Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Friday 14 February 2003 12:03, Lisbeth S. Fried wrote:
> Dear Mark,
> Until you can demonstrate that "leDWD" means "written by"
> David, I remain unconvinced.
> Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer. 29:4).
> The letter was lekol ha golah.
> The letter was "addressed to" or  "dedicated to" the golah,
> not "written by" the golah.

This is true, but the use of the lePN in the psalm titles could indicate a 
much earlier stratum of the language, too, since we know from Ugaritic that 
the l- preposition could sometimes mean "of" or "from."  If - and I stress 
that it's a big "if" - this is its most likely meaning in the psalm titles, 
that would very likely preclude those psalms being exilic or post-exilic in 
origin.  And since the destruction of Ugarit prevents us from knowing when 
the language shifted away from this genitive/ablative use of l-, it's quite 
possible that in Hebrew this usage persisted at least into the Davidic 
period.

My own view on the psalm titles, especially the ones ascribed to David, and 
before anyone asks, no, I have absolutely nothing to back this up except what 
I consider a reasonable scenario: toward the end of David's life, someone, 
perhaps a tabernacle or court scribe or music director, has gathered together 
all of the songs David has written that he is able to find.  He takes them to 
the king and says he wants to put them in a collection for use in the temple 
that will soon be built, but he'd like to include some information about 
them.  "What tune did you use for this one?"  "What was going on when you 
composed this one?"  He writes David's comments in where available, and the 
psalter is born, at least in its initial incarnation.  As always, YMMV.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur