Psalm 34 Exegetical Issues

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Psalm 34/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 34

Scholars agree that the events described in the superscription of Ps 34 (i.e., Ps 34:1) correspond to the events described in 1 Sam 21:11-22:1. There is one notable difference, however between Ps 34:1 and the story in 1 Sam 21. Whereas the king of Gath is called אָכִישׁ ('Akish) in 1 Sam 21, he is called אֲבִימֶלֶךְ ('Abimelek) in the superscription of Ps 34. What is the reason for this discrepancy? Furthermore, what is the relationship between the psalm and its historical superscription?
Whereas the KJV (along with a majority of the modern translations consulted) reads the first half of the verse as a pair of statements ("they looked... and were enlightened"), the RSV reads the first half of the verse as a pair of imperatives ("Look.. and be radiant"). Accordingly, in the second half of the verse, the KJV has "their faces" while the RSV has "your faces." The differences in translation reflect different underlying texts. The KJV follows the traditional Masoretic text, and the RSV follows the majority of ancient versions.
The subject of the 3mp verb צָעֲקוּ ("they cried out") is ambiguous: Is the subject the "evildoers" from the previous verse (v. 17), or is it "the righteous" from the verse before (v. 16)? The issue involves not only identifying the subject of the verb, but also determining the original textual arrangement of vv. 16-17. Does the MT preserve the correct arrangement of the verses, or should vv. 16 -17 be rearranged?