Psalm 88/Notes/Lexical.V. 8.384767
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
- v. 8: חֲמָתֶךָ
- The whole clause depicts a very material picture in which the wrath of YHWH weighs (or lies heavily) upon the psalmist. That requires a rephrasing of the simple "wrath" into "the outbursts of wrath", namely the "materialistic" form that YHWH's wrath assumes. Same comment for חֲרוֹנֶיךָ in v. 17.
- v. 8: סָמְכָה
- The most common use of this verb is in the collocation סָמַךְ יָדוֹ עַל said of the priest laying or leaning his hand on the sacrifice (e.g. Exod 29:10). Our verse has an intransitive occurrence of that verb, which is also found in Ezek 24:2, in which it is said that the king of Babylon "leaned" against Jerusalem, namely started a siege over it. Both Ezek 24:2 and our verse have in common the oppressive nature of the leaning, and we therefore gloss the verb in our verse as "lies heavily on" (cf. Ps 32.4).
- v. 8: ענה
