Psalm 16 Exegetical Issues

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Psalm 16/Exegetical Issues
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Exegetical Issues Video

Introduction to Exegetical Issues

Presented here are the top three Exegetical Issues that any interpreter of the psalm—whether they’re reading the text in Hebrew or looking at a number of translations—are likely to encounter. These issues usually involve textual criticism, grammar, lexical semantics, verbal semantics, and/or phrase-level semantics, though they sometimes involve higher-level layers as well.

Exegetical Issues for Psalm 16

The translations differ at two main points in the verse, one in the first half and the other in the second half.
  1. The first difference concerns the verb "I say" (ESV, NJPS) vs "thou hast said" (KJV).
  2. 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.