Psalm 5/Variants
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Variants
Kinds of variants
- v.9b. Qere: הַיְשַׁר / Kethiv: הוֹשַׁר
- v.13b. The ancient versions (LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Vulgate, Targum) along with some medieval Hebrew manuscripts support the vocalization of the final verb of the psalm (תעטרנו) as a Piel (תְּעַטְּרֶנּוּ).,
Likely solutions
- v.9b. The verb ישׁר is one of seven original I-yod verbs that occur in the Bible. The expected form for the Hiphil imperative would be הֵישַׁר. Both the qere and the kethiv readings differ from this expected reading. The qere reading gives an uncontracted form (הַיְשַׁר, cf. Prov. 4:25), while the kethiv reading gives a form for I-waw verbs (הוֹשַׁר). (See Isa. 45:2 for a similar problem.)[1] The kethiv form (הוֹשַׁר) makes for a closer phonological correspondence with שׁוֹרְרַי in the previous line, as repetition of the long o-vowel combines with the alliteration of the consonants שׁ and ר.
- v.13b. "The choice for Piel may be supported in two additional ways. Within v.13, this form is the ocunterpart to tbrk, another Piel, which contributes to a chiastic word order in the verse. There is also a supporting pattern: in the poem there is a balance of seven Piel and seven Hiphil forms. Of each of these root formations there are four forms occurring as pairs, for the purpose of a regular (horizontal parallelismus membrorum and of a vertical parallelism. In the same way as the Piel forms of v.13 find their counterparts in v.7, so do the two Hiphil forms in v.11 have their opposite numbers in vv.2a/3a."[2]