Psalm 110/Notes/Verbal.V. 6.605951

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  • The clause whom he filled with corpses is syntactically difficult. The verb "fill/full" (מָלֵא qal) may be intransitive ("it [=the battlefield] is full of corpses"; cf. Ps. 33:5)[1] or transitive ("he fills [it/them] with corpses"; cf. 1 Kings 18:34; Ezek. 8:17).[2] In either case, something must be supplied, either the subject or the object.[3] There is another option, however, which does not require any elision: "fill with corpses" (מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת) may be an asyndetic relative clause (= אֲשֶׁר מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת) modifying "nations" (גּוֹיִם). This interpretation (though unattested among translations) is supported by two considerations. First, analyzing מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת as an asyndetic relative clause solves the problem of the missing constituent. There is no need to supply "the earth" or "the battlefield" in order to make the sentence grammatical. Instead, the text reads: "He will judge the nations whom he has filled with corpses." Second, the two clauses (יָדִין בַּגּוֹיִם and מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת) together constitute a single poetic line; the prosodic unity supports the plausibility of a syntactic unity.[4][5]
  • Confer also notes on V. 5.
  1. ↑ So e.g., Radak: ועשה דין ומשפט בגוים עד שמקום המלחמה מלא גויות).
  2. ↑ So e.g., LXX, Targum.
  3. ↑ The Targum supplies the word "land" (ארעא) from the following line: מלי ארעא גושמי רשיען קטילין "he has filled the earth with the corpses of the wicked that have been slain" (Stec 2004). Cf. Baethgen 1904, 339; Hupfeld 1871, 203; Olshausen 1853, 424.
  4. ↑ See e.g, Ps. 7:7c (וְע֥וּרָה אֵ֝לַ֗י מִשְׁפָּ֥ט צִוִּֽיתָ) in which the two clauses within a single line are probably to be read, with the LXX, as a single sentence: ἐξεγέρθητι, κύριε ὁ θεός μου, ἐν προστάγματι, ὧ ἐνετείλω.
  5. ↑ Some may object that מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת cannot be an asyndetic relative clause, because the antecedent "nations" (גּוֹיִם) is not resumed (e.g., מָלֵא גְוִיּוֹת אוֹתָם). Resumption of the direction object is optional, however, in cases in which the direct object lacks the definite direct object marker (אֵת). See e.g., Neh. 9:29 and Ps. 7:16 for non-resumption in a bare relative clause; cf. Holmstedt 2002, 97). Others may object that it would be odd to fill a "nation" with something; usually the act of "filling" involves some kind of container. But the word “nation” (גוי) implies both “people” and “land” (cf. phrases like אַרְצ֣וֹת גּוֹיִ֑ם in Ps. 105:44), and lands can be filled (e.g., Ezek. 8:17; 30:11). Ps. 106:26-27 speaks of the nations in the sense of “nations > land.” The fact that a beth preposition is prefixed to גּוֹיִם in Ps. 110:6 (as in Ps. 106:27 above) might support this interpretation here: “He will judge among (localization) the nations whom he filled with corpses.”