Psalm 8/Notes/Grammar.V. 6.577647

• The morphologically stative verb חסר in the qal stem can be transitive ("to lack something") or intransitive (a: "to be lacking" or b: to diminish [only in Gen 8:3, 5 according to BDB and DCH]). When the subject is a person or persons, the verb is always transitive (Gen 18:28; Deut 2:7; 8:9; 1 Kgs 11:22; Jer 44:18; Ezek 4:17; Ps 32:11; Prov 31:11), though a direct object is not grammatically required in every instance (e.g., Ps 23:1). When the subject is a thing (usually a material good), the verb is usually intransitive (1 Kgs 17:14, 16 [jar of oil]; Isa 51:14 [bread]; Eccl 9:8 [oil]; 10:3 [sense]; Song 7:3 [wine]; cf. Gen 8:3, 5 [water]). In Ps 8:6, the experiencer of the state חסר is a person (humanity). Therefore, the verb (in the piel stem) means "to cause to lack," not "to cause to be lacking" or "to cause to be less." The piel stem of verbs that are morphologically stative (like חסר) are usually factitive (i.e., the object of the verb is placed into the state indicated by the verb in the qal). "For such verbs, the Piel is an accreting stem or transitivizer, adding a core argument..." (Boyd 2017, 101).</ref> and that which is lacking is indicated by the min prepositional phrase מֵאֱלֹהִים.
• In Ps 8:6, that which is lacked is either indicated by the noun מעט, so that the verb is ditransitive: "cause him to lack a little bit" or by the min prepositional phrase (מאלהים), as in Eccl 4:8. In the first case, מעט would be a second object on the mainline of the grammatical diagram ("you caused him to lack a little"). However, מעט can also function adverbially. This seems more likely in light of Eccl 4:8 (the only other instance of חסר in the piel stem), where חסר ("cause to be lacking") takes only one object (my soul) and the thing which is lacked is syntactically encoded not as a second object but as a min prepositional phrase (מטובה). As Delitzsch explains in his commentary on Psalm 8, "חסר מן signifies to cause one to be deficient in something, so that it is wanting to him (Eccles 4:8). מן is neither comparative (paullo inferiorem ewm fecisti Deo) nor partitive (paullum derogasti ei divine naturae), but, seeing that אלהים is never used in an abstract manner so as to be equivalent to divine essentiality, negative (paullum derogasti ei ne esset Deus), so that אלהים is equivalent to מהיות אלהים, cf. 31 in 1 Sam. 15:23, מעם in Isa 7:8." So also BDB 583.7b(b).