Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Phil Sumpter" <philsumpter AT hotmail.com>]

I've been trying to figure out the syntax of the verb >yissa'< in Ps 24:5. 
All translations and commentaries that I am aware of see this verb as 
starting a new clause and translate it is "He will receive ... ." 
Andersen-Forbes, however, see it as the predicate of the entire of v. 4, 
rending: "One of clean hands ... will receive ... ." It was recently 
suggested to me at SBL that it is a jussive. 

Does anyone have any views on this? I have posted a more detailed overview 
along with further questions that this raises for me on my blog at: 
http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-in-ps-245-jussive.html.

Thanks in advance,

Philip Sumpter

http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/
>From hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net  Sat Aug  1 18:20:16 2009
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Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:20:19 -0500
From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A jussive in Ps 24:5?
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Phillip,
> I've been trying to figure out the syntax of the verb >yissa'< in Ps 24:5. 
> All translations and commentaries that I am aware of see this verb as 
> starting a new clause and translate it is "He will receive ... ." 
> Andersen-Forbes, however, see it as the predicate of the entire of v. 4, 
> rending: "One of clean hands ... will receive ... ." It was recently 
> suggested to me at SBL that it is a jussive.
>
> Does anyone have any views on this? I have posted a more detailed overview 
> along with further questions that this raises for me on my blog at: 
> http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-in-ps-245-jussive.html.
>
It is a Qal imperfect 3ms. The same form occurs in Gen 32:21 (Hebrew; in
some English Bibles it is 32:20). The sentence would be extremely long
and awkward if Anderson-Forbes were correct. The standard handling,
seems much preferable in song and poetry.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard