Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Psalm 19:2-3

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>
  • To: "Pastor Mark Eddy" <markeddy AT adams.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Psalm 19:2-3
  • Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:11:56 +0100

At 16:06 22/09/2003, Pastor Mark Eddy wrote:

What is the subject of the verbs AMaR and YHaWeH (yod-chet-waw-heh) in Psalm 19:3? Is one YOM telling something to another YOM, and one LaYLaH revealing something to another (as in NASB)? Or is HaRaQiYa' of verse 2 the subject of the verbs in verse 3, with the time references being adverbial (as the NIV seems to read it)? And how do we know? All the nouns are masculine singular, so they agree with the masculine singular verbs.

Mark:

This extract from:
Bratcher, R.G., and J.A. Thompson, eds. Bible Index. Helps for Translators. London: United Bible Societies, 1970.
may help.

It lays out Ps. 19:2 in RSV and TEV as follows:

RSV TEV
Day to day pours forth speech Each day announces it to the following day;
and night to night declares knowledge each night repeats it to the night

and then comments;

Here _day_ and _night are pictured as passing on the proclamation of God's glory.
The verb in line _a_ " pours forth" means to pour out, like a spring, and indicates a continuous, uninterrupted proclamation.
_Speech_ in line _a_ and _knowledge_ in line _b_ have to do with the proclamation of God's glory; line _a_ means "Each day talks about God's glory to the next day," and line _b_ means "Every night shares its knowledge of God with the following night."

In some languages it will be unnatural to speak of _day_ and _night_ in a personified manner, as if they can speak. In those cases these expressions may be recast to say something like "Day after day people can see the glory of God, night after night they can see how great God is." However, since verses 3-4 refer to speech, words, and voice, it may be better to shift to a simile and say, for example, ' each day announces it like a person speaking; each night repeats it to the following !inight like a person repeats words."

Regards

Maurice



Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros AT iol.ie






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page