Psalm 68/Notes/Grammar.v. 16.968767

Many versions have translated this verse in many ways. As Emerton (1993) notes, ‘Verse 16 has...been interpreted in a varity of ways in English translations of the Bible’. He notes the following (note that in some of these, אלהים is understood as a superlative [cf. Jonah 3:3]).

• Statement: e.g., ‘A Mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan’ (RV)
• Exclamation/Vocative: e.g., ‘O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan’ (RSV)
• Question-Exclamation: e.g., ‘That peak of Bashan, a mountain of God? Rather, a mountain of pride, that peak of Bashan!’ (Jerusalem Bible)
• Comparative Statement: ‘e.g., The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan’ (AV).

"The advantage of understanding verse 16a as a question is that it gives full value to the expression "a mountain of God" . Mount Bashan (Hermon? ) is not the mountain which God has chosen, and to which verse 17 refers. In verse 17 various mountains, probably including Mount Bashan of verse 16, are told not to look with envy (if that is what the verb means) on the mountain on which God has been pleased to establish his dwelling."