Psalm 3/Notes/Grammar.v. 3.531185
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
- Instead of in God (בֵאלֹהִים), the Septuagint has "in his God" (ἐν τῷ θεῷ αὐτοῦ = באלהיו?). There is a good chance that the variant reflects a different Hebrew text (באלהיו), since the Septuagint Psalter is typically literal in its attempt to represent pronominal suffixes, and since it is easy to see how באלהים and באלהיו might have been mistaken for one another.[1] It is difficult to determine which reading is the earlier reading. Both readings have early attestation, the MT reading being supported by Symmachus and Jerome. In the MT's reading, the ים ending of בֵאלֹהִים rhymes with other words in the context (cf. רבים and אמרים in this verse and מרים in the next verse), perhaps making this reading preferable on poetic grounds.
- ↑ Cf. Delitzsch 1920, §132e on the scribal interchange of יו and מ/ם.