Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 4: Analysis of Psalms 3-8general terms for “wickedness” and “evil”. The former sometimes carriesconnotations of guilt resulting from violating civil law. Similarly, אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן (81:29:3, v.6b) denotes morally evil acts that damage one’s relationship with God andothers (Swanson 1997:§224.1). 50 My exhaustive study of the exact expressionused in verse 6, פֹףֲ‏ לֵ‏ י אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן (23:15:2), showed that it is a popular idiom in thePsalms for “evildoers”, especially in the לְ‏ דָ‏ וִ‏ ד psalms. 51‏,הָ‏ לַ‏ ל (from הולְ‏ לִ‏ ים specific. The other four terms depicting the wicked are more15:5:1, v. 6a) occurs in the sense of “boastful” or “arrogant” elsewhere only inPsalms 73:3 and 75:5. כָ‏ זָ‏ ב (31:6:2, v. 7a) depicts them as “liars” or, to be morespecific, “speakers of lies” שֵ‏ י כָ‏ זָ‏ ב)‏ ‏.(דֹבְ‏ The portrait of the wicked as deceivers isamplified in the parallel line where they are personalised as “the bloodthirsty50 According to Butler (1984:387), “Mowinckel . . . interpreted the references to ‘awen and todoers of ‘awen as referring to persons with evil magical powers to bring sickness throughwords of cursing and acts of magic.” I can see no need to assign such a narrow, technical‏.פֹףֲ‏ לֵ‏ י אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן meaning to the termoccurs in Psalms 5:6, 6:9, 14:4, 28:3, 36:13, 53:5, 59:3, 64:3, 92:8 and 10, 94:4 and פֹףֲ‏ לֵ‏ י אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן 5116, 101:8, 125:5, 141:4 and 9. What I find striking about these psalms is that all except 92, 94and 125 are לְ‏ דָ‏ וִ‏ ד psalms (Psalm 94 is Davidic in the LXX). No psalm attributed to anotherauthor in the psalm headings uses the phrase. Outside of the Psalter, it occurs in Job 31:3,34:8 and 22, Proverbs 10:29, 21:15, 30:20, Isaiah 31:2 and Hosea 6:8.128