Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Mon 10 Jan 2000 (11:16:28), wross AT farmerstel.com wrote:
> I have a question regarding the proper translation (and hence, 
> interpretation) of Psalm 51:5. Here are some popular translations:
> [snipped]
>
> My theory is that this verse is not teaching anything about David, but is
> rather David expressing loathing for himself by criminalizing his own
> birth. I would paraphrase it:
>
> "My mother screwed up when she had me - it was a sin for her to conceive 
> me!"
>
> ...and thus David "curses his day" as did Job in Job 3:
> [snipped]

 Dear Bill,

 You must be aware that the interpretation of Psalm 51:5 is a theological
 and doctrinal minefield. I'll try to tread carefully...

 The normally accepted "Sitz im Leben" of Psalm 51 is that it is David's
 repentance of his guilt concerning his adultery with Bathsheba, and the
 murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite, as the Title indicates. David
 is not trying to excuse himself by blaming his mother for his sinful
 nature; on the contrary, he is bewailing his own waywardness from his
 mother's womb upwards.

 This is a very /personal/ Lament. "Have mercy upon ME... blot out MY
 transgressions. Wash ME throughly from MY iniquity, and cleanse ME from
 MY sin. For I acknowledge MY transgressions: and MY sin is ever before ME.
 Against thee only have I sinned...". He is bewailing his real sins; not
 Birth Sin or Original Sin or Imputed Sin. From as early as he can remember,
 from his mother's womb, he had a "bent" for doing evil. He is not talking
 about any imagined sin on his parents' part. Compare Psalm 58:3, "The wicked
 are estranged *from their birth*: they go astray as soon as they are born,
 speaking lies".

 You mention Job 3. I would refer you to Job 14:1-4. Here Job muses on the
 shortness and brutishness of life: "Man that is born of a woman is of few
 days, and full of trouble.... Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
 not one". Like begets like; ever since Eve and Cain, sinners beget sinners.
 In Job 3, Job is maintaining his innocence; in Psalm 51, David is wallowing
 in his guilt.

 IIRC, it was Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645, who first suggested that Psalm 51:5
 meant that David was the son of Jesse and an unnamed harlot. That's why
 David was sent out of the way looking after the sheep whilst his legitimate
 brothers were paraded before Samuel. According to 1 Samuel 17:12-14, David
 was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse. But nowhere is any slur cast on the
 legitimacy of any of them. Saul called his own son "son of a perverse woman"
 (1 Samuel 20:30); if he could have said the same of the son of Jesse, he
 surely would have done so!

 If Psalm 86 is Davidic (L:DaWiD), then David prays in verse 16 "...save the
 son of *thy handmaid*". This does not square with Grotius' interpretation of
 Psalm 51:5 concerning David's mother. David clearly respected his mother
 in accordance with the Fifth Commandment.

 Shalom,
 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm