Psalm 132 Discourse
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Macrosyntax
(For more information, click "Macrosyntax Legend" below.)
| Macrosyntax legend | |
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| Vocatives | Vocatives are indicated by purple text. |
| Discourse marker | Discourse markers (such as כִּי, הִנֵּה, לָכֵן) are indicated by orange text. |
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The scope governed by the discourse marker is indicated by a dashed orange bracket connecting the discourse marker to its scope. |
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The preceding discourse grounding the discourse marker is indicated by a solid orange bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Subordinating conjunction | The subordinating conjunction is indicated by teal text. |
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Subordination is indicated by a solid teal bracket connecting the subordinating conjunction with the clause to which it is subordinate. |
| Coordinating conjunction | The coordinating conjunction is indicated by blue text. |
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Coordination is indicated by a solid blue line connecting the coordinating clauses. |
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Coordination without an explicit conjunction is indicated by a dashed blue line connecting the coordinated clauses. |
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Marked topic is indicated by a black dashed rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
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The scope of the activated topic is indicated by a black dashed bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Marked focus or thetic sentence | Marked focus (if one constituent) or thetic sentences[1] are indicated by bold text. |
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Frame setters[2] are indicated by a solid gray rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
| [blank line] | Discourse discontinuity is indicated by a blank line. |
| [indentation] | Syntactic subordination is indicated by indentation. |
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Direct speech is indicated by a solid black rectangle surrounding all relevant clauses. |
| (text to elucidate the meaning of the macrosyntactic structures) | Within the CBC, any text elucidating the meaning of macrosyntax is indicated in gray text inside parentheses. |
If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.
| Emendations/Revocalizations legend | |
|---|---|
| *Emended text* | Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation. |
| *Revocalized text* | Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization. |
Notes.
- V. 1b: YHWH = vocative of direct address. As a post-verbal vocative, it may be drawing attention/focussing the following sentence constituent (Kim 2022: 233-235), in this case, David's hardships.
- V. 2b: This has been marked as an appositional phrase; a second relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר is elided, so has been supplied in parenthesis.
- Vv. 3–4: The preposition אִם is part of a shorted oath formula: "IF x [protasis], then may I be cursed [apodosis]," in which the apodosis is has been dropped. To make this explicit, the translation here supplies the longer form of the oath, which includes the self-malediction "let me be cursed." (Note: This tendency to elide oath elements like “I swear” and “may I be cursed” is attested across languages [Van der Merwe, §45.1.]).
Another way to analyse the participle אִם is as a modal word, since it's part of an oath. It marks a process that will not occur (Van der Merwe, Reference Grammar, §41.9).
- V. 6a: הנה points to information which a speaker regards to be noteworthy as far as other discourse active information is concerned. The information presented modifies the content or implications of the statements of the preceding co-text (Van der Merwe, §40.22.4.2). It can confirm or deny the expectation of the preceding text, and in this case, it confirms the expectation of the preceding text. The implication of the preceding co-text (vv. 1–5) is that David experienced hardships in keeping his promise to secure the location for the temple. The function of הנה here is to confirm that implication, that "Indeed/yes, it's true, (David kept his promise because) we heard . . ." (other examples: Isa 12:1–2; 1 Sam 16:11).
- V. 8a: YHWH = vocative of direct address. As a post-verbal vocative, it may be drawing attention/focussing the following sentence constituent (Kim 2022: 233-235), in this case, his resting place.
- V. 9a, b: The topics of each clause (your priests; your faithful ones, respectively) are new participants.
- V. 12a: The conjunction אם, if, introduces a real condition as subordinating conjunction (Van der Merwe, Reference Grammar, §40.11).
- Vv. 14–16: All six independent clauses begin with a fronted constituent referring to Zion or her people. This repeated emphasis on blessing for Zion in particular underscores the immediately-preceding statement that YHWH had chosen Zion (v. 13a). If I were reading this part aloud, I would place stress on "her."
- V. 18b: Topic shift (from "his enemies" to "my anointed one").
Speech Act Analysis
For Visual, click "Expand" to the right
Affect Analysis
For Visual, click "Expand" to the right
- ↑ When the entire utterance is new/unexpected, it is a thetic sentence (often called "sentence focus"). See our Creator Guidelines for more information on topic and focus.
- ↑ Frame setters are any orientational constituent – typically, but not limited to, spatio-temporal adverbials – function to "limit the applicability of the main predication to a certain restricted domain" and "indicate the general type of information that can be given" in the clause nucleus (Krifka & Musan 2012: 31-32). In previous scholarship, they have been referred to as contextualizing constituents (see, e.g., Buth (1994), “Contextualizing Constituents as Topic, Non-Sequential Background and Dramatic Pause: Hebrew and Aramaic evidence,” in E. Engberg-Pedersen, L. Falster Jakobsen and L. Schack Rasmussen (eds.) Function and expression in Functional Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-231; Buth (2023), “Functional Grammar and the Pragmatics of Information Structure for Biblical Languages,” in W. A. Ross & E. Robar (eds.) Linguistic Theory and the Biblical Text. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 67-116), but this has been conflated with the function of topic. In brief: sentence topics, belonging to the clause nucleus, are the entity or event about which the clause provides a new predication; frame setters do not belong in the clause nucleus and rather provide a contextual orientation by which to understand the following clause.