Psalm 44/Notes/Grammar.V. 20.188465

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  • Textual issue on תַּנִּים: Some Hebrew manuscripts, along with the Syriac, read תנין "sea monster" instead of תַּנִּים. LXX reads κακώσεως "ill-treatment" (NETS), though it should be noted that LXX tends to be inconsistent in its rendering of תַּנִּים (cf. Isa 13:22; 34:13; 35:7; Jer 10:22), and appears to translate it as δρακόντων "dragons" (NETS) in Jer 9:10. While some have suggested that תַּנִּים itself can mean "sea monster" (deClaisse-Walford, et al 2014, 411n11; cf. DCH), most modern translations render the term as "jackal." Taken with the construct מְקוֹם, "jackal" makes better sense here, as "the place of the sea monster" would imply the sea as a setting, which does not seem to fit the present context.