Psalm 110/Notes/Phrasal.V. 6.171349

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  • The prepositional phrase among the nations (בַּגּוֹיִם) probably indicates the place where the ruling/judgment takes place.[1] "The בְּ in בַּגּוֹיִם indicates that the peoples whom he judges are gathered around him."[2]
  • The prepositional phrase across the wide world (עַל אֶרֶץ רַבָּה) may modify either the noun "heads" (cf. NIV, ELB.) or the verb "smashed" (cf. NET, JPS, EÜ). The first option ("heads over the wide world") is likely if the word "head" refers to a leader,[3] since "heads" (=leaders) are said to be "over" people.[4] This interpretation is further supported by the parallel with the previous verse: "he smashed kings" (v. 5b) //"he smashed heads" (v. 6b).[5] It is unlikely, however, that the word "heads" refers figuratively to leaders in this context, because the verb "smash" is often associated with the smashing of literal (not figurative) heads.[6] If "head" is understood literally (as a body part), then the phrase "across the wide world" (עַל אֶרֶץ רַבָּה) probably modifies the verb "smash" (מָחַץ).[7]
  1. ↑ So DCH: "בְּ of place, among." Jenni (1992, 264), however, analyses the beth here as a beth of social contact. See the description of this category in BHRG: "Both trajector x and landmark y are persons, and the contact involved is in the form of a complex relationship. This relationship often has a negative effect of the landmark y" (BHRG 39.6).
  2. ↑ Baethgen 1904, 339.
  3. ↑ Cf. Briggs 1907, 381; Waltke 2010, 511.
  4. ↑ E.g., Ex. 18:25; Deut. 1:15; Jdg. 11:11.
  5. ↑ Some point out that if עַל אֶרֶץ רַבָּה were intended to describe "heads," then we might have expected a construct chain (ראש ארץ רבה, so Hengstenberg 1867) or a lamed preposition (ראש לארץ רבה, cf. Num. 1:4, so Baethgen 1904, 339) (so Hupfeld 1871, 203). But the analogous noun phrases מלך על in 2 Kgs. 8:13; Job 41:26; Eccl. 1:12 and פקיד על in Kgs. 25:19=Jer. 52:25; Neh. 11:9 support reading ראש על in the sense of "head=leader over" (so Driver 1964, 26).
  6. ↑ E.g., in Ps. 68:22 (יִמְחַץ רֹאשׁ אֹיְבָיו // קָדְקֹד שֵׂעָר) and Hab. 3:13, "head" refers not to leaders but to the literal body part (so Delitzsch 1871, 195).
  7. ↑ The construction is similar to Ps. 74:13: שִׁבַּ֖רְתָּ רָאשֵׁ֥י תַ֝נִּינִ֗ים עַל־הַמָּֽיִם.