Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On Sun 28 Jan 2001 (19:46:01), daniel.hirschfield AT st-annes.oxford.ac.uk wrote:
> I am looking at the moment at the Psalter. It is widely known that Ps.
> 8.2 is a major crux. Does anyone have any novel solutions to this
> problem and to the difficulty of the verse division? I'm interested in
> both emendation and philological approaches.

 Dear Daniel,

 What an interesting question. The Hebrew MT has the phrase 'a:$eR T:NaH
 after the Athnach in verse 2 (MT), which most of the English versions take as
 the relative pronoun plus the 2nd masculine singular Perfect of NaTaN, "who
 hast set...". Kittel suggests emending T:NaH to NaTaTTaH to comply with
 this. Clearly, the 2nd person singular imperative "Set!" makes no sense.
 Could T:NaH be for the apocapated 2nd person masc singular Imperfect - "Thou
 who shalt set..."?

 Jerome's solution was /quoniam *elevata est* magnificentia tua super caelos/,
 taking T:NaH as a Perfect. Did Jerome's Hebrew exemplar differ from the MT?
 Or did he get it from the LXX and Matthew 21:16?    hOTI EPHiRQH hH
 MEGALOPREPEIA SOU hUPERANW TWN OURANWN. EK STOMATOS NHPIWN KAI QHLAZONTWN
 KATHRTISW AINON.

 J Alec Motyer suggests (no doubt with tongue in cheek) that verse 2b-3 is an
 interpolation, as the Psalm reads very well and smoothly without it. (in /The
 New Bible Commentary/, IVF, London, ad loc.). Snag is, this "interpolation" 
is
 from before 298 BC when the LXX translators had it before them; and is also
 attested (in its LXX gloss) by Jesus in Matthew 21:16. We can't just excise 
it
 and discard it!  Could it be reinserted between verses 5 and 6 (MT)?  It 
could
 make sense there.

 Some scholars suggest emending the verse division, ending verse 2 (MT) at the
 athnach, and beginning a new verse with 2b and 3, yielding something like
 "Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babes and
 infants, thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes, to still the enemy
 and the avenger" (RSV). The NRSV has second thoughts, and reverts to the more
 traditional rendering; but the Revised English Bible offers "Your majesty is
 praised as high as the heavens, from the mouths of babes and infants at the
 breast". No consensus here as yet.

 Artur Weiser suggests that NaTaN should be understood as TaNaH, by analogy
 with Judges 5:11, $aM Y:TaNNuW TsiD:QoT YHWH. He cites Gordon, /Ugaritic
 Manual/, Glossary 2047; and Gray, /The Legacy of Canaan/, 1957, pp 156f. 
TaNaH
 refers in the Piel to antiphonal singing by celestial beings, after the
 fashion of the angels in Isaiah 6:3; 1 Kings 22:19; Job 1:6, 38:7. (A Weiser,
 /The Psalms/, SCM, London, 5th Ed., 1959, p 140).

 Occam's Razor indicates that the value of conjectural emendation is inversely
 proportional to the number of conjectural changes being made. But something
 has to be done; because as the RV Margin of 1885 frankly admits, "the Hebrew
 is obscure". Unfortunately for us, the Dead Sea Scrolls lack Psalm 8.

 Do I have a novel suggestion?  How about 'e$ R:TeT Na' HoWD:Ka 
`aL-Ha$$aMaYiYM
 "Fire [is] now trembling your glory over the sky": compare R:TeT in Hosea
 13:1. This is another crux of course!  But we can't have everything...

 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