Psalm 37/Notes/Textual.vv. 5-6.942596

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v. 6: The Masorah Parva notes that מִשׁפָּטֶךָ is a defective plural which occurs a total of five times in the Bible. Kennicott lists more than 60 mss which have the full plural spelling: משפטיך (cf. de Rossi pg. 25; cf. Peshitta ܘܕܝܢ̈ܝܟ which has a plural). Some of the earliest witnesses have a singular noun, e.g., LXX (τὸ κρίμα σου), Jerome (iudicium), which fits better in the literary context (cf. the collocation of צדקה and משׁפט in Gen 18:19; Pss 33:5; 99:4; 106:3; Job 37:23; Prov 16:8; 21:3). מִשׁפָּטֶךָ should probably be analyzed as a pausal form (Baethgen 1904, 105; Revell, "List of Pausal Forms" 2004, 33).