Biblical Hebrew Forum

["S. L." <lyosovs AT cityline.ru>]

    Dear list,

I have hard  times parsing Ps 18:7 bac.c.ar li (c. = tsade). BDB 865a has it as a noun 'straits, distress': 'in my distress'. HALAT 990b has it as Perf. 3ms of c.rr II 'ist in  Not', i.e. as an impersonal verb.   In view of Gen 32:8 wayyec.er  lo 'he became distresses' and Ruth 1:13 'ki mar li mikkem' + Jer 4:18 'ki mar'  'for it is bitter'  etc. I would take bac.c.ar li for a verbal phrase 'when I was distressed', but how to explain the gemination of tsade? GK 138i is rather reluctant to admit - without a compulsory reason -  the article as relative pronoun on perfects, and it does not list Ps 18:7 among the examples. 

  The very same 'bac.c.ar li'  reappears in Ps 66:14. In Pss 59: 17 and 102:3   it is written  'byom c.ar li'. To my mind (and against BDB)  here 'byom' does introduce a  Perf. 'c.ar', serving as a  relative pronoun, cf. Lev 7:35; Deut 4:15; 2 Sam 22:1.

  Does anybody have suggestions?

                     Serge Lyosov