Psalm 16 Academics
Delights forever
Psalm 16
Academic Resources
Explore our academic Psalms resources for Psalm 16, including our Layer-by-Layer analysis, select Exegetical Issues, and Overview Videos.
Overview 
- This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 16 as a whole. It covers the message, structure, background and participants of the psalm.
Layer-by-Layer Analysis 
- The heart of our process is our layer-by-layer exegetical analysis, where we unfold the semantics, story behind, discourse, and poetics of each psalm.
Grammar & Semantics
Semantics is the study of how language is used to represent meaning. The goal of semantic analysis is to understand the meaning of words and how they relate to each other in context. Our Semantics analysis consists of the following sub-layers:
- Grammar & Textual Criticism
- Lexical Semantics
- Phrase-Level Semantics
- Verbal Semantics
Story Behind
The Story Behind the Psalm shows how each part of the psalm fits together into a single coherent whole. Here, we analyze the meaning of sentences and larger units of discourse, up to and including the entire psalm. This also include historical background and figurative imagery.
Discourse
Our Discourse Layer moves beyond semantic-level meaning, and analyzes features of the text dependent on the speaker, addressee, and macrosyntax.
Poetics
Exploring the Psalms as poetry is crucial for understanding and experiencing the psalms and thus for faithfully translating them into another language.
Verse-by-Verse Notes 
- Explore the psalm verse-by-verse and section-by-section.
Psalm 16 Exegetical Issues 
- These issues examine the top three tough questions for each psalm, explaining different scholarly interpretations, and offering our perspective.
- The translations differ at two main points in the verse, one in the first half and the other in the second half.
- The first difference concerns the verb "I say" (ESV, NJPS) vs "thou hast said" (KJV).
- The second difference concerns whether the second line is a single, complete clause with "my goodness" (טוֹבָתִי) as the subject or if the phrase "my goodness" (טוֹבָתִי, translated "my benefactor") is appositional to "my Lord" in the previous line.
- The interpretation of this incredibly difficult verse hinges on the syntactic function of the lamed preposition on לִקְדוֹשִׁים and the identity of the "holy ones" (קְדוֹשִׁים).
- There are five main issues in the interpretation of this verse: The meaning of עַצְּבוֹתָם, the vocalization and meaning of מהרו, the vocalization of ירבו ("multiply"), the text of אחר, and the syntax of the line as a whole.
