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

Chapter 5: Concatenation in Psalms 3-8article and the names of God יהוה)‏ and ‏ֹלהִ‏ ים nine‏—(אֱ‏ shared lexemes remain.‏,(קַ‏ ש and כָ‏ בוד)‏ two nouns ‏,(שָ‏ כַ‏ ב and רָ‏ שָ‏ א ‏,ףָ‏ נָ‏ ה ‏,יָשֵ‏ ן ‏,אָ‏ מַ‏ ש)‏ These include five verbsan adjective ב)‏ ‏(שַ‏ and an adverb לָ‏ ה)‏ ‏.(סֶ‏ Only two of these terms, סֶ‏ לָ‏ ה (78) andBible. (16), occur less than 100 times in the Hebrew יָשֵ‏ ןAlthough these are reasonably common Hebrew terms, they represent stronglinks between Psalms 3 and 4. However, their significance lies less in theindividual lexemes than in the manner in which they are used in the two‏,(כָ‏ בוד (e.g., form and sense ‏,(קַ‏ ש (e.g., psalms. Similarities in the positioningand collocation (e.g., שָ‏ כַ‏ ב with יָשֵ‏ ן and רָ‏ שָ‏ א with נָ‏ ה ‏(ףָ‏ of the shared lexemesmake the verbal links very striking. The following points should be noted. 981) Both laments begin by depicting the psalmist’s situation using the root(see 3:2 and 4:2). As was pointed out in the previous chapter (see קש§4.1.5), this root can be used either as an abstract noun (“adversity”,43:16:1) or as a concrete noun (“adversary”, 67:24:1). Despite its highfrequency in the Psalter, its forefronted position in the opening verse ofboth psalms may have influenced the redactors to view it as a hookword, providing a link between Psalms 3 and 4.98 All statistics cited below are my own calculations based on morphological searches of theHebrew Bible coupled with personal analysis of the search results.184