-15), though these too come from YHWH.
• Sickness may be a form of divine punishment (2 Sam. 24:13-15; see SDBH on נֶגַע).
• In the Psalms, sickness is closely linked with sin" (Pss. 41:4; 107:17-20)."

v. 4.

• Humans are a psychosomatic unity, having both a body and a soul (an animating life-principle) (Gen. 2:7; cf. 1 Kgs. 17:21-22; Isa. 10:18).

v. 5.

• YHWH is in covenant with David (2 Sam. 7; Ps. 89:4).
• HESED (loyalty) is a characteristic of covenant relationships
• YHWH is abounding in HESED (Ex. 34:6)
• YHWH is loyal to the covenant; even when David sins, his HESED will not leave him (1 Sam. 7:14-15).

v. 6.

• Dead people go to a place called "Sheol," a proper name for "the underworld" (BDB, HALOT).

Sheol is a place of great depth (e.g., Deut. 32:22), guarded by gates (e.g., Isa. 38:10), associated with darkness (e.g., Job 17:13), dust (e.g., Job 17:16), and silence (e.g., Ps. 31:18). R.L. Harris has argued that Sheol is a poetic synonym for קֶבֶר, referring merely to the grave. "Its usage does not give us a picture of the state of the dead in gloom, darkness, chaos, or silence, unremembered, unable to praise God, knowing nothing... Rather, this view gives us a picture of a typical Palestinian tomb, dark, dusty, with mingled bones and where 'this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.'"

• "As noted by Brevard S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel (London, 1962), p. 71, the psalmist suffers not because of the inability to remember Yahweh in Sheol, but from being unable to share in the praise of Yahweh which characterizes Israel’s worship.".

v. 7.

• “The Semites from Canaan did not usually sleep on raised beds, but rather on skins spread on the floor. When the bed was a piece of raised furniture, it took a form similar to beds used in most cultures today.” The wealthy (e.g., kings) slept on raised beds.
• Beds were sometimes associated with sickness (2 Kgs. 1:4; Ps. 41:4).

v. 8.

• It was commonly (though not always correctly) assumed that sickness is the result of sin (cf. Pss. 41:4; 107:17-20; Job 4:7-11, 8:1-22, 11:13-20; cf. John 9:2).
• "The reference to enemies may be the result of a common experience of the sick in ancient Israel; many persons believed that the sick were sinners, being judged by God, so that even a sick man's friends might become his enemies." See e.g., Ps. 38:12.
• The sickness of a king would give opportunity to his enemies, whether domestic or foreign (cf. Pss. 38:13, 17; 41:6-11). In Psalm 41, for example, the king's "lament centres not on his ailment but on the opportunity it gives to his enemies, those perpetual accompaniments of a king's life. Respectful visitors to the sickbed secretly plot his overthrow."

v. 9.

• The enemies of the king are the enemies of his God and vice-versa. "The Israelite king's view of his enemies can be compared with that of other sacred kings. The Assyrian king, for example, considered his enemies as enemies of his gods, guilty of impious rebellion."

v. 10.
v. 11.

• Lex talionis (Lev. 24:20); imprecatory prayers in the psalms are rooted in the law of just retribution (cf. Crisis,_Cursing,_and_the_Christian)
• YHWH is just.
• The doings of wicked people come back on their own heads (e.g., Ps. 7:17).

Local ground

v. 2.

• YHWH is angry.

v. 3.

• David is in need of compassion.
• David is in need of healing.

v. 4.
v. 5.

• YHWH is angry
• David is in need of rescuing.

v. 6.

• If David dies, he will be unable to mention YHWH's name.
• If David goes to Sheol, he will be unable to praise/thank YHWH.

v. 7.

• David is upset.
• David is losing sleeping at night.
• The suffering has lasted for multiple nights.
• David is laid up in bed.

v. 8.

• David has enemies.
• David's enemies upset him.

v. 9.

• David's enemies are characterised by evil behavior.
• David's enemies are near him in some sense.

v. 10.

• David petitioned YHWH's favor (cf. v. 3a)
• David prayed to YHWH

v. 11.

Play-ground

v. 1.

• As a song of David, this has the imprimatur of the king.
• This song is to be interpreted as from David's perspective.
• This psalm is not tied to a particular event in the life of David.
• This psalm is to be performed/prayed by Israelites other than David.

v. 2.

• YHWH is angry with David.
• David has sinned against YHWH.
• Discipline itself is to be desired, just not discipline animated by anger.
• Discipline in anger could lead to death and destruction.
• Discipline in mercy could lead to restoration.

v. 3.

• David is physically ill.
• David's illness is the manifestation of YHWH's discipline.

v. 4.

• David's suffering has gone on for some time. (confirmed, v. 7b)
• YHWH is able to end the suffering at any time.
• The suffering will end when its disciplinary purpose has been achieved.

v. 5.

• YHWH's rescuing David would be a fulfillment of covenant obligations.
• David's not being rescued would mean a failure for YHWH to uphold his end of the covenant relationship.
• The covenant is still intact, even after David's disobedience (cf. 2 Sam. 7:14-15, "I will discipline him..., but my loyalty will not depart from him...")

v. 6.

• David is on the brink of death.
• If YHWH does not respond, David will die.
• If David lives, then he will mention YHWH's name.
• If David lives, he will praise/thank YHWH.
• YHWH desires mention and thanks/praise.

v. 7.
v. 8.

• David's enemies are (indirectly) part of the disciplinary process.

v. 9.

• In opposing David, the enemies have opposed YHWH.
• In opposing David, the enemies have done "evil."
• The enemies did not expect YHWH to hear David's prayer.
• David is vindicated as God's anointed.
• YHWH forgives David's sin.
• YHWH's discipline has achieved its purpose.
• The enemies are shown to be in the wrong for having opposed God's anointed.
• The enemies are in danger of retribution.

v. 10.
v. 11.

• David's healing is his public vindication that YHWH's loyal love has not departed from him.
• The enemies are publicly humiliated for having opposed God's chosen one.
• David had experienced public shame during his suffering.

Story chart (condensed)

Story chart (full)