Psalm 45/Notes/Grammar.v. 9.160016

v. 9 – Although in prose we might expect the explicit relative pronoun, as מֵאֲשֶׁר (see, e.g., Gen 31:1; Exod 5:11, among others), it is common for relative relations to be asyndetic in poetry. The problem with the syntax of מִן [+ relative] here, however, is the sense of the antecedent of the relative. It must be understood as repeating the locative "from ivory palaces" of the previous clause (as explicit in Symmachus' ὅθεν "from where"), while the subject seems to be understood as the "garments" as pleasing the king. Alternatively, the plural verb could simply be read as impersonal, i.e., "people please you." This seems less intuitive than stringed music as pleasing.

Aquila and the Peshitta understand the form מִנִּ֥י as the preposition מִן with a first person suffix which occurs ten times in the Bible, though we would typically expect the more common form מִמֶּ֫נִּי. Furthermore, the first person speaker has been absent since v. 2.

A final suggestion is that of Targum Psalms, which reads as a place name, modifying the "ivory" of the previous clause: מן היכליא דמכבשין בשין דפיל מארע מני יחדונך "From palaces that are inlaid with ivory from the land of Minni they shall make you glad" (Stec 2004, 96). Stec comments, "TgPss evidently understands MT mny as a place name and takes it as going with the preceding word; i.e., MT šn mny = “ivory of Minni.” The place understood here may be Minyas in Armenia" (2004, 96 n. 21).