Translation Challenges/All

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All/Everything

  • The repetition of this word might represent the universality/totality of divine and human dominion. It is used twice in the outer edges of the psalm to refer to the scope of God's dominion (vv.2b, 10b) and twice in the body of the psalm to refer to the scope of humanity's dominion (vv.7b-8a). Alter identifies כֹּל as "the chief thematic key-word of the psalm. God's dominion is over all, heaven and earth, angels and men and creatures of the field and air and sea, and he places 'all' at the feet of man." (25)