Psalm 68/Notes/Grammar.v. 1.953704

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'A psalm of David'? A number of translations reflect a grammatical analysis whereby the word מִזְמ֥וֹר is the first member of a construct phrase and לְדָוִ֗ד is the second, despite the fact that the word order is reversed viz., something like,‘A song of David’ (e.g., KJV; NKJV; NASB; HCSB; ASV; JPS1917; WEB; DELUT; BCC1923; BDS; LBLA; RVR95; NVI). A few other translation simply have something like ‘of/for David’ (e.g., NIV; ELBBK; SCH2000; LSG).

  • The word מִזְמוֹר follows the word דָוִד seven times in scripture. In X of those instances, the two area separated by a disjunctive accent (24:1; 68:1; 101:1; 110:1) while in the other three cases the two are joined prosodically by a conjunctive accent (40:1; 109:1; 139:1)
  • Syntactically 'A song of David' does not work. There is not one example in BH of the head noun preceding the construct noun. According to GKC (§129c): ‘Such a case as לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר (Ps 24:1, &c.) is not to be regarded as a transposition, but ‏מִזְמוֹר is used epexegetically for the general term omitted before לְדָוִד (as it were, a poem of David, a psalm).’
  • τῷ Δαυιδ ψαλμὸς ᾠδῆς (LXX) 'pertaining to Dauid. A psalm. of an Ode’ (NETS); τῷ νικοποιῷ τοῦ Δαυὶδ μελῴδημα ᾄσματος (Aquilla), translation ambiguous although the last two members certainly form one phrase 'A melody of lyric’ (cf. the Syro-Hexapla ܡܙܡܘܪܐ ܕܬܫܒܘܚܬܐ.

Most likely there is an elided element before לדוד; cf. וַיְהִ֤י בְכוֹרוֹ֙ אַמְנ֔וֹן לַאֲחִינֹ֖עַם הַיִּזְרְעֵאלִֽת ‘and his firstborn was Amnon, (a son) of Ahinoam the Jezereelite’ (2 Sam. 3:2)