Psalm 78/Notes/Grammar.Vv. 3-4.239598

From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Jump to: navigation, search

For our preferred headless relative clause of v. 3 as subordinate to the main clause in v. 4a, see the NET: "What we have heard and learned—that which our ancestors have told us—we will not hide from their descendants" (cf. DHH, SG21, TOB and the German versions; cf. Delitzsch 1871, 356), as well as the LXX.[1] This syntax has also been preferred in light of the person shift from first singular to the body of the חִ֝יד֗וֹת in vv. 3ff, recounted in the first plural.

The alternative revocalized niphal represents the LXX's passive, "It was not hidden from their children"; cf. the REB).[2]

The alternative placement of לְד֥וֹר אַחֲר֗וֹן follows translations understanding the phrase to belong to the following participial clause (as most English versions, and the Syr., with its finite verb: "so that we might not hide them from their children, but relate to another generation..."; Taylor 2020, 313).[3] The preferred reading, however, is evident in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Vulgate: "They have not been hidden from their children, in another generation,"[4] and the poetic line division of the LXX, as explicit in Sinaiticus and followed by Rahlfs. For other instances of participles functioning as predicative complements, as מְסַפְּרִים here, see also Judg 19:22; 1 Sam 17:19.

  1. ↑ The LXX reads φθέγξομαι προβλήματα ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς. ὅσα ἠκούσαμεν καὶ ἔγνωμεν αὐτὰ "I will utter problems from of old. That which we heard, and we knew them..." (= Gall.).
  2. ↑ οὐκ ἐκρύβη ἀπὸ τῶν τέκνων αὐτῶν.
  3. ↑ ܕܠܐ ܢܟܣܐ ܡܢ ܒܢܝ̈ܗܘܢ ܐܠܐ ܠܕܪܐ ܐܚܪܝܐ ܢܫܬܥܐ.
  4. ↑ non sunt occultata a filiis eorum in generationem alteram.