Psalm 16/Notes/Grammar.v. 5.383277

• The form תּוֹמִיךְ is "an anomaly" (GKC §50e). It looks like a 2ms hiphil yiqtol verb from the root ימך/ומך, but this root never occurs elsewhere in the Bible. Perhaps it occurs only here and is related to an Arabic verb that means "make broad." Or, perhaps it is a by-form of the root מכך ("to be low"). This would provide a parallel for "fall" (נָפְלוּ) in the next verse. But most modern translations analyze תּוֹמִיךְ (sometimes revocalized as תּוֹמֵיךְ or תּוֹמֵךְ) as a participle from the root תמך: "you hold my lot" (ESV). It might be possible to retain the Masoretic spelling (תּוֹמִיךְ) and still interpret the form as a participle. Radak, for example, argues that תּוֹמִיךְ is a participle and that the hireq in תּוֹמִיךְ should be interpreted as though it were a tsere (= תּוֹמֵיךְ), like הִנְנִי יוֹסִף in Isa 29:14 and Isa 38:5 (cf. Avishur 1996, 71). See also the form הַסֹּבֵיב in 2 Kgs 8:21. On the other hand, there is manuscript support for the emendation/revocalization to the participle. Kennicott lists some 23 manuscripts that read תומך (without the hireq yod; so also the Babylonian manuscript BL Or 2373). The Septuagint, which has a participle here (σὺ εἶ ὁ ἀποκαθιστῶν), also appears to have read תומך. It is also worth noting that there is no note in the Masorah protecting תּוֹמִיךְ, even though it is a unique form.