Psalm 8 Grammar

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Grammatical Diagram

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Grammatical Term	Definition	Diagram	Example
Clausal Additions
Subject	The subject performs the action of the active verb or receives the action of a passive verb. With intransitive verbs	Indicated at the beginning of the main clausal line, and followed by a vertical line that crosses over the main clause line (separating the subject from the predicate).
Direct Object	Object that receives the direct action of a (transitive) verb	Indicate with a vertical line up from main clausal line
Predicate adjective/ Subject complement	A word used with a linking verb (ex. "to be"), renaming or restating the subject. Can be a whole prepositional phrase.	Indicate with a vertical slanted line up from the main clausal line. It can be on a stand if it is an embedded clause.
Object Complement	Word following a direct object to state what it has become.	Indicate with a vertical slanted line up from the main clausal line.
Infinitives	Can be subject, adverbial, or an infinitive construct.	Indicate with double vertical lines that cross the main clausal line. If used adverbially (ie. an embedded clause), place on a stand.
Participles	A verbal noun/adjective that can be used in three positions: (1) substantival; (2) attributive; (3) predicative.	Indicate with a round vertical line. Substantival participles are placed on a stand (they are embedded). Attributive participles are placed with a rounded line underneath what is modified.
Modifiers
Adjectives	A word modifying a noun to indicate quality, quantity, extent, or differentiating something from something else.	Indicate with a slanted line down from what is modified.
Adverbs	A word that modifies a verb, adverb, adjective, prepositional phrase, clause, or sentence to express a relation (ex. manner, quality, or time).	Indicate with a slanted line down from what is modified.
Construct relationships	Construction can express many different relationships between two (or more) nouns. English grammarians call this construction a ‘Construct’ (our term) or ‘Genitive’ phrase; Hebrew grammarians call it smīḵūt (סְמִיכוּת).	Indicate with a stair-step down from the modified word/clause/phrase.
Prepositional phrases	A phrase that consists of a preposition and its object and has adjectival or adverbial value	Indicate with a slanted vertical line connecting to a new clause.
Connectives	(1) Coordinating conjunctions join together words or word groups of equal grammatical rank (2) Subordinating conjunctions join a main clause and a clause which does not form a complete sentence by itself.	Indicate with a dashed line down from a vertical line marker.
Embedded clause	A clause inside another clause which can include substantival participles, adverbial infinitives, and prepositional phrases.	Indicate using stilts.
Particles
Subordinating particle	Indicates a dependent clause.	Indicate with a dashed line down from the antecedent to the pronoun.
Apposition	A word that is functioning as an explanatory equivalent as another in the sentence	Place on a line apart from the diagram but next to the word it is the equivalent of with an equal sign in between.
Vocative	Indicating a person being addressed (usually with a 2nd person verb)	Place on a line apart from the diagram next to the '()' indicating the gapped subject an equal sign in between.

Master Diagram

v. 1

v. 2

• The grammar of this verse is difficult. In terms of morphology, the form תְּנָה looks like an imperative, and this view is "usually accepted." "However, the position of this imperative after אשׁר makes it a syntactically abnormal form." One way around this syntactic issue is to posit an elided quotative frame: "to whom (I say), 'Place your glory on the heavens!'" However, as others have noted, an imperative does not make sense in the context of the psalm, because YHWH's glory is already on the heavens (cf. v. 4).
• For these reasons, many have argued that the form תְּנָה is an infinitive construct. The infinitive construct form of נתן is תֵּת though the form נְתֹן occurs in Num. 20:21 and Gen. 38:9. The anomalous form in Ps. 8 (תְּנָה) finds an analogy in the form מֵרְדָה in Gen. 46:3 (רְדָה instead of רֶדֶת). So Waltke and O'Connor: “The form תְּנָה is not an anomalous imperative of נתן but an infinitive construct, as if formed from the root יתן (the verb 'to give' has this form in Phoenician); compare ירד, infinitive construct רֵדָה.” According to this interpretation, v.2c may be understood as a verbless clause (S: תנה הודך; SC [location]: על השׁמים). “It may be interpreted: 'O Thou whose laying of Thy glory is upon the heavens...' Perhaps the author wrote תּנה הודך instead of נתתּ הודך, because he wishes to describe the setting out of the heavens with divine splendour as being constantly repeated and not as done once for all.” This is the view we have preferred in our diagram.
• Another option is to interpret תְּנָה as a shortened form of נָתְנָה (cf. 2 Sam. 22:41 [תַּתָּה] vs. Ps. 18:41 [נָתַתָּה]). “Aphaeresis of a weak consonant with a full vowel” occurs in other places as well (cf. Jdgs. 19:11; Jer. 42:10; Ezek. 17:5; Hos. 11:3)." In this case, the subject of נתנה (feminine singular) and the antecedent of אשׁר would be הארץ (feminine singular), the final word of the previous line (v.2b).
• Others have argued for emending the text, but none of the proposed emendations has won widespread favour among scholars. It is intrinsically probable that some form of the verb נתן is the original reading: "The attempt of Hitzig, and others, to derive the word from another verb than natan, is refuted alone by the parallel passages, 1 Chron. 24:25, Numb, 27:20, Dan. 11:21, in which natan hod is found exactly as here, with 'al." There is little external evidence for emending the text, since the parent text of the versions is not clear. It is possible that Sym., Hier., Syr., and Tg. interpreted the MT text as an infinitive construct and translated it as a perfect.
  • LXX: ὅτι ἐπήρθη ἡ μεγαλοπρέπειά σου ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν
  • Σ': ος εταξας τον επαινον σου
  • Hier: qui posuisti gloriam tuam super caelos
  • Tg.: דיהבתא זיוך עיל מן שמיא׃
  • Syr.: ܕܝܗܒܬ ܫܘܒܚܟ ܥܠ ܫܡܝܐ܂

v. 3

v. 4

v. 5

v. 6

• 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; 1Kgs 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."
• 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).

v. 7-8

v. 9

v. 10

Full diagram (vv. 1-10)

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