Psalm 8/Macrosyntax/Notes

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  • v. 1: Superscription
  • vv. 2-3. The use of a vocative marks this unit.
  • vv. 4-5 are bound together as a syntactic unit. Verse 4 is the protasis, verse 5 the apodosis. The temporal כִּי in v. 4 begins a new paragraph.
  • vv. 6-9. The distribution of second person verb forms in vv. 6-7 (wayyiqtol, yiqtol, yiqtol, qatal) binds these clauses together as a unit. Vv. 8-9 are in apposition to כֹּל (v. 7b) and are thus part of the same macrosyntactic unit.
  • v. 10. The cessation of appositional phrases and the use of a vocative marks a new macrosyntactic unit.
  • vv. 2, 10. The unmarked word order of verbless clauses is Subject-Predicate.[1] The use of interrogative>exclamatory מה and the consequent fronting of the predicate adjective (אַדִּיר) means that the predicate is probably marked.[2] The particle ma "functions as an introduction to an exclamation in which a speaker usually expresses a value judgment about something."[3]
  • v. 3a. The PP מִפִּ֤י עֽוֹלְלִ֨ים ׀ וְֽיֹנְקִים֮ is fronted for marked focus (Lunn 2006:296 – "MKD"). YHWH has founded a fortress not by means of the powerful and eloquent, but by means of the feeble cries of the weakest and most vulnerable.
  • v. 7b. The direct object "everything" (כֹּל) is fronted for marked focus.[4] YHWH has subjected everything to humanity's rule; no creature has been excluded. On the significance of this word in the psalm, see repeated roots.
  • vv. 8-9. For the numerous and complex appositional relationships in this verse, see the grammatical diagram.
  • v. 3a. "לְמַעַן is a subordinating conjunction that is also used secondarily as a preposition" (BHRG 40.36). In this clause, where is governs only a NP, it functions as a preposition (see grammatical diagram). "The clause or noun phrase with לְמַעַן typically follows the matrix clause" (BHRG 40.36).
  • v. 4a. Despite the agreement among the ancient translators that the כִּי in v. 4 is causal (LXX [οτι], Symmachus [γαρ], Peshitta [ܡܛܠ], Targum [מטול], Jerome [enim]), there is virtual unanimity among modern translations and commentators that כי here introduces a temporal clause: "When I see... [then I think/exclaim] what is mankind...?"[5]
  • v. 5. On מה followed by כי followed by yiqtol, cf. 1 Sam 18:18. "A result clause can be introduced by כי, notably after a question."[6]
  • v. 6a. On the wayyiqtol see notes on verbal semantics.
  1. ↑ BHRG 46.2.3.1.
  2. ↑ Cf. Ps 36:8.
  3. ↑ BHRG 42.3.6, citing Ps 8:2/10 as an example.
  4. ↑ So Lunn 2006, 296 – "MKD".
  5. ↑ Cf. GKC 159dd; IBHS 38.7a.
  6. ↑ IBHS 38.3b.