Psalm 89/Notes/Grammar.v. 8.659972

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  • There is an issue of text, line division, and grammar in v. 8. Consider the differences among the following translations:
  1. "a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, // and awesome above all who are around him?" (ESV, cf. NJPS, NIV)
  2. "a God who is honored in the great angelic assembly, // and more awesome than all who surround him?" (NET)
  3. "a God feared in the council of the holy ones, // great and awesome above all that are around him?" (NRSV, LUT, ELB, EÜ, ZÜR) (preferred).
  • The ESV reads the text as רַבָּה ("greatly)," groups it with the first line (so MT), and interprets it as an adverb (cf. Radak: "they dread a great dread and a great fear" [מערצה רבה ויראה רבה יעריצו]; Hupfeld 1860, 470). This interpretation has a clear parallel in Job 31:34—כִּ֤י אֶֽעֱר֨וֹץ׀ הָ֘מ֤וֹן רַבָּ֗ה, "because I so feared the crowd" (NIV) (so Barthélemy 2005, 618). See also Ps 78:15—וַ֝יַּ֗שְׁקְ כִּתְהֹמ֥וֹת רַבָּֽה, "and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep" (ESV) (see also Ps 62:3).
  • The NET also reads the text as רַבָּה ("greatly)" and groups it with the first line, but it interprets it as an adjective modifying "assembly" (סוֹד) (cf. Symmachus: ἐν ὁμιλίᾳ...πολλῇ; Jerome [iuxta Hebr.]: in arcano...nimio [though possibly an adverb]; Ibn Ezra: ורבה תואר לסוד "and 'great' is an adjective modifying 'assembly'").
  • The NRSV reads the text as רַב (or רַב הוּא), groups it with the second line, and interprets it as an adjective describing YHWH (cf. LXX: μέγας; Aquila: πλῆθος; Peshitta: ܪܒ; Targum: ורבא). The NRSV's line division follows the Septuagint, which, in turn, probably preserves an ancient Hebrew manuscript division (see also the graphic division in the Babylonian manuscript BL Or 2373). If the division in the Septuagint is secondary, it might have arisen from a scribe placing רבה at the beginning of the following row of his manuscript because he had run out of space at the end of the preceding row. But the Septuagint might preserve the correct division here, and it is possible to follow this division without emending the text. The adjective רַבָּה, instead of being a femine adjective, could be an Aramaism (= רַבָּא) and thus a masculine adjective. Cf. Ezra 4:10— אָסְנַפַּר֙ רַבָּ֣א וְיַקִּירָ֔א; TAD D.22.49:3—אלהא רבא. Similarly, Aramaic רַבַּת occurs several times in the Psalms (e.g., Pss 65:10; 120:6; 123:4; 129:1). Note also the Aramaism חֲסִין in the very next verse. Thus, we can follow the line division of the Septuagint and arrive at the same interpretation as the Septuagint and the NRSV but without the need to emend the text.