Psalm 44/Participant Analysis/Notes

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Notes

v. 3a: you dispossessed or your strength dispossessed?

  1. Most modern translations render אַתָּה "you" as the subject of the verb הוֹרַשְׁתָּ "dispossessed," with יָדְךָ "your hand >> your strength" functioning as an adverbial accusative (i.e., "You dispossessed the nations by your hand"; cf. GKC §144l–m). However, the LXX renders יָדְךָ as the verb's subject (ἡ χείρ σου ἔθνη ἐξωλέθρευσεν; "your hand destroyed nations," NETS).
  2. In favor of taking God as the subject of this clause, the 2ms pronoun אַתָּה agrees in gender and number with the verb הוֹרַשְׁתָּ.
  3. However, it is preferable to understand God's strength as the subject of this clause. In Hebrew poetry, when nouns expressing parts of an individual are followed by a first- or second-person suffix, they can be taken as equivalent to the individuals themselves, and are predicated with a verb that agrees in person with the suffix (cf. Ps 57:5; JM §151c). Here in v. 3, if יָדְךָ functions as the subject, then the 2ms verb הוֹרַשְׁתָּ would agree with its 2ms suffix. This would explain the LXX rendering, which recasts the verb into a third-person form: ἡ χείρ σου ἔθνη ἐξωλέθρευσεν ("your hand destroyed nations," NETS). This understanding of the clause would also imply that אַתָּה is left-dislocated (i.e., "as for you, your hand..."). For a discussion on the function of this left-dislocation, see Macrosyntax notes above.

v. 3b, 3d: Ancestors or nations?

  1. There is some ambiguity as to the referent of the 3mp pronominal suffixes of וַתִּטָּעֵם and וַתְּשַׁלְּחֵם. Most modern translations interpret them as referring to the ancestors of v. 2 (e.g., "... and planted our ancestors... and made our ancestors flourish," NIV; see also ESV, NRSV, NET, CSB). This would require understanding the wayyiqtol verbs, in relation to their respective preceding clauses, as adversative ("but them you planted... but them you set free...," NRSV) or purpose/resultative ("in order to plant them... in order to settle them...," CSB). Alternatively, a temporally sequential reading of the wayyiqtols would suggest that the suffixes refer to the גּוֹיִם "nations" and לְאֻמִּים "peoples" (so NASB95, LSB, KJV).
  2. In favor of taking the suffixes as references to the nations, the masculine plural גּוֹיִם "nations" and לְאֻמִּים "peoples" agree with the suffixes in gender and number, and are nearer syntactically. Furthermore, there is syntactic parallelism in the use of a 2ms verb and a direct object across all four clauses of this verse, suggesting that all four objects are coreferential.
  3. It is preferable to understand the suffixes as references to Israel's ancestors. It has been observed that, in cases where the subject of a verb is specified, but the referent of its object is unspecified, the object will tend to refer back to a previously mentioned, discourse-active subject (de Regt 2020, 12). In v. 3b and 3d, the subject of וַתִּטָּעֵם and וַתְּשַׁלְּחֵם is clearly God, as the 2ms verb forms refer back to the vocative אֱלֹהִים in v. 2. The 3mp suffixes, on the other hand, refer back to the discourse-active subjects of the verb סִפְּרוּ "recounted" in v. 2, viz. אֲבוֹתֵינוּ "our ancestors." As v. 3 describes the content of the recounting, the ancestors remain discourse-active, and are anaphorically recalled using the 3mp suffixes.