Psalm 92/Notes/Verbal.V. 7.978762

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  • Modern European versions attest to our preferred present reading of לֹא יֵדָע, i.e., do not know (CEB, CSB, KJV, NASB, NET, NIV, RVC, SG21, TOB, etc.), though the ESV ("The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this"; cf. the GNT, NJPS, the EÜ's "ein Tor kann es nicht verstehen" and the DHH's "¡Sólo los necios no pueden entenderlo!") provide explicit modality of possibility. While a plausible reading of the morphology (yiqtol), such an interpretation does not seem to be the most appropriate for the psalm's message, viz., that the fools are largely grouped with the wicked and will suffer the same destruction after being lured into the same godless lifestyle. It is not that they cannot know, but simply that they do not know (or perhaps do not even want to know).[1]
  1. ↑ Note that the Secunda reads ιαδαε (≈ יָדַע), a stative qatal. While differing in morphology, it may, in fact, be semantically compatible with the the present interpretation of the yiqtol adopted here.