Psalm 18 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 18

There are yiqtol verb forms throughout this psalm on which modern versions radically diverge, with respect to their verbal semantics. Often, these translations use a past perfective (preterite) rendering, which does not fit the typical profile of the yiqtol. Exegetically, determining the existence of preterite yiqtol will allow us to help “us sort out autobiographical, and hence past time references, from references to the psalmist's ongoing situation (present or future)”[1].
In Psalm 18:1–20, the Psalmist recounts past instances of God's deliverance. In vv. 5b, 8b, 9b and 14a, non-initial yiqtol forms immediately follow either the qatal or wayyiqtol. This creates a difficulty in accounting for the actual semantics of the yiqtol in these cases.
This issue focuses on three issues related to the word נִחֲתָה: its textual form, its syntax, and its meaning. The first two are closely related: The consonantal text in the parallel text 2 Samuel 22:35 (vocalized וְנִחַת) lacks the final he. In terms of meaning, translations generally present three options for the meaning of the נחת verb in this verse: (1) "to bend"; (2) “to use” >> “to aim”; or (3) "to strengthen."
  1. ↑ (Longacre 2006, 17)