Psalm 24 Exegetical Issues

From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Psalm 24/Exegetical Issues
Jump to: navigation, search

Choose a PsalmNavigate Psalm 24


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 24

The second line of verse 4 is difficult on a couple of accounts. First, there is a textual issue with the word נַפְשִׁ֑י lit. "my soul," many witnesses attesting to *נַפְשׁוֹ* lit. "his soul." Furthermore, the sense of the entire construction לָשֶׂאת נֶפֶשׁ לְ/אֶל, "to lift one's soul to something," has been interpreted as either swearing by or delighting in.
There is a textual issue in the second line of verse 6, which involves the inclusion of the word אֱלֹהֵי God of. Furthermore, the absence of God of could be interpreted in a number of ways.
In Psalm 24:7 we read the command, "Lift up your heads, gates, and be lifted up, eternal doorways," is repeated almost verbatim in v. 9. Although modern translations do not differ widely in how they treat these clauses, the identity of the doors is not immediately obvious and has been interpreted in various ways.