Psalm 28 Exegetical Issues
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Psalm 28/Exegetical Issues
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Don't be deaf to me!
Psalm 28
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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 28
- There are two issues in this verse:
- 1. Should וּמִשִּׁירִי be emended?
- 2. If the Masoretic text וּמִשִּׁירִי is correct, then what is the syntactic function of the preposition מִן?
- Scholars have debated whether מְשִׁיחוֹ (his [YHWH’s] anointed) refers to a king or to YHWH’s chosen people. The translations agree that the word מְשִׁיחַ refers to a person or group who is "anointed" for a special task, but they disagree on the identity of this person/group.
- The Hebrew text of Psalm 28:8a, according to the Masoretic text, reads as follows:
- יְהוָ֥ה עֹֽז־לָ֑מוֹ
- The Masoretic text's reading עֹֽז־לָ֑מוֹ is disputed, however. Translations have rendered this line as "The LORD is the strength of his people," "The LORD is their strength," and "YHWH [is] strength to him."