Psalm 19 Exegetical Issues
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
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Psalm 19
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 19
- One of the biggest interpretive issues for Psalm 19 is the apparent disunity of the psalm. Scholars have long argued about whether Psalm 19 is one poem or two poems which have been combined into one (Ps 19A = vv. 2-7; Ps 19B = vv. 8-15). This debate has even influenced modern Bible translations.
- Modern translations differ on their interpretation of קַוָּם. Consider, for example, the following translations: "Their line (קַוָּם) is gone out through all the earth" (KJV); "Their sign (קַוָּם) shines forth on all the earth" (REB); "Their music (קַוָּם) goes out through all the earth" (NEB); "Their voice (קַוָּם) carries throughout the earth"(JPS85).
Most translations, however, emend the text to read קוֹלָם instead of קַוָּם: "Yet their voice (קוֹלָם) goes out through all the earth" (RSV/NRSV).
- In this verse, the psalmist asks YHWH to keep him from זֵדִים (v. 14a) and to not let זֵדִים rule over him (v. 14b), so that he can be blameless and innocent (v. 14bc). The word זֵדִים, key to understanding this verse, has been interpreted in various ways. Consider, for example, the following translations: "Keep back your servant also from the insolent" (NRSV, cf. EÜ, GNB, ZÜR, LUT, NGÜ, NBS, NVS78P, PDV2017, NFC, RVR95, BTX4); "Keep your servant also from willful sins" (NIV, cf. REB, GNT, NJPS, NEB, NLT, RSV, ESV, CEV, NVI, HFA).