Psalm 44/Notes/Grammar.V. 15.386956
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
- Textual note on בַּלְאֻמִּים: BHS, in reproducing the text of Leningradensis (L), reads בַּל־אֻמִּים ("not peoples"?) in v. 15. Most Hebrew manuscripts (including the Aleppo and Sassoon Codices) read בַּלְאֻמִּים ("among the peoples") instead. This reading is also supported by the LXX and Targum.
- It is possible that L has mis-divided the original בלאמים into בַּל־אֻמִּים (so Goldingay 2007, 2:36). However, as the identical construction בַּל־אֻמִּים also occurs in Pss 57:10; 108:4; and 149:7 of L, if this were indeed a scribal error, it would be an unusually common one that was made.
- The reading of בַּל־אֻמִּים makes little sense syntactically, as the negative particle בַּל is not elsewhere found with substantives (Barbiero and Pavan 2012, 599). It is also difficult contextually, unless בַּל־אֻמִּים means "not a people" in a pejorative sense (cf. בְּלֹא־עָם in Deut 32:21). It is possible that this pejorative sense formed the motivation for an intentional re-vocalization of the text of L. The reading of בַּל־אֻמִּים could be explained as a midrashic play on words by the scribe of L, in order to make allusion to texts like Deut 32:21 (Ibid, 603–604).